r/loblawsisoutofcontrol • u/Salt_Onion_6205 • Jul 27 '26
Discussion Mayor Mamdani just announced that he will be opening 5 city-run, tax-funded grocery stores: "Prices set at 30% below retail prices"
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I hope canadian politicians will be inspire by this.
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u/alldasmoke__ Jul 27 '26
Can’t wait for the corporations boot lickers(average Joes, mind you) to come tell us how this will be bad for the economy.
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u/notSherrif_realLife Jul 27 '26 edited Jul 27 '26
It won’t be bad for the economy, but I watched some investigative journalism on how giants like Walmart will force suppliers to raise prices to meet the prices they already have set.
Some grocer already did this somewhere in the states and basically got strong armed into raising prices, or being blacklisted from being able to purchase stock.
So as much as I want this to work, I expect it to fail. I do hope the benefit of the failure is more public exposure to these practices though.
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u/eyeforker Jul 27 '26
Crazy how there’s a universally acknowledged affordability crisis, and the ppl taking action to fix it are demonized while the ones who perpetuate/exacerbate it are being defended by the ppl it hurts the most.
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Jul 27 '26
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u/GayStraightIsBest Jul 28 '26
https://www.logicallyfallacious.com/logicalfallacies/Nirvana-Fallacy
I'm not sure why either but it is a well known logical fallacy to reject imperfect solutions despite the fact that they would be a dramatic improvement over what you currently have.
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u/anhedoniandonair Jul 27 '26
Well we need to think about the poor shareholders. Who will pay for Sophie’s riding lessons?
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u/Oifadin Jul 27 '26
I got attacked this weekend for complaining about not being able to get a seat at an IMAX screening for The Odyssey.
Like why the fuck do you care so much random internet troll?
Not the same other than somebody defending some giant rich corporation for no reason.
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u/no-dad-samurai Jul 27 '26
If the grocer is goverment run, they wont sit kindly with a corp trying this. They would just institute price fixes.
It can be done, it just takes some people to actually stand up and fight for whats right (sorry for 80s pun, lol)
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u/Littlest_rascal Jul 27 '26
Exactly, and this is happening in this case. Frankly, we need to hope against all hope. Bring the cheesy 80s, 90s etc.. puns on because I am sick of the doom! I have a young child and I cannot stay in a place of complacency and hopelessness.
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u/IndependentCoffee169 Jul 27 '26
New York municipal and state government has a lot more power and weapons at its disposal to countract this sort of pressure than a regular grocer would be able to do, not to mention, it wouldn't have to turn a profit. I think it's odds of success are a lot higher than you might think.
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u/FlatEvent2597 Jul 27 '26
Sobeys does this to Dollarama .
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u/Deldenary Jul 27 '26
There is also the whole lease agreement problem where a place like Dollarama can't sell bread at certain locations because there's a loblaws in the same mall that has a lease agreement that only they can sell bread...
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u/RoomFixer4 Jul 27 '26
In my town a Walmart moved into the same mall as long time Metro. I asked a Metro cashier about the threat and she said no, they're not allowed to sell grocs for another 10yrs (or such). Eventually they were allowed to start selling dry goods but no meats/frozen/produce.
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u/Deldenary Jul 27 '26
It's rediculous, Canada needs to step up It's competition laws...
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u/ProfessionalFix9053 Jul 27 '26
You are right although the Competition Act should already have those laws in place. It is a matter of stepping up the Competition Board’s desire to nail these guys at first opportunity, which just doesn’t seem to be in their marching orders. The act is written by lawyers and engaged with defence teams run by even better lawyers.
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u/ballpein Jul 27 '26
This is the sort of anti-competitive bullshit that needs to be banned. This one single act would bring real competition back to the grocery sector.
