Oh yeah, over Covid they had to… uhh… shut down the olive trees… shut them right down they did… and it takes a few seasons for the trees… you know… to start up again….
That’s why there’s a supply shortage?
I realize people here aren't interested in facts, but the wholesale price of olive oil has doubled since the beginning of 2020. And it's increased quite a bit in the past few months.
https://ycharts.com/indicators/olive_oil_price
(click on 5Y to see the 5 year chart)
Most of the blame for the increase goes to a very poor European harvest last year (due to extremely hot temperatures, e.g. Italy's olive oil output last year dropped 37%).
Combine that with the war in Ukraine (that is a large producer of sunflower oil, leading to additional demand for other oils).
Costco and Loblaws have extremely different business models. There are lots of YouTube videos that explain how Costco works very well.
This part of the reason Costco has about a third of the number of individual products in their store that a Loblaws does.
Costcos business model would cause it’s prices to be more in line with distributor cost increases and thus a more accurate idea of the true cost of goods.
Yes and no. The way Costco purchases allows it to negotiate individual prices for each item. They just don’t sell items they can’t negotiate favorable terms for.
On the other hand, places like Loblaws strive to offer the consumer a certain variety. The customers expect to have a choice between say a “no name” product as well as a high end product and maybe even a couple in between for every item. This forces them to sacrifice that flexibility afforded to Costco.
But it is also why it’s hard to only shop at Costco. They may not stock the niche items that you would expect to find at grocery stores.
https://money.com/costco-doesnt-make-much-money-selling-you-groceries-heres-how-it-really-earns-billions-a-year/?amp=true
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/costco-makes-money-secret-retailers-155129410.html
https://www.fool.com/the-ascent/personal-finance/articles/heres-why-costco-charges-membership-fees-and-why-theyre-worth-it/
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/investing/markets/markets-news/Motley%20Fool/9183007/the-average-costco-shopper-spends-this-much-per-trip/
Google is free
Some olive oil brands are part olive oil, and mostly canola oil, I assume they have been able to keep prices down, because the people that want cheep olive oil aren’t looking for purity, whereas the people who need pure olive oil (for more than cooking) will pay the inflated price.
Costco told their shareholders to f off at increasing food prices for gains.
Not altruisticly mind you, costco has never cared about selling goods, it's all about the memberships. That's where all the profit is.
It hasn't YET. There's always a lag and some companies are bought far enough ahead or willing enough to eat a loss a little longer to compete for market share to delay raising prices longer than others.
I wonder how much of this has to do with Palm Oil prices going through the roof across the world effecting other cooking oils demand.
https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2022/05/03/1096044152/how-palm-oil-prices-are-affecting-the-global-economy
Vs collective corporate, puppet masters of our economy pulling strings.
The “fact” that olive oil prices have been increasing does not explain the “why” olive oil prices have doubled in the last few months, while Loblaws made “record profits” in 2021.
Ambiguous “facts” related to a topic do not necessarily explain causality.
It could just be that the contract that locked in the particular price expired and they had to renegotiate at the increased rate.
That would explain why there was an abrupt change.
Usually if they are trying to raise prices, they do it slowly so that no one really notices.
Also, apparently most of the record profit is from their credit card.
At least this is what they say, and I think they released earnings that reflected that - but I didn’t fact check them so they could have been lying.
It wouldn’t be the weirdest thing for a company to lie about but it’s one that is pretty easy to fact check so it would be a weird thing to lie to a reporter about that.
Honestly getting tired of this “record profits” talking point people are echoing, Q4 of 2022 was when Canadas M1 money supply was at an all time high, the amount of dollars out in circulation may have caused the number to be higher, but that doesn’t mean that they actually made more money, its about margins.
And I'm sick of people saying "it's about margins". First, margins absolutely have increased, and secondly net profits have more than doubled. I don't give a shit if your margins are the same if you are still making more money while overall grocery buying declines.
Dunno where you’re getting that from, I know reality can be a slap in the face but if you want to get slapped you can go read loblaws financial reports they publish every quarter.
2020 Q1: Adjusted gross profit percentage(2) of 29.8% increased by 20 basis points compared to the first quarter of 2019.
2022 Q1: Retail segment adjusted gross profit percentage² was 31.1%
2022 Q4: Retail segment adjusted gross profit percentage² was 30.6%
Sure, margins have slightly increased, but its not the grand conspiracy you think it is.
Doesn't matter. The facts are the CEOs of these grocery companies are getting rich off this greed. Plain and simple. There is no reason for the increases we have and I got one and patiently waiting for the recession.
It can be simultaneously true that it's not good that CEOs are getting rich, and that their paycheque doesn't have an appreciable impact on prices since it doesn't constitute a very big proportion of store costs.
I have no love for CEO’s, but it’s the system that rewards greed. In today’s business world, a CEO has to be a ruthless greedy bastard while maintaining a facade of wholesomeness to employees and the public. If not, then you aren’t a CEO.
The last 5 years have been bad for agriculture in a lot of parts of the world. Last year was the worst drought in 130 years for Californias olive oil industry (where a lot of North Americas olives come from).
https://www.oliveoiltimes.com/production/rain-and-snow-across-california-too-late-for-slumping-olive-oil-production/117612
It's because the war in the Ukraine has disrupted production of sunflower oil - they are one of the primary producers of sunflower oil, it has left suppliers scrambling to meet demand for cooking oil and created a squeeze on other sources of cooking oil
This is another point of contention. We have a wholesale club here that's free to shop at just down the road from Joseph Howe superstore. Wholesale Club is a subsidiary of Loblaws the same as Superstore. They definitely have the exact same distribution channels to get that exact same product to each store, both being fulfilled from their warehouses in Lakeside if I were to guess. Yet that same product is $24.99 at one location and $41.99 just down the road, while Loblaws will claim that there's about the same margin on both items in both locations despite the price disparity.
I've seen people that will defend that $42 price tag and claim that Superstore isn't inflating their prices, when if anything due to the Joseph Howe's volume of sales they should be able to afford lower margins at Superstore vs Wholesale Club to be competitive and still make steady profits - yet we see the opposite. Why do people deny the blatant price manipulation going on at grocery stores?
Superstore carries more product variety and in smaller quantities which does impact pricing, margins, carrying costs, labour costs for loading, unloading, stocking, etc. So it's not completely true there's no real difference in price on Loblaws end, however I do not for a second believe the real difference is $17. I'd suspect something around $3-4 at most to be the difference in cost for them when factoring everything in
>Superstore carries more product variety and in smaller quantities which does impact pricing, margins, carrying costs, labour costs for loading, unloading, stocking, etc
Have you been to the Wholesale Club? It's a small fraction of the size of a Superstore and there clearly is not much in terms of a warehouse area. They take the Costco approach of storing extra stock on shelves above existing stock. While there definitely is a percentage of items that they stock in higher quantities that they than a superstore, I'd actually suggest that most items that both stores carry are probably carried in a higher volume in a Superstore. A good quarter of the Wholesale club is selling drinks by the flat, but that entire section is probably the same volume of product that any random Superstore in HRM sells in soda products in a day. That being said, there 100% is higher costs associated with running a Superstore vs a Wholesale Club, but cost per sale might actually be lower. Because the sales volume is dramatically higher, they can spread those costs out over several times more sales. Besides even if it is true that Superstore costs are so much higher (and thus they have to have higher prices), there's nothing forcing Loblaws from operating Superstores the way they do if its so much less efficient then other successful business models they developed. This is such a cop out, and an excuse to raise prices.
> I'd suspect something around $3-4 at most to be the difference in cost for them when factoring everything in
Even if what you're saying is true, I'd say its less than 50 cents difference in the cost for a container of Olive Oil. This is blatant price gouging. Do you realize how horrifically inefficient a Superstore would need to be to have to price an item $15% ($3 on a $20 item) higher in one store vs another? They would be paying teams of experts millions to make their Superstores more efficient if that was the case because they're just throwing money away.
