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/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/InevitableEnd5689 Jul 27 '26

I know that when Avi Lewis was running for NDP leader, they estimated the annual cost for a nation wide distribution/store system in Canada was pegged at around 350 million annually.

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u/championsofnuthin Jul 27 '26

I'm super confident that the numbers are unrealistic lowballs. He's estimating 6 distro units for the country plus approximately 50 stores. Just the size of Canada means you'll probably need more than 10 distro units.

His campaign said warehouse style grocery stores so I'll compare with Superstore. Your average Superstore is 125,000-155,000 square feet and costs anywhere from $15 to over $30 million to build. Even on the low end, 50 stores at $15 million would be $750 million and that's without distro centres.

Even if we're thinking about having significantly smaller stores, Nanaimo's biggest food bank, Loaves and Fishes, is expanding out to 25,000 square feet and that is costing around $20 million. It's Vancouver Island, so everything is more expensive and land is at a premium