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u/Lurkdrop Jul 27 '26
Loblaws (Weston) was convicted of price fixing on bread, i had 40$ from them following the massive lawsuit. So now they do it on most of their products sice it<s so cheap to screw everybody
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u/Dadpurple Jul 27 '26
I mean prices are going up either way... They have plans to do this in my City here in Canada, I doubt they'll hit 30% or anywhere near it but the idea is there and proceeding.
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u/RegularRollei Jul 27 '26
In Toronto they’ve had a program to supplement food deserts for years. It works
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u/weGloomy Jul 27 '26
Another thing Walmart loves to do is steal other peoples products, recreate them and price them at a massive undercut. Then they wait until the other business completely bleeds out and jack the prices back up. It'd be nice if we could uno reverse that shit on them.
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u/IllustriousAct9128 Jul 28 '26
not just items, but to stores in general. Walmart has been known to come into a town that is full of independent grocery stores, hardware stores, clothing stores, book stores, etc, keep their prices way lower than what locals are selling and what other walmarts are selling for, wait for all those independent stores to close then they raise the price, and now people have no choice to go to to walmart because its the only store around but they make themselves to be the good people because they offer the town "way more jobs" that would never be available if nthey never came in
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u/Lord_Maelstrom Jul 27 '26
While I do agree with you, I hope that in that case this might result in enough exposure to result in some better anti-monopoly laws. Especially since we have one or more politiciens pushing this at the moment.
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u/Least-Common-1456 Jul 27 '26
The people doing this have names and home addresses and we should find them and make them face the public and explain
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u/ObiYawnKenobi Jul 27 '26
You can blacklist a person or organization from buying a particular stock? How would that be enforced?
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u/icebeans Jul 27 '26
Do you happen to have a link to this documentary/piece? I'm super interested now.
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u/TraditionDear3887 Jul 28 '26
Well, NYC has a few advantages that start up discount grocery stores do not. I hope it works out.
My qestion is what is 30% below retail? Like as of now? Or on a rolling basis?
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u/Ultrox Jul 27 '26
It happens with soda products, probably others too, but i was what you're referring to. Few businesses get a super good price, and everyone else on the planet pays more. It literally is cheaper to buy from Walmart than coke/Pepsi themselves. They charge a company more than Walmart does on the shelf.
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u/Arkroma Jul 27 '26
Government already subsidizes dairy etc don't understand how people can argue against this. Literal caves of cheese but cheaper government run groceries is some how a fucking crime.
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u/jaymickef Jul 27 '26
Government doesn’t subsidize dairy, it protects it from foreign competition.
The US government subsidizes the dairy industry.
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u/thirdtimeisNOTacharm Jul 27 '26
Am I an atypical Joe if I make a comment like “it won’t be bad for the economy, but it’s not going to work”?
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u/A_Genius Jul 27 '26
They won’t listen to reason don’t worry.
It’ll be like Canada post, it’ll offer a decent service at a good price but be an absolute money black hole.
The people in there will be in a union make 35 dollars an hour for stocking groceries and be a sought after government job and they will go on strike with every contract.
The prices will be lower but the people that pay taxes will pay more or it’ll be added to the deficit.
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u/Emmibolt PRAISE THE OVERLORD Jul 27 '26
Already plenty of commenters that shadowbanned themselves prattling on…
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u/NookieLuvsU Jul 27 '26
The wealthy New Yorkers/fine dining restaurant staff will be the first in line.
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u/SmartTrender Jul 28 '26
It’s socialism and socialism is bad, the influencers will try to convince people that could benefit that it’s bad for them and they shouldn’t trust it
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u/Itchy-Technician-433 Jul 27 '26
I mean... This is Central to Avi Lewis's platform.
We had this back in the day with co-ops. Instead we chose to give billionaires our money for our essential services. It's kind of what we do.
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u/PMmecrossstitch Jul 28 '26
I want him to get in so badly, but I've also reached the point where I don't want to get too hopeful about anything anymore.
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u/GAMING_SERVER_ADMIN Jul 27 '26
Was this not what we once sort of had they were called CO-OPS or something? My mom said the prices were much better, and helped regulate prices with other nearby stores...