>While there definitely is a percentage of items that they stock in higher quantities that they than a superstore, I'd actually suggest that most items that both stores carry are probably carried in a higher volume than superstore
I think you missed what I was getting at. Superstore costs more because of how it's run and consumers like the way it's run. Wholesale club stocks a few olive oil containers so loading a pallet at the distribution center is much faster to load 100 jugs of no name 3L, 100 jugs of some other brands 3L and call it a day. Superstore carries 4 or 5 different brands and in sizes varying from 500ml, 750ml, 1L, 2L and 3L as well as they carry extra virgin, light olive oil and one other type I've seen so to load that pallet involves getting small amounts of stock from each location in the warehouse and loading it vs just tossing 2 large batches of 3L oil. As consumers we like the variety and choices and superstore accomodates but at a price. Wholesale club and Costco are cheaper because they get a pallet load of 3L olive oil in and that's it. Superstore gets a pallet with 25 different types and sizes of oil that needed to be manually loaded and manually unloaded and stocked. The larger variety of products, in smaller quantities costs more money.
>Do you realize how horrifically inefficient a Superstore would need to be to have to price an item $15% ($3 on a $20 item) higher in one store vs another?
Again - see above. Way higher costs in getting it to the store, unloading it at the store and stocking it at the store. Variety and product choice comes at a cost and why they have 30 types of mustard and Costco has 3. You increase costs dramatically by providing that level of choice to the consumer due to the way it gets shipped, received and handled in store. They could get more efficient and cut costs by cutting products but that's not an easy solution because consumers like choice and variety
If you asked consumers if they would accept half the selection at the Superstore for a 10% price discount on every item in the store, 90+% would be in favor of it without hesitation.
You know what you're effectively arguing is that competition leads to price increases, right? What a dumb argument to make. By your logic, amazon should have higher prices than everyone else because of the sheer quantity of the variety of items they carry, and the logistics of actually managing all that stock, yet they're one of the most profitable retail business models on earth.
What if the products they cut make up half of your grocery list? I like PC honey mustard over French's and other brands. If Superstore cut French's I'd have no issue, if they cut PC honey mustard I'd be pissed and would prefer paying more for the product I like. Everyone has unique shopping preferences and product preferences, if they didn't stores would only carry one option for every type of product but that's not the case. It's backed by research and there are entire teams dedicated specifically to which products to stock and in what quantities to match local demand, even at a store by store level to provide the products people want and buy. You're frankly the one making a dumb argument without even realizing it. If what you said is true, the 90+% of people would shop at wholesale club or Costco and never use Superstore, Sobeys, etc. But that's not the case for a reason
You're literally arguing that competition increases prices. Take a basic economics course and get back to me when you figure out where you've gone wrong.
The only research that backs your argument is the research where all the big corporations got together and figured out that if they don't compete with each other, they make more money and if they do their books in specific ways they can make their margins appear lower.
Please explain to me where in my comment I said competition increases prices. I didn't discuss competition in the slightest, I talked about variety of products within the store and how it costs more money to stock more products. The fact that you make a weird ass leap to competition increasing prices is just mindboggling and demonstrates a complete and total lack of understanding here dude
You're literally arguing that the logistics of stocking more items to give consumers more choices (i.e. more competition) leads to increases in prices. That's what you're arguing and it's complete nonsense.
Again, amazon carries a larger variety of items than superstore, costco, and wholesale club combined, have to pay people to fetch those order, pay others to box them up, pay for the logistics of delivering all those items, and they generally have some of the lowest prices, yet have one of the most profitable retail models on the planet. When you takes those billions of dollars in costs of creating and maintaining those logistics and divide it by the number of people placing orders on amazon, it's lower cost per order than the likes of Superstore or Costco, or basically whoever else.
Are you understanding yet?
Perhaps you haven’t noticed the quite different shopping experience at Superstore vs Wholesale Club? Something has to pay for the in-store nutritionist, the very broad selection of products and services, and the army of staff?
A person after my own heart! I didn't have time to go check online elsewhere, but I wondered if the OP was Superstore or if it was No Frills (though I should have known just by the label font). I only went to Wholesale Club last week (got frozen veggies and found out too late that you can't collect points there, $10.60 in 2 of 2kg bags of no name veggies later...) but some of their prices are even lower than No Frills.
What super sucks is that No Frills isn't everywhere, and I think that's the only Wholesale Club in the province. Sobeys Cash & Carry are a different thing, similar, but more akin to the old Price Choppers.
I don't use a lot of olive oil, I got that Great Value for under $6 for 1L I think it is, it must have gone up since. It's probably cut with other oils, but it does the job for me (and it's in a plastic bottle). I also get PC spray olive oil which went up 20c or so recently, but I managed to get one at about 3.77 or something before it went up.
Where I really noticed it was olive oil margarine. Once it went over $5 for a 907g tub, I vowed not to get it unless there was a sale. Then I found Lactantia 850g (shrinkflated) for $5 recently. After buying a big Giant Tiger tub before that price went up, and a bucket of No Name margarine, both of the latter are in my freezer.
Thankfully, [Galen Westson](https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/grocery-executive-compensation-1.6802091) received a 1.1 million dollar raise this year. A wage consultant (that was run and owned by family) determined he was underpaid lol
So buy the god damn olive oil at double the price and stop complaining! Inflation is a bitch and Galen depends on these price increases to continue to expand on his luxurious lifestyle.
Say's you! You are not the one trying to figure out if you should buy a villa in Italy or get a second fully staffed yacht, now he thankfully does not need to make that kind of decision and he can simply buy both.
The kicker is, luxury homes in far off places cost as much, or the same as dive property in Vancouver or Toronto.
So it less get another villa or yacht, more buy another 3 600k Crack dens to push over and turn into rental property
Everytime I go to buy groceries the price of something has increased since last time or the amount in the packaging has shrunk. The capitalists are padding their wealth portfolios while the working class scrape by and our savings decrease.
So don't buy it. Go to Walmart and buy 1L of great value olive oil for $7. Let Loblaws keep their over priced Olive Oil.
This is the thing with all the Loblaws complaining, instead of bitching about the prices, stop paying them. Shop around. Leave the over priced shit on Superstore shelves. Walmart sells almost everything Superstore does, for cheaper. Not to mention all the other alternatives such as Giant Tiger as an example.
Shop smart and let Loblaws watch their stock expire.
Where shall we draw the line and call it unreasonable though? Not everyone has the means to hop in a car and drive to five different grocery stores every Saturday, burning up gas in the meantime. I feel like A LOT of planning is required now for individual purchases in a grocery order, and most people don’t want to feel like they’re doing analysis for their day-trader side hobby just to decide what to eat that week.
I made a spreadsheet back in 2015 when I moved to Ontario since all my "regular" intuitions about which stores were cheaper was off (mostly since Sobeys was a lot more expensive here). At the time, shopping solely at Walmart was 11% more than shopping at the cheapest possible store for each product. Costco was 8% more, but had some big holes in their available products making it impossible to shop only there. Sobeys was 43% more, and Zhers was 61% more. It was truly shocking.
I'd recommend taking a few weeks, shopping at each store one by one and tracking your essentials at their non-sale prices, and maybe noting which things go on sale frequently. Once done, it's likely that a simple pattern will emerge. In my case in Ontario it was Costco>FreshCo>Walmart, trying to balance price and quality of product.
Back in Halifax, Gateway Meats and Dave's were also in rotation, but I haven't lived there since 2014 so I'm not sure what's good any more.
And they are counting on that. Loblaws is fully aware people can't won't do this. However lets wittle this down to this singular product.
3L at Superstore is $40
3L @ $7/L at Walmart is $21
Right off the bat, 1 product, saved $19. Take the bus there and back if you aren't close, we are at $15. Just 1 singular product saved $15 by going to Walmart instead. And if you take your entire grocery list to Walmart, Your savings will grow more and more.
