Grocers face uphill battle to regain customers’ trust, experts say
Galen Weston may not be the president of grocery giant Loblaw anymore, but you wouldn’t know that based on how often his name and face appear in connection with the company: in memes, on social media, and now emblazoned across the top of a new Reddit forum dedicated to high food prices in Canada.
Emily Johnson, a mental health and addictions worker in Milton, Ont., created the page r/loblawsisoutofcontrol in November as a space to vent and make jokes. But when Loblaw made headlines in January for reducing its discounts on food nearing its sell-by date — a decision the company later walked back — the page saw thousands of sign-ups overnight. It now has almost 21,000 members.
“I think that there had been a lot of frustration and resentment that had been building already. And this was kind of the straw that broke the camel’s back,” said Johnson.
The page is a testament to Canadians’ growing frustration with grocers, whose profits climbed as food inflation wreaked havoc on families across the country, peaking at 11.4 per cent before easing over the past year.
Against that backdrop, Canadians are increasingly turning a critical eye to the handful of companies that sell the vast majority of groceries, and experts say the grocers face an uphill battle to regain consumers’ trust.
The grocers, for their part, say they’ve been battling tens of thousands of price increase requests from suppliers and are doing their best to mitigate the rising tide of inflation.
Only Costco appears to escape the keen eye of strapped shoppers, tying with outdoor retailer MEC as the most trusted brand in Canada on the University of Victoria’s 2023 Gustavson Brand Trust Index.
Loblaw, meanwhile, ranked 304th on the list of more than 400 brands,
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