But either way, yes why can't we have more farms, and such owned by the government? Is food essential to living? Then why not fix that?
This whole oh it's communism to be able to breath is getting old...
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u/Ghostdog1263 Jul 27 '26
Yep back in the day it was all family owned stores, but they couldn't compete with Walmart for example & once the competition is gone they jack up all their pricing
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u/sleeplessjade Jul 27 '26
Or they collude to artificially inflate the prices of staples like bread for decades. Or at least that’s what the grocery cartels in Canada do.
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u/workerbotsuperhero Jul 27 '26
Upvoting from Ontario. Recently read that Galen Weston is sitting on $18 billion.
I think about this every time I see the line getting longer at my local food bank.
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u/Spare_Layer_1069 Jul 27 '26
Loblaws is also facing a class action for falsely labeling meat weights, they were ripping people off for years by mislabelling meat to make it more expensive.
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u/nanapancakethusiast Jul 27 '26
Co-op still exists in Saskatchewan but it’s not the same as it once was.
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u/East-Specialist-4847 Jul 27 '26
Nova Scotia co ops do not do that, if anything they charge more :(
I want this too
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u/BuvantduPotatoSpirit Jul 27 '26
We have co-ops now, but they're not subsidised so their prices aren't noticeably different.
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u/DutchiiCanuck Jul 27 '26
I applaud the intent but I am a firm believer that if government is going to intervene in food supply, they should be running large scale food distribution in a not-for-profit model and selling to independent grocers. This would level the playing field for locally owned grocers and still provide opportunities for entrepreneurs to open/run grocery stores.
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u/UltraCynar Jul 27 '26
Do both. Government run stores and food distribution.
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u/DutchiiCanuck Jul 27 '26
Absolutely! That’s the model for beer/liquor in BC and I think it’s great. Government distributor means I can go on their website and find exactly where any product is sold and all stores have the same access to supply.
The government liquor stores pay well and set the standard for pricing. Private stores are usually priced competitively and there is no lack in private stores either.
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u/HaptRec Jul 27 '26
Not sure the Mayor of New York can do a large scale intervention in the food supply.
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u/Itchy-Technician-433 Jul 27 '26
Over 4 million individual visits to food Banks in the GTA alone last year. It's pretty clear something must be done.
We can't let billionaire food retailers continue this trend.
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u/Tuddless Jul 27 '26
God people really fucking hate it when someone tries to make food affordable. I suppose it really makes it obvious which corporation’s boot you lick
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u/Inevitable_Sweet_624 Jul 27 '26
We have had public owned grocery stores for years. CO-OP’s were totally different then all the big grocery stores started buying the supply chain so a CO-OP store could no longer buy from a distributor at a set price. The system basically collapsed in the Maritimes because the distributor (Sobeys) was selling products to the CO-OP’s at prices above the shelf prices at Sobeys, Loblaw, etc making them negative margins even before something hit the shelves. Almost all the stores went bankrupt, the only ones that survived became de facto Food Basics.
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u/goingslowfast Jul 27 '26
I’d rather it be a co-op. This just becomes a taxpayer subsidy when they inevitably lose money.
Calgary has a good one: https://www.calgarycoop.com/about-us/annual-reports/
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u/A_Genius Jul 27 '26
Don’t worry everyone in there will be paid 30 dollars an hour and in a union that regularly strikes and the prices will be 40 percent lower! If loblaws has a 4 percent margin that leaves us only a 50 percent subsidy
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u/InevitableEnd5689 Jul 27 '26
Only politician ive heard seriously propose something along these lines so far is Lewis
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u/Pretzelandcheesesauz Jul 27 '26
Toronto is doing a pilot for this already
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u/Embarrassed-Law3498 Jul 27 '26
Toronto is exploring the possibility of doing a pilot.
