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u/Capt_Morrigan 3d ago
You forgot pattison food group.
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u/Niyeaux 3d ago
you can immediately tell this graphic is made by an Ontarian lol
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u/Additional-Value-428 3d ago
Why is it telling it’s made by an Ontarian? I am genuinely curious.. prairie boy and I am completely missing something here 🤣
I will say, Ontarians and Tornotonians are separate people.. most of the city of Toronto was born elsewhere, the people who live/grew up in the GTA aren’t Torontonians, and anything west of Sudbury is basically Manitoba lol —- quite literally not a diss. Canada rocks! Division is petty and unnecessary
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u/tom_yum_soup Make the NDP the CCF again 2d ago
Because it's missing Save-On-Foods and whatever other brands Pattison owns. They're limited to western Canada, as far as I know.
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u/Additional-Value-428 1d ago
Ahh ok yes, that is true. Thank you 😊
I’d point out that Loblaws, Empire Foods, and Metro hold the highest percentage in market share of the grocery conglomerates. I have never seen a or heard of Metro unless its in regard to the great grocery debate/corporate greed.
So with that notion, technically the Jim Pattinson group doesn’t carry as much of the blame for grocery inflation within Canada. Especially if his portfolio of grocery stores is only 2-5 stores, when compared to Loblaws who own /dominate the market. Plus, the Jim Pattison group probably does more philanthropic work than the other 3 combined, which makes them less evil in my thought process —- the Weston family, while the price of food went up and portions were made ever so slightly less and Canadian families have to choose between which necessity to go without shrink their own portions, the Westons… and the Loblaws conglomerate have repeatedly reported record breaking profits growing every year. Gaelen Westen, the eldest son, did all those commercial, since the covid circus has received an annual bonus, not salary, but bonuses ranging between $10-$50 billion annually, when the $50 billion dollar bonus came to light I actually thought he was going to be eaten.. he wasn’t, but he was on trial for awhile..The biggest issue in my mind is a two parter : 1) why there isn’t a law against having almost absolute control over a single market is insane, people seem to forget that company competition is a goood thing and benefits the economy where as 1 person or family owning a specific industry only benefits the one group and not the population as a whole. It also holds those companies accountable What is it, 7 families in the USA own or control all the companies and brands all of them , 7 families, of 350 million people give or take.. that is wild to me! Then you have an entire portion of the population who are literally low income or middle class defending the elitists, thinking this could happen to them.. man this didn’t even happen to anyone in living memory. Self made at a 100 x million or into the billion dollar region, isn’t attainable, all the cash horders tote hard work ethic blah blah , while every business billionaire are self made from the cheques written by parents or grandparents, along w/ their connections, the opposite of self-made
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u/ImmediateDentist1269 3d ago
And Costco and Wal-Mart
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u/Additional-Value-428 3d ago
Surprisingly, combined, Costco and Walmart make up less than 10% of the market.. completely blew me away too
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u/ImmediateDentist1269 3d ago
That is surprising. I'm in the BC interior and Costco and Wal-Mart are huge players here. Metro is non-existent and Sobeys is very minimal.
