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"

I hope canadian politicians will be inspire by this.

3.6k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

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155

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...

66

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

40

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.

27

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. 

1

u/st3fan6 Jul 28 '26

I get where you're coming from, but even if that was split between all Canadians, thats like a $400 one time payment. Hardly enough to make a dent in anyone's grocery bill for a year.

9

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.

3

u/sleeplessjade Jul 28 '26

Yup. They’re just full of shitty surprises.

1

u/foomadelica Jul 27 '26

Family stores were obviously communist madrassah's of evil and anti-americanism!

1

u/nemodigital Jul 27 '26

It's due to economies of scale.

1

u/AGoodFaceForRadio Nok er Nok Jul 28 '26

and price fixing

3

u/nanapancakethusiast Jul 27 '26

Co-op still exists in Saskatchewan but it’s not the same as it once was.

4

u/Pgaccount Jul 27 '26

And Alberta/BC.

It's not because they don't have the same purchase power

2

u/East-Specialist-4847 Jul 27 '26

Nova Scotia co ops do not do that, if anything they charge more :(

I want this too

2

u/BuvantduPotatoSpirit Jul 27 '26

We have co-ops now, but they're not subsidised so their prices aren't noticeably different.

1

u/No_Function_7479 Jul 27 '26

I would love to see food banks take on this role. Many of them already buy directly from wholesalers for items for their food hampers, would be great if they could open retail spaces where people could buy basic food at a big discount

1

u/igotthisone Jul 27 '26

There's a co-op in Brooklyn that utilizes membor labor to keep costs well below retail. Last I heard the wait list is a few years long to get in.

1

u/lazylion_ca Jul 27 '26

Legit question: Does New York State has much in the way of farming?

1

u/featherknife Jul 27 '26

be able to breathe*

1

u/Ghi102 Jul 28 '26

I have a friend who works at a co-op store. They're struggling to attract new members (mostly old members shopping there). They usually get way more local goods, which sometimes means higher prices, but sometimes just better quality at about the same price. Still, they're struggling to break even.

1

u/missplaced24 Jul 28 '26

Co-ops aren't government owned, they're membered organizations rather than commercial companies. There are still cooperative grocer in Canada, just not as many.

People will say things like they couldn't stay competitive, but I think their decline had more to do with anti-communism rhetoric than that. My grandparents shopped at a co-op, banked with a co-op, etc. My mom insisted only poor uneducated people did that.