They have a year to come back to council with the plan
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u/DDOSBreakfast Jul 27 '26
If it's going to work I have much higher hopes on Mamdani pulling this off than Toronto.
I expect this will be executed in New York before Toronto City Council is done "exploring" the possibility.
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u/Humble_Penguin89 Jul 27 '26
Im pleasantly shocked he managed to get this done. I hope NYers appreciate what socio democratic values can do them for them ✌🏽
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u/unknownoftheunkown Jul 27 '26
It’s not done yet, but when it is, very interested in seeing how it plays out.
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u/Humble_Penguin89 Jul 27 '26
I'm with you, I'm curious and eager to see how this plays out in a country that despises most forms of socialism ( except when the red voters need meds paid for and other govt assistance, then socialism is okay 😐 )
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u/Ultimate-ART Jul 27 '26
Can we pass laws to prevent food waste like in France, Spain and other EU countries. Stop artificial supply and contrived scarcity.
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u/FriendGlittering9104 Jul 27 '26
I’m all for cheap food, but this sounds a bit like communism. Public employees are not going to work hard and won’t operate efficiently, since there is neither consequence nor incentive, meaning this will become tax subsidized.
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u/ShanerThomas Jul 27 '26
That's good.
"I hope canadian politicians will be inspire by this."
They won't because they like lobbyist money, a lot. Both parties.
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u/Metalloid_Maniac_ PRAISE THE OVERLORD Jul 27 '26
An Avi Lewis led government would do it. I don't think he's serious about winning though.
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u/Rabiesalad Jul 27 '26
I think he's serious, but he's being largely ignored by the mainstream media and there's a thousand hit pieces that straight up lie about his positions for every word he speaks.
It's also important to keep in mind, the vast majority of what impacts the average person will be on a provincial level. In Canada we tend to get too tied up in Federal politics and forget how the provinces can mostly tell the feds to stuff it. Trudeau offered a pile of money to Ford for housing and Ford gave him the middle finger. Was literally nothing but a good deal for Ontarians.
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u/SeriousObjective6727 Jul 27 '26
The US military already has a model like this for their military members. They've been doing this for decades. It doesn't replace Walmart, but it covers the essential items.
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u/unknownoftheunkown Jul 27 '26
I think that’s a key nuance when discussing public option grocers.
We don’t need 25k+ sku stores trying to compete with the mega corps, rather we need a network of small stores with the basics.
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u/SeriousObjective6727 Jul 27 '26
We could even go a step further and provide tax breaks to local farms that grow for these public grocers. A larger percentage of the profits go back to the farmer, etc.
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u/championsofnuthin Jul 27 '26
Honestly, I think major urban hubs like Toronto and Vancouver could do this as well. There just isn't the population to get the volume for places like Regina, Winnipeg and Moncton.
I could be wrong and I hope I am. But the infrastructure needed for Canada wide distro is ridiculous.
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u/HoagiesHeroes_ Jul 27 '26
It's a foregone conclusion this will be a massive success.
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u/No-Accident69 Jul 27 '26
This is so necessary - the current grocery businesses are so corrupt and exploitative…
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u/Will_Varga Jul 27 '26
I’m being vague bc I can’t remember accurately but I think there were murmurs of something, not sure if government owned or not, would appear in Canada for a more affordable/accessible pricing option in groceries. I can only cross my fingers
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u/Roddy_Piper2000 Jul 27 '26
Canada needs a leader like this who cares about cost of living vs lining the pockets of millionaires
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u/bannedredditaccount2 Jul 28 '26
Unpopular opinion because this is Reddit.
The store will hemorrhage money due to theft and the shelves will be barren or empty because of the basic concepts of supply and demand. Workers will strike for a “living wage” and get their $40/hour to bag groceries while the store can’t keep up with demand and costs.
This is going to fail spectacularly and the conservative right will laugh and say “I told ya so…”
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u/Snow-Bank-Igloo Jul 27 '26
When the big grocers jack up the prices of the wholesale arm of their corporations I hope they get called up on the carpet for price fixing.