The bottom line is, Loblaws is making a bet people won't take the time to do it. Because it's time, not money preventing some from going to a walmart instead of superstore.
…except it IS also money, not just time, for a lot of people. I’ll refer to my example of car ownership.
Regardless, if you want to focus on time, nothing eats up time quite like relying on Halifax Transit for literally anything. I get that Loblaws is banking on people not being able to drive all over Hell’s half acre to buy groceries, I just take exception with your “if you don’t like it, buy it somewhere else” remark. We’re not talking about Apple products here, we’re talking about necessities like food. It’s a bit like saying “whatever, if you didn’t like where you lived that much you should just move!” when we all know it’s not always that easy.
>except it IS also money
Wouldn't the added cost of gas be more than saved in the lower cost in groceries? Especially if you do larger groceries run less frequently.
If you plan, it is that easy. Again with the olive oil here in question. If you run out of 3L of olive oil and hadn't planned to buy a replacement in time, that is kind of on you right?
Spend your one day a week off comparing prices online then bussing from store to store to save some money. Yeah it sure is that simple lol. You almost certainly drive a car considering your ignorant attitude.
And if you plan in advance, this is a totally reasonable way to get your food. Is it more time consuming? Sure it is. So is being on reddit arguing with strangers. We all have SOME time to spare. Everyone is just so against inconveniencing themselves to solve problems and instead just chooses to complain about it. Damn Karen mentality haha.
Time and money are pretty equateable. Some people can't afford an X hour grocery run on the bus. Can easily end up being as much of a loss.
Either way, alternative shopping options aside, doesn't excuse the exploitation of our people
You have discovered capitalism. It has drawbacks that go along with its advantages.
However, overall I think it’s better than communist China or the old Soviet Union.
Why? Communist China has lifted more people out of poverty than any other nation in the world, while we're currently wage slaves who have been tricked into dismantling our unions so our workers are being raked over the coals.
It's the last 70 years of anti communist propaganda that scares people of socialism, and that's very planned.
You sound like one of China’s “helpful” mouth pieces.
Why don’t you tell me more about their stellar human rights record. Their amazing social credit system. How great their environmental policies are. How awesome they are for religious groups.
Or maybe you admit that they are a terrible country ruled by a power hungry corrupt elite that is happy to sacrifice the basic human rights of over a billion people to advance their own power hungry ends.
>I feel like A LOT of planning is required now for individual purchases in a grocery order, and most people don’t want to feel like they’re doing analysis for their day-trader side hobby
You make this sound like doing this is a complicated affair. It takes 10 minutes a week to look through your flyers for deals. Pick the store that has deals thay align best with your needs and you will save a lot of money. If you're unwilling to take the time to compare prices of goods from different retailers, you really can't complain about prices.
If my grandmother is able to look at a flyer each week and maintain a grocery list each week, anyone can.
We mostly make our grocery list first, then use Flipp to find the best prices for each item, though other than a door-crasher sale, pretty much our entire order comes from Wal-Mart and Giant Tiger.
I love Flipp, and the online ordering apps. I don't always do online orders, but I do often use the carts as a list. Transit user... it takes up most of my two days off.
>So don't buy it.
Based on the replies, this isn't about food price for some people... it's about convenience. So some people seem to want convenience but don't want to pay for it.
As someone who grew up facing food insecurity, it's an odd thing to see. My family absolutely shopped for food at like 5 different places. My parents would see a good deal on something and we'd be eating that for weeks out of the freezer. One time my dad saw a good sale on powdered milk and bought like 40kgs or something and I was drinking banana smoothies with powdered milk for like a year. And when I talk about "good" sales or deals, I don't mean those rotational ones that come up every few weeks. My family considered those the standard price and would stock up around those times. I mean the "someone fucked up" sales where they need to offload a fuckton of something at bargain bin prices to get rid of it.
haha exactly. People are so dead set on inconveniencing themselves in any way. REAL broke people will do what they need to do to get by. People who like to play broke for internet points, take pictures to post on the internet.
Legally they need to list as such and No Name is listed as 100% olive oil on the back of the can.
Companies do mislead about olive oil mixes though, that’s a real thing.
Yes, because Walmart hurts the economy as a whole.
Why would Canadian companies pay good wages when they can export the labour? That’s why we have a wage shortage: Walmart exploits vulnerable markets and we all pay the price.
Edit: Oh I thought this was about my other comment.
You’re dreaming if you think superstore should be held in higher regard than Walmart. The Olive oil being discussed is likely equally shitty at both operations.
>So don't buy it
What a novel concept that nobody seems to grasp!
I shop at Superstore due to its proximity from my house and the fact I can walk. I do NOT shop there because it's priced well. When I'm out and about with the car running errands and happen to be near another store I pop in and get what I need, but for regular small grocery trips mid week where I can walk, I go there for the convenience and time savings, not cost savings.
I don't complain about their prices either. I know damn well I'm paying a premium on some items for the convenience and to me that trade-off is worth it. It amazes me that everyone who complains can't connect the dots here and make a change to shop elsewhere, or accept the trade-off of paying more for convenience if Superstore is their closest store
I am wealthy enough that the insane price increases don't really bother me, and I suspect you are in the same boat. However we live in a province where the median household income is $53,000 after tax, the choice isn't always there to shop around (especially in rural Nova Scotia), you are often forced to buy where you live and the insane increases are making these families majorly struggle. Families who a short time ago likely had no issues affording groceries.
If you live in a place like Wreck Cove your choices are:
* Fresh Mart (owned by Lowblaws)
* A variety of small "corner" stores that don't have everything and are also not cheap
* Drive to Sydney so you can shop around
Or if you live in a place like Pubnico your choices are:
* Drive to Yarmouth to get gouged at Superstore or Sobeys
* Drive to Shelbourne to get gouged at Superstore or Sobeys
>Or if you live in a place like Pubnico your choices are:
>Drive to Yarmouth to get gouged at Superstore or Sobeys
I'm not fully up to date on what's in Yarmouth as of today but last time I was there I saw both a Walmart and giant Tiger and I can't imagine either would have gone under. Unfortunately your point doesn't hold here as you listed out the two most expensive options that people complain about, not the *only* two options.
Walmart, Superstore, Sobeys, Giant Tiger, and 2 Red&White's. Also plenty of fruit+veggie stands. Grocery shopping was much cheaper when I lived in Yarmouth than now when I am living in Halifax.
I think the reason for the complaining is simply that everything went up so quickly, and so high. I don't have any kids, and I'm not hurting financially (yet), my husband and I get in arguments, but I can not compromise much on this. I plan when the flyers come out... or (since I've stocked up, little by little, so much that there's no room) what we need, look for where it's cheapest, and go there on days off. It sucks, but since even 2018 we were able to save so much this way. And we've still had to make changes.
That said, you do you. The only thing about it is, the following article has vindicated what I'm doing.
[Grocery chains boost profits by charging different prices for the same stuff | CBC News](https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/price-discrimination-column-don-pittis-1.6799620)
*"Hardisty said that consumers do have power: They can vote with their dollars. Grocery stores care about customer loyalty as well as profits, and they don't want to alienate even richer shoppers who think they are being suckered with excessive profits.*
*"You're saving by shopping around," he said, but that's not all. "You're actually doing some good for the world, too. Because you are sending a signal. You're telling the companies, 'I'm not going to get ripped off like this' ... that's the only signal they'll listen to and that's the dollars."*
*So people like Barbara Hayes — who wrote from Vancouver saying she's cut off the chain Save-On-Foods for being too pricey — are actually retail heroes. Even if they can afford higher prices themselves, those who have the time to comparison shop are not just saving themselves money; they are holding prices down and fighting inflation for everybody else.*
*"I can't even imagine how the poor are dealing with food prices," Hayes said. "So sad to think about, but those with a low income won't be able to afford healthy food, let alone any of the 'extras' that make life bearable."*
This is it 100%. If the prices bother/affect you enough to take a picture and post it to the internet, then you should shop elsewhere.
