this post was submitted on 02 May 2024
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Owner of Loblaws, No Frills, Real Canadian Superstore and Shoppers Drug Mart recorded net earnings of $459-million or $1.47 per share in first quarter

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[–] [email protected] 32 points 4 months ago

Fuck these exploiting fucks... food prices hit poor Canadians the hardest - you have to be a real asshole to accelerate inflation and the transfer of wealth to the rich and celebrate it on may day.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 4 months ago (1 children)

More bald faced lies and doublespeak from chief pig, Per Bank.

They’ve choked out competition so people have little or no choice but to use stores, they have an effective monopoly on their market so face little price competition. They are gouging as hard as they dare, offering “bargains” on their inferior, high-margin fakes and knockoffs. Every item they steal as a knockoff to generously offer us suckers as “value” takes money away from food suppliers, who then have less leverage to negotiate. Per Bank, Loblaws, Safeway, Save-On, all the major grocers play the same piggy game, gleefully gouging both ends of the market and hoarding the loot for there C suite bonuses and institutional shareholders… while throw handfuls of nickels to the retail shareholders to keep them voting the right way and parroting the doublespeak.

It’s a polite oligarchy. Per Bank is a thug in a yellow cardigan, holding a knife to your throat and emptying your pockets while he smiles and tells you how invested he is in bringing you more value.

Rampant and criminal exploitation of the working class that literally threatens their ability to feed their children, while government watches and does nothing - this is a recipe for violence.

I hope Per is setting some bonus money aside for security - history is full of pigs just like him who come to an end with their head on a stick.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

Every item they steal as a knockoff to generously offer us suckers as “value” takes money away from food suppliers, who then have less leverage to negotiate.

Which knockoffs are you talking about? (I'm not challenging you, I'm genuinely interested.)

I've been a regular No Name at No Frills shopper (and store brand shopper in general) for a long time, especially for staples like flour, because I hate how much the name brands charge for basicly the same thing. I used to get my produce at a local shop but it's gone now :(

[–] [email protected] 14 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Shop at your local co-op.

If you don't have one, make one.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

I switched to the locally owned Polish grocery store and the international grocery store. Way more interesting food and better deals. Best idea ever.

I do have to go into the local Loblaws because my pharmacy is in there (it's steps away from my home and switching pharmacy is so difficult when you're on controlled substances, and at least the pharmacy is independently owned), and saw some guy loading up his backpack with stuff the other day and laughed.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Loblaws could give $300 to every single person in Canada. Every infant, every centenarian, every human being in this country could get $300, either in cash or to put towards groceries.

And Loblaws would still have a profit of over a billion dollars for the past year.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago (2 children)

I'm not sure that math works? They earned $460M in profit for Q1, so that's about $1.84B in profit over a year. Divide that by 39 million people in Canada and you have $47 per person, which is nowhere near $300 per person plus $1B.

Still obscene profit margins, but let's do the math correctly.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

If you think about it the other way around, it's pretty fucking scary though. Loblaws is extracting the equivalent of $47 in raw profits from every man, woman, and child in the entire country.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Hmm, hard to quantify since I’m not sure how much of the population does a significant portion of grocery and other shopping at Loblaws, but in that context it doesn’t seem so bad. If we taxed those profits completely that only puts an extra $50 in everybody's pocket each year, which doesn’t seem like it’d really have a large financial impact on many households.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I don't know what Loblaw's market share is. Let's say it's 30%. That makes it MUCH worse... Neatly $150 for every man woman and child that shops at Loblaws, JUST THIS YEAR.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Maybe $300/month, or $3600/year for groceries. Maybe another $200/year each for prescriptions, alcohol, and general housewares to cover the non-grocery items. $150 profit on $4200 of revenue would be about 4% margin. Doesn’t seem that high to me but I also don’t really know how that compares to other businesses in the same market.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

FYI, almost every single item you find in a retail store is marked up 50% or more, with the only exceptions being commodities like gas and diesel, or electronics, where the manufacturers make the majority of the profits.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

That $460M is net earnings available to common stockholders. Their gross profit for FY2023 was over $19bn. https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/loblaw-reports-2023-fourth-quarter-results-and-fiscal-year-ended-december-30-2023-results-801324857.html

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago

My offline friend talked to me the other day about the boycott this month. So that's a good sign, at least regarding public perception.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Is this from Bob Loblaw's law blog?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Did you see Bob Loblaw lob a law bomb on bob loblaws law blog?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

Here is an alternative Piped link(s):

https://piped.video/4GQuHsKUQk8

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

As dividends go, that's not great.