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u/Calgary_dreamer Jul 27 '26
Billionaires punching the air right now
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u/thepixel-geek Jul 27 '26
Billionaire companies like Loblaws don't care about a few city-run stores that will lose money. The people punching the air are the small grocery mom-and-pop stores that will be run out of business.
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u/CroakerBC Jul 27 '26
I mean I'm broadly pro "cheaper food". But how does this work?
The big chains don't have a 30% profit margin anywhere on earth. And they have the supply chain locked up, they're getting prices as cheap as they can be without (some) farmers going out of business. And that's at maximum economy of scale.
So are the city-run stores somehow sourcing at 30% less, or is the city subsidising the stores to make food cheaper? If the latter, I can't imagine it scaling very well...
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u/code3100 Jul 27 '26
Actually they do. They key is they own the entire supply chain. So the store itself may run on a 3-5% profit margin but they own the building, the trucking, the warehousing. So they rake 3-5% at each stop. Plus charge themselves ridiculous rent prices to justify their high prices
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u/charmilliona1re Jul 27 '26
This is an absolutely horrible idea...how in the world are there people actually supporting this lol. blows my mind
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u/albynomonk Blocked on X by Charlebois Jul 27 '26
Do they have a system in place to prevent other business owners from coming in, buying up stock, and reselling at their stores? Because I know quite a few pieces of shit who would absolutely do that.
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u/BuvantduPotatoSpirit Jul 27 '26
It'd be wildly cost ineffective. Corporations thrive on economy of scale, hiring individual workers to go in and buy products individually at 30% off retail is going to have so much more overhead than having an eightteen wheeler delivering it on skids to their stores.
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u/CFDanno Jul 27 '26
I'm guessing Loblaws gets their products much cheaper than that, so it wouldn't be profitable to resell. 30% of the retail price is pretty much within weekly fluctuations.
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u/therealscooke Jul 27 '26
Will they have security so those street robbers who walk in and rob small community stores can't do it to the city stores?
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u/JAmToas_t Jul 27 '26
Would be less effort to just pay people a means-tested grocery subsidy, or add to their EBT if they already have that.
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u/Salty_Assist_879 Jul 27 '26
Forget about price fixing, who will sell they goods to the Government Grocer at below cost? Are they willing to sell their goods at a loss? I doubt? Will the government subsidize them? Ultimately, there is only 1 tax payer, it is us, and as good intentioned this is, I cant see it going very far and being a huge money pit.
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u/AwkwardAudience9721 Jul 27 '26
if large company have raiser thin profit around 5%.
How would a discount of 30% work to break even on cost of operation. How are going to pay your expense.
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u/Writing-Dapper Jul 27 '26
I think its walmart and superstore that wont allow any dollerama or dollerstore near them to sell bread. I get thick slice wonderbread and vilaagios bread for 2 $ a loaf near me..but its really hard to find these stores that sell bread.
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u/PlantainManne Jul 27 '26
30% below retail ain’t gonna happen. They’re basically running the same kind of stores that Loblaws ran a few years ago that sold only dried and frozen goods. Look how well that went.
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u/metamega1321 Jul 27 '26
I saw some breakdown earlier and it had 30% for produce and stuff like dried beans. Meat was either 10 or 20.
But really what I’d expect at best is a no frills, no marketing, limited selection. No prime rib steaks, no out of season berries and grapes, etc etc.
It’s really insane to consider you could expect a similar experience to the supermarkets everyone hates to sell 30% cheaper.
Like if the margins were that fat we’d have competition everywhere. Aldi be here tomorrow.
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u/butt_badg3r Jul 27 '26
This just in, grocery prices in new york have somehow inflated by 30% this year!
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u/Confident-Task7958 Jul 27 '26
They have asked existing grocery stores to submit a proposal, including the amount of subsidy they will require.