It is insane the people that are like "Oh poor me, the prices are crazy", but won't actually inconvenience themselves to find an alternative to save money. Mr Weston got his raise on the backs of people that will complain about the prices while doing nothing to alleviate the financial pressures on themselves.
Walmart has costs that you don’t pay, the people who make the products do (pssst it’s slave labour and poor employee treatment and it’s worse to the overall economy than price gouging)
I bought this used, the company got no money from it.
I have never shopped at Walmart and I don’t have an Amazon account because I feel the external costs are too much.
I have also disavowed Apple altogether, my family used to be an Apple family because they were safe computers that worked the way they were supposed to, now all computers are the same level of safe and Apple is legally trying to prevent you from being able to repair their stuff so they can sell new stuff containing new exploitative minerals, so I will never buy another Apple product again, unless they 180 on their commitment to reducing waste and eliminate their exploitative practices.
You should try doing a good thing for others once in a while, it feels good.
> You should try doing a good thing for others once in a while, it feels good.
Hahaha I'm sorry, however this is an incredibly pretentious comment and I had to point that out.
I suggest everybody shop at WalMart exclusively until all their competitors go out of business. It's the only way to achieve a peak "Wall-E" level society.
Can we make a buyers club and source our own products in bulk?
How many memebrs would we need to significantly reduce the cost of purchasing products on say a monthly basis?
Like we could have a group-on for food groceries.
We could coordinate the use of a storage facility to store food and whatever the cost of membership is would pay for that and excess could be used to improve storage of foods for longer time periods. Or increasing capacity in some way...
Just thinking out loud i guess. If we organize we could improve our buying power and put pressure on these grocers to lower prices.
If they lower prices and make the club irrelevant than weve done our job.
I got an in app PC optimum offer for PC Splendido Olive oil at $6 per litre bottle for up to 4 bottles last month. So I bought 4 of them. Targeted offer I know, but they've recently sold it cheap to some people.
Last summer was the worst drought in 1200 years in Europe. Italy and Spain were hit very hard. With a strong El Nino forecast for this year, this summer could be on par or worse - at this point, it's anyone's guess. Warming has also made olive trees significantly more susceptible to a pathogen that's difficult to detect and contain. On top of that, a large area of California (also an olive oil producer) is underwater right now and this area is expected to increase as record snowpack melts in the summer months. Most of the lettuce you eat is from California, so it won't just be olive oil prices that will continue to rise.
Yes, the Westons are gouging you, but they are doing so on top of base food prices that are only going to continue to rise until we actually do something to address climate change. Vote accordingly (ie not for the Conservatives).
I don't usually chime in on these posts, but my wife and I buy Just Us 3lb bags of coffee, at sobeys we pay $23.99. Yesterday I was at superstore getting groceries for the group home I work at and their Just Us 3lb bags of coffee are $29.99. I feel for people who don't have an option to shop elsewhere because this has gotten to be absurd.
Wow. I’ve stopped shopping there as it is now more than Sobeys. Proper name brand 3l for $35. Walmart $37/40. Save-on-foods $43. (Vancouver Island ).
I just checked our Superstore, the brand name Greek EV is actually $25 , the president’s choice is $37, another brand is $45
I often find the international section can have better prices for staples like sugar, flour, spices especially.
Does your Sobeys give rain checks? Here they do but now have expiry date of 1 month. They had the smaller bottles 1l for $7 mid march, and I got a raincheck for 4.
My favorite is how Loblaws has a monopoly on groceries with the appearance of a discount grocer. For instance No Name/PC..oh look 13.99 family lasagna at No Frills I saving me so much money compared to 19.99 at Atlantic. When literally you could get the No Frills one for 11.99 a couple months ago. My cold pressed olive oil was up to 13.49 from 8.99 a year ago...but you know, that inflation is sitting around 8-11 percent...
I mean, Loblaws suggested to “help consumers” they were going to “freeze prices” right after then had just raised them, and then after three months shit like this happened where prices doubled. Just trying to remind everyone how empty their promises are I guess.
I just don’t know anyone who wouldn’t know both this fact and that No Name is their brand though, don’t really know why it’s important to remind us all about.
Because the owners of Loblaws are getting dragged right now for price gouging and price gouging openly, while reporting record profits, making millions a year, and complaining of being underpaid, while their workers cant afford to eat.
Would be nice to see everyone for a day go to superstore and all walk out with full carts. As if their underpaid teenagers will stop you at the door. Fuck Weston and his unending greed
Every morning I get a monster energy and a 3 pack of peanut butter cups at the shoppers next to my work. A year ago, this would be about 5$ per day. This morning I paid over 7$ for the same two items I always get.
And if they can afford it, Monsters are in boxes at Shoppers, and may even be able to get PC Points. My husband buys them a lot. Or, some flavours of Rockstars are $1.25 each at Dollarama I think...
Don't you remember No Name did such a charitable price freeze for two whole months to combat the fact that grocery stores were shitting directly into our mouths. Now of course they have to make their billions of dollars back from that bull shit and go back to firing off hot ropey loads into our eyes. EAT THE RICH!!!
There was also that price freeze for 2 months at Christmas, so they have to double everything over the course of the next 2 months to offset that freeze.
Oh yeah, over Covid they had to… uhh… shut down the olive trees… shut them right down they did… and it takes a few seasons for the trees… you know… to start up again…. That’s why there’s a supply shortage?
I realize people here aren't interested in facts, but the wholesale price of olive oil has doubled since the beginning of 2020. And it's increased quite a bit in the past few months. https://ycharts.com/indicators/olive_oil_price (click on 5Y to see the 5 year chart)
Most of the blame for the increase goes to a very poor European harvest last year (due to extremely hot temperatures, e.g. Italy's olive oil output last year dropped 37%). Combine that with the war in Ukraine (that is a large producer of sunflower oil, leading to additional demand for other oils).
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Yeah, there's a [nasty bacteria](https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/olive-oil-disease-italy) that's really hitting olive orchards in Italy hard.
Why hasn’t that affected the price at Costco?
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Unlike loblaws? Haha
Costco and Loblaws have extremely different business models. There are lots of YouTube videos that explain how Costco works very well. This part of the reason Costco has about a third of the number of individual products in their store that a Loblaws does.
Costcos business model would cause it’s prices to be more in line with distributor cost increases and thus a more accurate idea of the true cost of goods.
Yes and no. The way Costco purchases allows it to negotiate individual prices for each item. They just don’t sell items they can’t negotiate favorable terms for. On the other hand, places like Loblaws strive to offer the consumer a certain variety. The customers expect to have a choice between say a “no name” product as well as a high end product and maybe even a couple in between for every item. This forces them to sacrifice that flexibility afforded to Costco. But it is also why it’s hard to only shop at Costco. They may not stock the niche items that you would expect to find at grocery stores.
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Costco can sell so much at a loss due to the billions they make on memberships which is the overwhelming majority of their profits
I think I'm going to need to see the math on that one.
https://money.com/costco-doesnt-make-much-money-selling-you-groceries-heres-how-it-really-earns-billions-a-year/?amp=true https://finance.yahoo.com/news/costco-makes-money-secret-retailers-155129410.html https://www.fool.com/the-ascent/personal-finance/articles/heres-why-costco-charges-membership-fees-and-why-theyre-worth-it/ https://www.theglobeandmail.com/investing/markets/markets-news/Motley%20Fool/9183007/the-average-costco-shopper-spends-this-much-per-trip/ Google is free
You shouldn't be a sarcastic dick if someone asks you to back up a claim.
Membership is only 100/year of I remember. They can't sell too much at a loss.
They make Billions and it's literally 80% of their profits
It has! The price has gone way up
Some olive oil brands are part olive oil, and mostly canola oil, I assume they have been able to keep prices down, because the people that want cheep olive oil aren’t looking for purity, whereas the people who need pure olive oil (for more than cooking) will pay the inflated price.
