Loblaws boycott picks up steam as resentment grows online

Well, born on the Reddit thread, Loblaws is out of control. A movement to boycott its stores for the month of May is picking up steam, it seems. At least the group is asking for a reduction in prices of 15% and removal of member only pricing. This begs the question, where has Loblaws gone wrong overall? And what can they do to make things right with clearly frustrated customers? Let’s bring in an expert from our Let’s turn to David Soberman, professor of marketing at the Rodman School Management at the University of Toronto. Professor, we appreciate this. Welcome to the program. Thank you very much and good morning. So let’s get into this. Why has law laws become the lightning rod for so much anger across this country when it comes to grocery prices and everything else? Well, I think there are a lot of Canadians that are very upset about the way that grocery prices have increased. There’s issues of affordability, there’s issues of inflation and along with that, blah Blahs is of course the biggest chain in Canada. So they’ve become the lightning rod for a lot of this frustration. You know, this is highlighted. I mean, the backdrop to this. Of course, everyone has been dealing with high prices, but a recent poll that just came out is talking about almost 1/3 of Canadians are dipping into personal savings just to make ends meet with putting food on the table. So this highlights that. But you look at the the move to boycott its stores and there’s also a movement. You know, I don’t know how much it’s growing or not, but there’s certainly posters going up, at least in the city of Toronto, and a song, you know, kind of promoting this, if you will, of people stealing from Loblaws. How do you, what do you make of all of this and how did it come to this? Well, I think that a boycott in itself is completely legal. And if people are upset with a retailer, they have every right to shop somewhere else. Of course, I think it’s a bit misdirected because there are basically three big supermarket chains and if you want to throw in Costco and Walmart, there are five. And that makes up, you know, more than 60% of the Canadian market for for food. And I think they’re all in some sense responsible for the increase in prices. Now they’re competing with each other. But the problem we have in the Canadian marketplace is there’s not enough competition. That being said, I feel quite differently about the steal from Loblaws campaign. I know it’s sort of a grass roots thing, but I think trying to convince other people to commit a crime is not a good thing. And when you’re sort of trying to convince people to act in a lawless way, that’s actually a crime itself too. So I hope that that doesn’t get very far or the police are able to stop it because I think that’s quite different than simply not wanting to shop at a chain. Well that’s just dead, not just criminal behavior, but ultimately shoplifting raises the prices for everyone. So in effect, it’s counter intuitive. But when it comes to a marketing perspective, you know, Loblaws is not the only one because they own many different types of stores. I mean a lot of people may not know they owe, you know, TNT grocery, they owe Zaire’s Shoppers Drug Mart. I mean it’s it’s a massive, massive operation. So people are talking about boycotting, they’re talking about across, across the, across the country in so many different respects. But when it comes to the PR strategy so far, how has Loblaw reacted and what can it do and others really, what can it do to turn things around to sort of regain the trust of consumer, to sort of make them feel, look, you know, come shop here? Well, it’s an interesting question. I think when you talk about regaining the trust, that also suggests that they’ve in fact lost the trust. And what they’ve done is they’ve lost the trust of the people that are wanting to promote the boycott. And there’s still a lot of people that are shopping at Loblaws, and Loblaws is doing quite fine. So I think 1 needs to keep this in perspective. In today’s day and age, with social media and with a campaign at the grassroots level, you can create a lot more noise. That is perhaps, let’s put it that seems like it’s a bigger movement than it is. I mean, Loblaws has to keep doing the same things that the other chains that are doing, which is trying to promote the fact that it is making efforts to keep prices reasonable and to provide deals for Canadians on a regular basis. Now a lot of us will not really take that seriously until we see the the prices for our grocery bills dropping or at least staying stable. But I still think that you need to sort of make efforts in a from a public relations point of view that you are competing fiercely with your competitors. We have just a second. So I’m going to get leave this to a one word answer. But do you think in the month of May given all this attention in some respects that you people can expect a deal because Loblaws might respond at least with it was some discounts. Well, I think if people hunt around, they will get deals and maybe not from Loblaws but maybe from the competitors as well. Yeah, I should and I mean this with respect. I should never ask or tell professor to keep it to one word, one word answer none the less. Well done. I appreciate this amazing insight and we always appreciate your time Sir. Thank you so much. David Silverman, professor of marketing at the Robin School Management at the University of Toronto, Thank you again. Thank you.