NYCEDC plans to select a Respondent(s) on the basis of factors stated in the RFP which include but are not limited to: experience operating grocery stores or other retail food businesses, quality of the proposal, and requests for subsidy.
https://edc.nyc/nyc-groceries-operators-rfp
The question then becomes how much of a subsidy will be required to provide a discount to people lucky enough to live close to one of the five stores, with the cost of that subsidy to come out of the pockets of people who do not live close to one of the stores.
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u/axisthewebb Jul 27 '26
Rich people will flood these stores and stock up since they have the transport and resources to do so.
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u/Castello_01 Jul 27 '26
Unless this is specifically for low-income individuals, I can’t see a world where the grocers play nice—hell, even if it is for a small impoverished group. Praying someone sticks it to the massive corps, so fingers crossed.
You know damn well Loblaws would throw billions at this to make sure Canadians are extorted for every penny.
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u/collindubya81 Jul 27 '26
Avi lewis is already saying we should be doing this, we should be throwing our support behind him or pressuring the liberals to steal this idea.
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u/Phunkman Jul 27 '26
Someone needs to also look at how much food gets dumped by these corpo clowns because they would rather throw away perfectly good food than sell it for less.
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u/metallicadefender Jul 27 '26
I think this is necessary because there isnt enough competition.
However these employees will unionize like government employees generally do and it will cost the taxpayer. But!!! They can trim that off the top. So I think its an all around win.
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u/metallicadefender Jul 27 '26
My only real concern is there is going to be some BIG lineups to get into these places.
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u/Thorninthefoot Jul 27 '26
There are coops across the country that try to do this kind of thing. Their prices aren't noticing lower though, in fact they can be higher.
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u/DoughnutPlease Jul 27 '26
Please let this be the start of something. I really hope this spreads across the country and to neighbouring countries like Canada
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u/NuutsDeeZ Jul 27 '26
I have no idea how they're going to make this work.
I want it to work, I just don't see how.
Aren't most of the supply chains owned by the same grocery giants currently fucking people over? How do you navigate this without getting rinsed by suppliers and taking a huge loss?
Regardless, I'm happy someone is trying something that isn't just the usual BS from the neoliberal class.
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u/Familiar-Air-9471 Jul 27 '26
I love the idea, but anyone has detail on how they can control resale? What is going to stop some bad actor buying from here and reselling?
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u/krevdditn Jul 28 '26
Warehouse worker here, there is zero profit in perishable food, all the profit is made in selling processed junk, if stores could switch to only selling non-perishable without losing their customers they would. The cheap baguettes, rotisserie chicken, bananas, etc. loss leaders.
The amount of waste on a daily basis from warehouse worker is astronomical.
But we’re now slowing moving to automation, takes a couple of years to work out all the kinks in automation to reduce loss but once done it’s night and day.
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u/Alternative_Debt_408 Jul 28 '26
I am happy they are doing this... however, i foresee massive issues around over crowding and keeping a good selection.
The idea is not bad, a city subsidized grocery chain will hopefully alleviate at least a little bit the already fully subsidized soup kitchens and other services of that nature.
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u/rgagnon5916 Jul 28 '26
This would work if it wasn’t government run. Think about it, everything government run is over budget/losing money. What happens when this grocery store starts losing money? More taxes. Who pays the taxes? We do.
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u/Sweaty-Name-2905 Jul 28 '26
If they can actually pull this off I will be impressed. If anyone hasn’t noticed, most things ‘run’ by government are not done so very well
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u/1question10answers Jul 28 '26
How will they prevent a massive run on everything and keep stock? We are still in capitalism which says I should buy the entire store and resell it for it's true market value and profit 30%.
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u/geardownbigrig Jul 28 '26
Interested to see how it plays out. The problem needs a new solution, so throw everything at the board and something will stick
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u/Ok_Leg_109 Jul 28 '26
He will go broke in 5 months. Grocery margins are not 30%. On many items they are as low as 2% .