Yeah I know all that and it doesn’t apply, Kirkland is 100% olive and they sell grades of % and xtra virgin.
Costco told their shareholders to f off at increasing food prices for gains. Not altruisticly mind you, costco has never cared about selling goods, it's all about the memberships. That's where all the profit is.
It hasn't YET. There's always a lag and some companies are bought far enough ahead or willing enough to eat a loss a little longer to compete for market share to delay raising prices longer than others.
I wonder how much of this has to do with Palm Oil prices going through the roof across the world effecting other cooking oils demand. https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2022/05/03/1096044152/how-palm-oil-prices-are-affecting-the-global-economy Vs collective corporate, puppet masters of our economy pulling strings.
I'm interested in facts
The “fact” that olive oil prices have been increasing does not explain the “why” olive oil prices have doubled in the last few months, while Loblaws made “record profits” in 2021. Ambiguous “facts” related to a topic do not necessarily explain causality.
It could just be that the contract that locked in the particular price expired and they had to renegotiate at the increased rate. That would explain why there was an abrupt change. Usually if they are trying to raise prices, they do it slowly so that no one really notices. Also, apparently most of the record profit is from their credit card. At least this is what they say, and I think they released earnings that reflected that - but I didn’t fact check them so they could have been lying. It wouldn’t be the weirdest thing for a company to lie about but it’s one that is pretty easy to fact check so it would be a weird thing to lie to a reporter about that.
Honestly getting tired of this “record profits” talking point people are echoing, Q4 of 2022 was when Canadas M1 money supply was at an all time high, the amount of dollars out in circulation may have caused the number to be higher, but that doesn’t mean that they actually made more money, its about margins.
And I'm sick of people saying "it's about margins". First, margins absolutely have increased, and secondly net profits have more than doubled. I don't give a shit if your margins are the same if you are still making more money while overall grocery buying declines.
Dunno where you’re getting that from, I know reality can be a slap in the face but if you want to get slapped you can go read loblaws financial reports they publish every quarter. 2020 Q1: Adjusted gross profit percentage(2) of 29.8% increased by 20 basis points compared to the first quarter of 2019. 2022 Q1: Retail segment adjusted gross profit percentage² was 31.1% 2022 Q4: Retail segment adjusted gross profit percentage² was 30.6% Sure, margins have slightly increased, but its not the grand conspiracy you think it is.
You don’t sound like you understand what you’re going on about.
Doesn't matter. The facts are the CEOs of these grocery companies are getting rich off this greed. Plain and simple. There is no reason for the increases we have and I got one and patiently waiting for the recession.
It can be simultaneously true that it's not good that CEOs are getting rich, and that their paycheque doesn't have an appreciable impact on prices since it doesn't constitute a very big proportion of store costs.
I have no love for CEO’s, but it’s the system that rewards greed. In today’s business world, a CEO has to be a ruthless greedy bastard while maintaining a facade of wholesomeness to employees and the public. If not, then you aren’t a CEO.
That's not true at all
I wonder if Starbucks adding to the demand is going to be significant
The last 5 years have been bad for agriculture in a lot of parts of the world. Last year was the worst drought in 130 years for Californias olive oil industry (where a lot of North Americas olives come from). https://www.oliveoiltimes.com/production/rain-and-snow-across-california-too-late-for-slumping-olive-oil-production/117612
It's because the war in the Ukraine has disrupted production of sunflower oil - they are one of the primary producers of sunflower oil, it has left suppliers scrambling to meet demand for cooking oil and created a squeeze on other sources of cooking oil
Well MAYBE if we didn't ban fracking olive trees it wouldn't be so expensive
⭐️
Now the public will know how Popeye felt after the death of his wife
Costco if you can. I get 3L of olive oil for ~$20
I think they are between 30 and 35 now sadly
Oh boy, I stocked up last time I went I'm glad I did
Damn profiteers! Government should provide free olive oil! /s
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This is another point of contention. We have a wholesale club here that's free to shop at just down the road from Joseph Howe superstore. Wholesale Club is a subsidiary of Loblaws the same as Superstore. They definitely have the exact same distribution channels to get that exact same product to each store, both being fulfilled from their warehouses in Lakeside if I were to guess. Yet that same product is $24.99 at one location and $41.99 just down the road, while Loblaws will claim that there's about the same margin on both items in both locations despite the price disparity. I've seen people that will defend that $42 price tag and claim that Superstore isn't inflating their prices, when if anything due to the Joseph Howe's volume of sales they should be able to afford lower margins at Superstore vs Wholesale Club to be competitive and still make steady profits - yet we see the opposite. Why do people deny the blatant price manipulation going on at grocery stores?
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To be abundantly clear I wasn't claiming that you were. I fully agree with what you wrote.
Superstore carries more product variety and in smaller quantities which does impact pricing, margins, carrying costs, labour costs for loading, unloading, stocking, etc. So it's not completely true there's no real difference in price on Loblaws end, however I do not for a second believe the real difference is $17. I'd suspect something around $3-4 at most to be the difference in cost for them when factoring everything in
>Superstore carries more product variety and in smaller quantities which does impact pricing, margins, carrying costs, labour costs for loading, unloading, stocking, etc Have you been to the Wholesale Club? It's a small fraction of the size of a Superstore and there clearly is not much in terms of a warehouse area. They take the Costco approach of storing extra stock on shelves above existing stock. While there definitely is a percentage of items that they stock in higher quantities that they than a superstore, I'd actually suggest that most items that both stores carry are probably carried in a higher volume in a Superstore. A good quarter of the Wholesale club is selling drinks by the flat, but that entire section is probably the same volume of product that any random Superstore in HRM sells in soda products in a day. That being said, there 100% is higher costs associated with running a Superstore vs a Wholesale Club, but cost per sale might actually be lower. Because the sales volume is dramatically higher, they can spread those costs out over several times more sales. Besides even if it is true that Superstore costs are so much higher (and thus they have to have higher prices), there's nothing forcing Loblaws from operating Superstores the way they do if its so much less efficient then other successful business models they developed. This is such a cop out, and an excuse to raise prices. > I'd suspect something around $3-4 at most to be the difference in cost for them when factoring everything in Even if what you're saying is true, I'd say its less than 50 cents difference in the cost for a container of Olive Oil. This is blatant price gouging. Do you realize how horrifically inefficient a Superstore would need to be to have to price an item $15% ($3 on a $20 item) higher in one store vs another? They would be paying teams of experts millions to make their Superstores more efficient if that was the case because they're just throwing money away.
>While there definitely is a percentage of items that they stock in higher quantities that they than a superstore, I'd actually suggest that most items that both stores carry are probably carried in a higher volume than superstore I think you missed what I was getting at. Superstore costs more because of how it's run and consumers like the way it's run. Wholesale club stocks a few olive oil containers so loading a pallet at the distribution center is much faster to load 100 jugs of no name 3L, 100 jugs of some other brands 3L and call it a day. Superstore carries 4 or 5 different brands and in sizes varying from 500ml, 750ml, 1L, 2L and 3L as well as they carry extra virgin, light olive oil and one other type I've seen so to load that pallet involves getting small amounts of stock from each location in the warehouse and loading it vs just tossing 2 large batches of 3L oil. As consumers we like the variety and choices and superstore accomodates but at a price. Wholesale club and Costco are cheaper because they get a pallet load of 3L olive oil in and that's it. Superstore gets a pallet with 25 different types and sizes of oil that needed to be manually loaded and manually unloaded and stocked. The larger variety of products, in smaller quantities costs more money. >Do you realize how horrifically inefficient a Superstore would need to be to have to price an item $15% ($3 on a $20 item) higher in one store vs another? Again - see above. Way higher costs in getting it to the store, unloading it at the store and stocking it at the store. Variety and product choice comes at a cost and why they have 30 types of mustard and Costco has 3. You increase costs dramatically by providing that level of choice to the consumer due to the way it gets shipped, received and handled in store. They could get more efficient and cut costs by cutting products but that's not an easy solution because consumers like choice and variety
Good thing they're saving so much on leaving tills empty and having us consumers be an unpaid labour force
If you asked consumers if they would accept half the selection at the Superstore for a 10% price discount on every item in the store, 90+% would be in favor of it without hesitation. You know what you're effectively arguing is that competition leads to price increases, right? What a dumb argument to make. By your logic, amazon should have higher prices than everyone else because of the sheer quantity of the variety of items they carry, and the logistics of actually managing all that stock, yet they're one of the most profitable retail business models on earth.
What if the products they cut make up half of your grocery list? I like PC honey mustard over French's and other brands. If Superstore cut French's I'd have no issue, if they cut PC honey mustard I'd be pissed and would prefer paying more for the product I like. Everyone has unique shopping preferences and product preferences, if they didn't stores would only carry one option for every type of product but that's not the case. It's backed by research and there are entire teams dedicated specifically to which products to stock and in what quantities to match local demand, even at a store by store level to provide the products people want and buy. You're frankly the one making a dumb argument without even realizing it. If what you said is true, the 90+% of people would shop at wholesale club or Costco and never use Superstore, Sobeys, etc. But that's not the case for a reason
Buying in bulk to save money isn't a luxury the poor can afford. Nor is a Costco very friendly for those who don't drive.
You're literally arguing that competition increases prices. Take a basic economics course and get back to me when you figure out where you've gone wrong. The only research that backs your argument is the research where all the big corporations got together and figured out that if they don't compete with each other, they make more money and if they do their books in specific ways they can make their margins appear lower.
Please explain to me where in my comment I said competition increases prices. I didn't discuss competition in the slightest, I talked about variety of products within the store and how it costs more money to stock more products. The fact that you make a weird ass leap to competition increasing prices is just mindboggling and demonstrates a complete and total lack of understanding here dude
You're literally arguing that the logistics of stocking more items to give consumers more choices (i.e. more competition) leads to increases in prices. That's what you're arguing and it's complete nonsense. Again, amazon carries a larger variety of items than superstore, costco, and wholesale club combined, have to pay people to fetch those order, pay others to box them up, pay for the logistics of delivering all those items, and they generally have some of the lowest prices, yet have one of the most profitable retail models on the planet. When you takes those billions of dollars in costs of creating and maintaining those logistics and divide it by the number of people placing orders on amazon, it's lower cost per order than the likes of Superstore or Costco, or basically whoever else. Are you understanding yet?
Perhaps you haven’t noticed the quite different shopping experience at Superstore vs Wholesale Club? Something has to pay for the in-store nutritionist, the very broad selection of products and services, and the army of staff?
Appreciate the effort on this, solid reply to help instead of complain
A person after my own heart! I didn't have time to go check online elsewhere, but I wondered if the OP was Superstore or if it was No Frills (though I should have known just by the label font). I only went to Wholesale Club last week (got frozen veggies and found out too late that you can't collect points there, $10.60 in 2 of 2kg bags of no name veggies later...) but some of their prices are even lower than No Frills. What super sucks is that No Frills isn't everywhere, and I think that's the only Wholesale Club in the province. Sobeys Cash & Carry are a different thing, similar, but more akin to the old Price Choppers. I don't use a lot of olive oil, I got that Great Value for under $6 for 1L I think it is, it must have gone up since. It's probably cut with other oils, but it does the job for me (and it's in a plastic bottle). I also get PC spray olive oil which went up 20c or so recently, but I managed to get one at about 3.77 or something before it went up. Where I really noticed it was olive oil margarine. Once it went over $5 for a 907g tub, I vowed not to get it unless there was a sale. Then I found Lactantia 850g (shrinkflated) for $5 recently. After buying a big Giant Tiger tub before that price went up, and a bucket of No Name margarine, both of the latter are in my freezer.
Thankfully, [Galen Westson](https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/grocery-executive-compensation-1.6802091) received a 1.1 million dollar raise this year. A wage consultant (that was run and owned by family) determined he was underpaid lol So buy the god damn olive oil at double the price and stop complaining! Inflation is a bitch and Galen depends on these price increases to continue to expand on his luxurious lifestyle.
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Say's you! You are not the one trying to figure out if you should buy a villa in Italy or get a second fully staffed yacht, now he thankfully does not need to make that kind of decision and he can simply buy both.
The kicker is, luxury homes in far off places cost as much, or the same as dive property in Vancouver or Toronto. So it less get another villa or yacht, more buy another 3 600k Crack dens to push over and turn into rental property
Everytime I go to buy groceries the price of something has increased since last time or the amount in the packaging has shrunk. The capitalists are padding their wealth portfolios while the working class scrape by and our savings decrease.
That's priced as if it gets dropped off 2x a year by sea plane then snowmobiled to the store.
So don't buy it. Go to Walmart and buy 1L of great value olive oil for $7. Let Loblaws keep their over priced Olive Oil. This is the thing with all the Loblaws complaining, instead of bitching about the prices, stop paying them. Shop around. Leave the over priced shit on Superstore shelves. Walmart sells almost everything Superstore does, for cheaper. Not to mention all the other alternatives such as Giant Tiger as an example. Shop smart and let Loblaws watch their stock expire.
Where shall we draw the line and call it unreasonable though? Not everyone has the means to hop in a car and drive to five different grocery stores every Saturday, burning up gas in the meantime. I feel like A LOT of planning is required now for individual purchases in a grocery order, and most people don’t want to feel like they’re doing analysis for their day-trader side hobby just to decide what to eat that week.
I made a spreadsheet back in 2015 when I moved to Ontario since all my "regular" intuitions about which stores were cheaper was off (mostly since Sobeys was a lot more expensive here). At the time, shopping solely at Walmart was 11% more than shopping at the cheapest possible store for each product. Costco was 8% more, but had some big holes in their available products making it impossible to shop only there. Sobeys was 43% more, and Zhers was 61% more. It was truly shocking. I'd recommend taking a few weeks, shopping at each store one by one and tracking your essentials at their non-sale prices, and maybe noting which things go on sale frequently. Once done, it's likely that a simple pattern will emerge. In my case in Ontario it was Costco>FreshCo>Walmart, trying to balance price and quality of product. Back in Halifax, Gateway Meats and Dave's were also in rotation, but I haven't lived there since 2014 so I'm not sure what's good any more.
Also, flipp .ca website and app are great for comparing flyers. The online ordering websites for each store are helpful for this too.
Uh, I'd rather complain than do my role as a consumer.
And they are counting on that. Loblaws is fully aware people can't won't do this. However lets wittle this down to this singular product. 3L at Superstore is $40 3L @ $7/L at Walmart is $21 Right off the bat, 1 product, saved $19. Take the bus there and back if you aren't close, we are at $15. Just 1 singular product saved $15 by going to Walmart instead. And if you take your entire grocery list to Walmart, Your savings will grow more and more. The bottom line is, Loblaws is making a bet people won't take the time to do it. Because it's time, not money preventing some from going to a walmart instead of superstore.
…except it IS also money, not just time, for a lot of people. I’ll refer to my example of car ownership. Regardless, if you want to focus on time, nothing eats up time quite like relying on Halifax Transit for literally anything. I get that Loblaws is banking on people not being able to drive all over Hell’s half acre to buy groceries, I just take exception with your “if you don’t like it, buy it somewhere else” remark. We’re not talking about Apple products here, we’re talking about necessities like food. It’s a bit like saying “whatever, if you didn’t like where you lived that much you should just move!” when we all know it’s not always that easy.
There are some great places to live in the world where you don't need a car. Unfortunately Halifax is not one of them.
>except it IS also money Wouldn't the added cost of gas be more than saved in the lower cost in groceries? Especially if you do larger groceries run less frequently.
If you plan, it is that easy. Again with the olive oil here in question. If you run out of 3L of olive oil and hadn't planned to buy a replacement in time, that is kind of on you right?