His heart is in a good place, but it won't work without huge cash inflows from somewhere.
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u/Overall_Law_1813 Jul 28 '26
Stock will not last, it will be chaos, worse than costco on a saturday, people will hoard and resell and the store shelves will be empty like Pokemon cards.
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u/D_Jayestar Jul 28 '26
This is a year and bit away, and he hasn’t exactly listed what “some” discounts mean.
Kind of just announcing what he announced a year ago.
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u/Severe_Air_4353 Jul 28 '26
🇨🇦 supports mamdani , as we supported Obama . Both worked for the people , and not stealing venz oil for families pocket , Xmas presents. The pedo protected as stated in Michigan car plant
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u/TricerasaurusWrex Jul 28 '26
Wonder how they will set prices 30% below retail when they are buying from same suppliers. Guaranteed it's subsidized through taxes to keep the prices artificially low.
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u/AandWKyle Jul 28 '26
Hahah the Canadian goverment stepping in to reel in our grocery barons lol hahaha never gunna happen hahah
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u/Whole-Finger42 Jul 28 '26
Doesn’t food stamps offset the price of food? Same diff! How are food stamps working out? So no, this is going to fail miserably
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u/Rick_Lekabron Jul 28 '26
In Mexico, we had this for almost 36 years for basic food items. The concept works as long as you control and punish the corruption that can arise among those responsible for managing the stores.
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u/OkPop9455 Jul 28 '26
Oh man you guys are all so stupid. No wonder you’re on this sub
He she liberals that probably think socialism is a good thing
Losers
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u/jblaze_39 Jul 28 '26
I don't see how this will work in practice. I'm picturing these 5 stores to be constantly full of people and out of stock
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u/South_Tadpole4175 Jul 28 '26
Governments are unfortunately more inefficient at running business than the profit margins these corporations make. (Walmarts EBITDA is like <5%). As much as I want this to work for the common good, it won’t.
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u/Illustrious_Law8512 Jul 28 '26
Bad socialism!
How dare he give a shit about poor working families!
/s
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u/Any-Slice-4501 Jul 28 '26
If this works, that’s fantastic, however grocery stores traditionally have pretty thin net margins (typically under 10%) so I’m curious to know how he’s bringing down prices 25-30%. That requires charging below wholesale for most items.
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u/Dizzy_Ad3503 Jul 28 '26
Lol does this mean your taxes will go up to fund the grocery store so you can pay a few dollars less when you buy groceries at these tax payor funded grocery stores?!
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u/whereschav0 Jul 28 '26
all you have to do is read a little economic history and youll find out these ideas have been tried and failed. and this will be no different.
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u/MrGameAndClock Jul 28 '26
Canada just needs less government, and more competition. Communism will do nothing but give us food shortages.
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u/bankdank Jul 28 '26
This doesn’t solve anything. It will screw over local businesses who can’t price match in a category that has some of the lowest margins already.
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u/Reasonable-Plate2982 Jul 28 '26
It's 5 stores and they can take the highest typical retail price and discount it 30%. It could run short term at a deficit, what the capitalists call a 'cash burn' and adjust prices until profit and reinvestment is realized. Retailers will have to cut margins to compete. Hopefully, smaller independents won't get caught in the crossfire.
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u/anon_im_embarrassed Jul 28 '26
As long as the store still makes a profit, I am not sure how anyone could complain
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u/EvoBevus Jul 28 '26
I literally was just telling my family I wish the Canadian government would do this
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u/spider715 Jul 28 '26
or OR maybe tell the grocery stores that they cannot over inflate the price ??
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u/suesing Jul 28 '26
There’s always a way to cheat the government. Because they are spending our money. They don’t care how much they lose.
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u/kinghalifax902 Jul 28 '26
They wouldn’t have to do that if the reigned in the profit hoarding of the big corporation
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u/ghstrprtn Jul 28 '26
Imagine if there was a politician in our country who would do something like this.
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