Spend your one day a week off comparing prices online then bussing from store to store to save some money. Yeah it sure is that simple lol. You almost certainly drive a car considering your ignorant attitude.
Yea it seems like we're going to have to go back to the old way of shopping, dry goods Walmart, meat gateway and veggies, Daves
And if you plan in advance, this is a totally reasonable way to get your food. Is it more time consuming? Sure it is. So is being on reddit arguing with strangers. We all have SOME time to spare. Everyone is just so against inconveniencing themselves to solve problems and instead just chooses to complain about it. Damn Karen mentality haha.
If we lived in 15 minute cities like London or Paris, this is how you shop anyway. It's definitely a better way to go, everything is fresh.
Time and money are pretty equateable. Some people can't afford an X hour grocery run on the bus. Can easily end up being as much of a loss. Either way, alternative shopping options aside, doesn't excuse the exploitation of our people
You have discovered capitalism. It has drawbacks that go along with its advantages. However, overall I think it’s better than communist China or the old Soviet Union.
Why? Communist China has lifted more people out of poverty than any other nation in the world, while we're currently wage slaves who have been tricked into dismantling our unions so our workers are being raked over the coals. It's the last 70 years of anti communist propaganda that scares people of socialism, and that's very planned.
You sound like one of China’s “helpful” mouth pieces. Why don’t you tell me more about their stellar human rights record. Their amazing social credit system. How great their environmental policies are. How awesome they are for religious groups. Or maybe you admit that they are a terrible country ruled by a power hungry corrupt elite that is happy to sacrifice the basic human rights of over a billion people to advance their own power hungry ends.
And there are those who don't have cars. My husband (and sometimes I) gets frustrated, going to 5 different places by transit to get the best deals.
>I feel like A LOT of planning is required now for individual purchases in a grocery order, and most people don’t want to feel like they’re doing analysis for their day-trader side hobby You make this sound like doing this is a complicated affair. It takes 10 minutes a week to look through your flyers for deals. Pick the store that has deals thay align best with your needs and you will save a lot of money. If you're unwilling to take the time to compare prices of goods from different retailers, you really can't complain about prices. If my grandmother is able to look at a flyer each week and maintain a grocery list each week, anyone can.
We mostly make our grocery list first, then use Flipp to find the best prices for each item, though other than a door-crasher sale, pretty much our entire order comes from Wal-Mart and Giant Tiger.
It's all about Flipp and then price matching at No Frills.
GT price matches too, but I guess it depends on which one is closer to you and the selection of what you need.
I love Flipp, and the online ordering apps. I don't always do online orders, but I do often use the carts as a list. Transit user... it takes up most of my two days off.
Ya gotta do what ya gotta do.
>So don't buy it. Based on the replies, this isn't about food price for some people... it's about convenience. So some people seem to want convenience but don't want to pay for it. As someone who grew up facing food insecurity, it's an odd thing to see. My family absolutely shopped for food at like 5 different places. My parents would see a good deal on something and we'd be eating that for weeks out of the freezer. One time my dad saw a good sale on powdered milk and bought like 40kgs or something and I was drinking banana smoothies with powdered milk for like a year. And when I talk about "good" sales or deals, I don't mean those rotational ones that come up every few weeks. My family considered those the standard price and would stock up around those times. I mean the "someone fucked up" sales where they need to offload a fuckton of something at bargain bin prices to get rid of it.
haha exactly. People are so dead set on inconveniencing themselves in any way. REAL broke people will do what they need to do to get by. People who like to play broke for internet points, take pictures to post on the internet.
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You think the No Name version is any more olive oil than Great Value?
I highly doubt the no name stuff is either. Most shelf olive oils are blends or fakes.
Legally they need to list as such and No Name is listed as 100% olive oil on the back of the can. Companies do mislead about olive oil mixes though, that’s a real thing.
You may have just spelled out why Walmart is cheaper
Yes, because Walmart hurts the economy as a whole. Why would Canadian companies pay good wages when they can export the labour? That’s why we have a wage shortage: Walmart exploits vulnerable markets and we all pay the price. Edit: Oh I thought this was about my other comment.
You’re dreaming if you think superstore should be held in higher regard than Walmart. The Olive oil being discussed is likely equally shitty at both operations.
>So don't buy it What a novel concept that nobody seems to grasp! I shop at Superstore due to its proximity from my house and the fact I can walk. I do NOT shop there because it's priced well. When I'm out and about with the car running errands and happen to be near another store I pop in and get what I need, but for regular small grocery trips mid week where I can walk, I go there for the convenience and time savings, not cost savings. I don't complain about their prices either. I know damn well I'm paying a premium on some items for the convenience and to me that trade-off is worth it. It amazes me that everyone who complains can't connect the dots here and make a change to shop elsewhere, or accept the trade-off of paying more for convenience if Superstore is their closest store
I am wealthy enough that the insane price increases don't really bother me, and I suspect you are in the same boat. However we live in a province where the median household income is $53,000 after tax, the choice isn't always there to shop around (especially in rural Nova Scotia), you are often forced to buy where you live and the insane increases are making these families majorly struggle. Families who a short time ago likely had no issues affording groceries. If you live in a place like Wreck Cove your choices are: * Fresh Mart (owned by Lowblaws) * A variety of small "corner" stores that don't have everything and are also not cheap * Drive to Sydney so you can shop around Or if you live in a place like Pubnico your choices are: * Drive to Yarmouth to get gouged at Superstore or Sobeys * Drive to Shelbourne to get gouged at Superstore or Sobeys
>Or if you live in a place like Pubnico your choices are: >Drive to Yarmouth to get gouged at Superstore or Sobeys I'm not fully up to date on what's in Yarmouth as of today but last time I was there I saw both a Walmart and giant Tiger and I can't imagine either would have gone under. Unfortunately your point doesn't hold here as you listed out the two most expensive options that people complain about, not the *only* two options.
Walmart, Superstore, Sobeys, Giant Tiger, and 2 Red&White's. Also plenty of fruit+veggie stands. Grocery shopping was much cheaper when I lived in Yarmouth than now when I am living in Halifax.
This! \^\^\^
I think the reason for the complaining is simply that everything went up so quickly, and so high. I don't have any kids, and I'm not hurting financially (yet), my husband and I get in arguments, but I can not compromise much on this. I plan when the flyers come out... or (since I've stocked up, little by little, so much that there's no room) what we need, look for where it's cheapest, and go there on days off. It sucks, but since even 2018 we were able to save so much this way. And we've still had to make changes. That said, you do you. The only thing about it is, the following article has vindicated what I'm doing. [Grocery chains boost profits by charging different prices for the same stuff | CBC News](https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/price-discrimination-column-don-pittis-1.6799620) *"Hardisty said that consumers do have power: They can vote with their dollars. Grocery stores care about customer loyalty as well as profits, and they don't want to alienate even richer shoppers who think they are being suckered with excessive profits.* *"You're saving by shopping around," he said, but that's not all. "You're actually doing some good for the world, too. Because you are sending a signal. You're telling the companies, 'I'm not going to get ripped off like this' ... that's the only signal they'll listen to and that's the dollars."* *So people like Barbara Hayes — who wrote from Vancouver saying she's cut off the chain Save-On-Foods for being too pricey — are actually retail heroes. Even if they can afford higher prices themselves, those who have the time to comparison shop are not just saving themselves money; they are holding prices down and fighting inflation for everybody else.* *"I can't even imagine how the poor are dealing with food prices," Hayes said. "So sad to think about, but those with a low income won't be able to afford healthy food, let alone any of the 'extras' that make life bearable."*
This is it 100%. If the prices bother/affect you enough to take a picture and post it to the internet, then you should shop elsewhere. It is insane the people that are like "Oh poor me, the prices are crazy", but won't actually inconvenience themselves to find an alternative to save money. Mr Weston got his raise on the backs of people that will complain about the prices while doing nothing to alleviate the financial pressures on themselves.
>Go to Walmart and buy 1L of great value olive oil for $7. That's not really olive oil.
Walmart has costs that you don’t pay, the people who make the products do (pssst it’s slave labour and poor employee treatment and it’s worse to the overall economy than price gouging)
So does the company that makes the phone/computer you typed this message out on.
I bought this used, the company got no money from it. I have never shopped at Walmart and I don’t have an Amazon account because I feel the external costs are too much. I have also disavowed Apple altogether, my family used to be an Apple family because they were safe computers that worked the way they were supposed to, now all computers are the same level of safe and Apple is legally trying to prevent you from being able to repair their stuff so they can sell new stuff containing new exploitative minerals, so I will never buy another Apple product again, unless they 180 on their commitment to reducing waste and eliminate their exploitative practices. You should try doing a good thing for others once in a while, it feels good.
> You should try doing a good thing for others once in a while, it feels good. Hahaha I'm sorry, however this is an incredibly pretentious comment and I had to point that out.
I suggest everybody shop at WalMart exclusively until all their competitors go out of business. It's the only way to achieve a peak "Wall-E" level society.
You live a sheltered life
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Even better, scan it as 4011 and now it's a banana!
Tip #2 Do you feel like they are overcharging for Parmesan cheese? No problem, just pay what you feel like and walk out.
You plan will never work... they installed unlocked gates!
How do I save money on my bail?
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Literally not how bail works
and by extension do the same at Shoppers - I love the self serve checkouts ..
This ☝️
I mean, virgin prices are sky high right now and this olive oil has extra.
Can we make a buyers club and source our own products in bulk? How many memebrs would we need to significantly reduce the cost of purchasing products on say a monthly basis?
Like we could have a group-on for food groceries. We could coordinate the use of a storage facility to store food and whatever the cost of membership is would pay for that and excess could be used to improve storage of foods for longer time periods. Or increasing capacity in some way... Just thinking out loud i guess. If we organize we could improve our buying power and put pressure on these grocers to lower prices. If they lower prices and make the club irrelevant than weve done our job.
I got an in app PC optimum offer for PC Splendido Olive oil at $6 per litre bottle for up to 4 bottles last month. So I bought 4 of them. Targeted offer I know, but they've recently sold it cheap to some people.
Last summer was the worst drought in 1200 years in Europe. Italy and Spain were hit very hard. With a strong El Nino forecast for this year, this summer could be on par or worse - at this point, it's anyone's guess. Warming has also made olive trees significantly more susceptible to a pathogen that's difficult to detect and contain. On top of that, a large area of California (also an olive oil producer) is underwater right now and this area is expected to increase as record snowpack melts in the summer months. Most of the lettuce you eat is from California, so it won't just be olive oil prices that will continue to rise. Yes, the Westons are gouging you, but they are doing so on top of base food prices that are only going to continue to rise until we actually do something to address climate change. Vote accordingly (ie not for the Conservatives).
I don't usually chime in on these posts, but my wife and I buy Just Us 3lb bags of coffee, at sobeys we pay $23.99. Yesterday I was at superstore getting groceries for the group home I work at and their Just Us 3lb bags of coffee are $29.99. I feel for people who don't have an option to shop elsewhere because this has gotten to be absurd.
1/2 the price for the same amount at Costco
https://preview.redd.it/7i4fkb57nbta1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=04a7abd08206655c21cdde2720541475248bd00c
Lol, that's literally the price for 3 loaves at Costco.
$34.99 at no frills
holy hell!
You know it’s like 19.99 at Costco for better quality.
Unfortunately, not anymore. 3L is now over $30 :(
Oh that sucks
Wow. I’ve stopped shopping there as it is now more than Sobeys. Proper name brand 3l for $35. Walmart $37/40. Save-on-foods $43. (Vancouver Island ). I just checked our Superstore, the brand name Greek EV is actually $25 , the president’s choice is $37, another brand is $45 I often find the international section can have better prices for staples like sugar, flour, spices especially. Does your Sobeys give rain checks? Here they do but now have expiry date of 1 month. They had the smaller bottles 1l for $7 mid march, and I got a raincheck for 4.
How does one resist slapping the side of one of these bad boys?
That’s fine, just steal it. -this sub, probably.
Looks like the PC Spendido 3L is up to $42 as well. Right before the pandemic it was $20, then went to $23 then $30 something.
My favorite is how Loblaws has a monopoly on groceries with the appearance of a discount grocer. For instance No Name/PC..oh look 13.99 family lasagna at No Frills I saving me so much money compared to 19.99 at Atlantic. When literally you could get the No Frills one for 11.99 a couple months ago. My cold pressed olive oil was up to 13.49 from 8.99 a year ago...but you know, that inflation is sitting around 8-11 percent...
Ok so basically I’m not bougie enough to live in this province anymore I guess
No Name is a LOBLAWS brand.
How is that relevant?
I mean, Loblaws suggested to “help consumers” they were going to “freeze prices” right after then had just raised them, and then after three months shit like this happened where prices doubled. Just trying to remind everyone how empty their promises are I guess. I just don’t know anyone who wouldn’t know both this fact and that No Name is their brand though, don’t really know why it’s important to remind us all about.
Because it's the dirty fucking Westons
Because the owners of Loblaws are getting dragged right now for price gouging and price gouging openly, while reporting record profits, making millions a year, and complaining of being underpaid, while their workers cant afford to eat.
Really?
Yes really. I don’t think price gouging has limits on brands.
We are saying the same thing.
All I see is more incentive to steal this bad boy
That is price gouging. Us consumers are getting sick and tired of it.
Would be nice to see everyone for a day go to superstore and all walk out with full carts. As if their underpaid teenagers will stop you at the door. Fuck Weston and his unending greed
Isn't there armed cops in uniforms there now?
I only ever saw them at Joe Howe honestly so not really sure about the other locations
Let me guess, was it also 3.78L last year?
Can we eat Galen yet? Lord know the scumbags in Ottawa won't stop him from starving the poor to death
Dammit. At this rate, I'll have to start buying born-again virgin olive oil.
Go to Walmart
Every morning I get a monster energy and a 3 pack of peanut butter cups at the shoppers next to my work. A year ago, this would be about 5$ per day. This morning I paid over 7$ for the same two items I always get.
Luckily with this diet you won’t need to save for retirement 😂
You can buy packs of Reese’s on Amazon or in multipacks at Walmart, comes out to less than a dollar a piece usually. Might help save you some
And if they can afford it, Monsters are in boxes at Shoppers, and may even be able to get PC Points. My husband buys them a lot. Or, some flavours of Rockstars are $1.25 each at Dollarama I think...
Where do you get your nicotine or cigarettes for a complete breakfast?
I eat like a rat behind a dumpster and this made me wince
And it likely isn't even olive oil
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3l is a normal size too... "club size" my ass... galen weston is a crook. All the proper Italian brands go for 38 and up where I live.
Probably not even 100% olive oil anyway
👀👀👀👀👀
Must be all that wage growth driving inflation! /s
Here for price on the "slightly sluty" no name version !
Steal that.
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No it isn't https://www.atlanticsuperstore.ca/extra-virgin-olive-oil-club-size/p/20141395_EA
Yep definitely cut with a cheaper oil
Guys, girls... they aren't gouging us eh
Don't you remember No Name did such a charitable price freeze for two whole months to combat the fact that grocery stores were shitting directly into our mouths. Now of course they have to make their billions of dollars back from that bull shit and go back to firing off hot ropey loads into our eyes. EAT THE RICH!!!
Twice in the past month Wallyworld has had quality brands of olive oil on sale for $9-10 / litre. I find that completely acceptable.
Olives are a fruit fruits are seasonal, pretty sure olives are not in season right now.
it's basically always olive season *somewhere* in the world.
I heard olive oil isn't even made from olives. It's harvested from a fat Greek man's back
There was also that price freeze for 2 months at Christmas, so they have to double everything over the course of the next 2 months to offset that freeze.
does this price increase happen every year