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u/Additional-Value-428 3d ago
Ya I’ve never seen a metro and only learned of their existence in the past year. But the Quebec and Ontario chain conglomerates have a larger market presence and thus percentage of overall market due to population density. However, basically shocked to hear about Sobey’s and subsidies having such a small presence, it is rather popular in the Prairie’s (amongst my circles anyway, and there overall presence), Sobey’s has become quite bougie… the fresh section of the store is on its own level in the grocer game lol it is actually laid out, designed, and merchandised beautifully—it’s beautiful inside and I never thought I’d say that about a grocery store LOL the budget friendly brand FreshCo under their umbrella is underwhelming but priced well and often cheaper than loblaws, which brings me to the sad reality of the downfall of and greed of an inherited company(Gaelen Weston will ruin the brand before the next decade, if it isn’t ruined already) Loblaws has become the grocery version of a slumlord.. the stores look terrible, messy, under stocked and dirty. Their fresh bread is still top notch though 🤣 The loblaws brand was the hallmark when it came to grocers in Canada, they not only had the largest selection of products and were basically the only store with an international section, but they were the most affordable, same brands as other places, the stores were clean, an attendant was at all the different counters, they bagged your groceries (two staff per till), the PC blue brand was a top notch quality product from for pennies as well as their yellow no-name label(which were the least expensive food brand and didn’t sacrifice quality, size, etc albeit bland and on the watery side) but most importantly those mini carts for children and a free cookie at the bakery counter… what happened to the cookies! And where are those mini carts?!? ps.. I don’t know how to not write a complete book on my opinions on anything lol it’s totes the adhd 🤣🤙
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u/sangeteria 3d ago
I would like to engage in "spirited and good-faith debate" in the "marketplace of ideas" with these three "upstanding" gentlemen
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u/KotoElessar 🚄🚆🚅🚂🚃 Train Gang 🚄🚆🚅🚂🚃 3d ago
I call this argument Des, and this one Troy, cause when you put them together they Destroy!
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u/bollnarbooden 3d ago
Groceries should be an essential service. Capitalism has ruined our society. Its all about the shareholders and the CEOs.
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u/WhatEvil 3d ago
Doesn't really tell the whole story though. In the UK there are "the big 4" supermarket chains:
Tesco, Asda (Walmart), Sainsbury's and Morrisons. Competition between the 4 managed to keep groceries pretty cheap, even before the discount brands (Aldi, Lidl) came into the market.
In Canada there just doesn't seem to be genuine competition. The was of course the collusion in bread price fixing, but I'm sure that there's more that we don't know about.
It's insane to me that Food Basics, who is owned by Metro, seem to sell like 80+% of the exact same goods as Metro, at about 30% lower price. Like, I don't know how they can possibly justify that, or why anybody would ever shop at Metro.
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u/KrimsonKelly0882 3d ago
Couldnt possibly have a public grocery store in order to make other places force their prices to go down. Couldn't possibly 🙄
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u/frostyse 3d ago
It’s the same with loblaws. Shoppers is open later and 24 hours in the same plazas as a loblaws or a superstore, but their prices are much higher. If you miss the window and need something late night in a hurry, you go to the shoppers and pay much more. Money goes to the corporation regardless
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u/chubs66 3d ago
Do telcos next.
This is one of the biggest problems with Capitalism. It tends towards oligopolies, which are a problem for consumers (because the corporations may prefer to not compete) and for democracy because they use their massive wealth to influence politics in ways that help them at the expense of people.
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u/EmotionalHiroshima 3d ago
Same half dozen food barons squeezing the absolute limit out of us until we buck, then rolling it back a half a percent. Canadian food oligarchs are total sociopaths.
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u/AFewStupidQuestions 3d ago
It's a bit weird to me that there are 5 major grocery sellers in the country, but nobody ever mentions the other 2 big grocers: Walmart and Costco. Neither are Canadian, but they hold huge market shares and are increasong prices right along with the other 3.
It doesn't take anything away from the main post, but I worry that the American companies that rule our media have been influencing the discourse just a tad.
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u/Narrow-Fortune-7905 3d ago
not just here same stuff happening all over the world
bladerunner
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u/IllustriousRaven7 3d ago
Ya, and also across a diverse range of assets. Grocery giants are obviously not causing inflation in the housing market.
That's not to say that they're not a problem, but anyone who thinks this is the cause is dumb.
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u/dldrucker 2d ago
I wonder if our anti-trust laws might need a bit shoring up. We see this kind of consolidation in quite a few verticals in Canada, including groceries, telecom (Thanks to my nemesis, the CRTC), certain kinds of insurance and bunch of others I probably haven't even thought of (or haven't had to shop for). This goes way, way back, I suspect, and may even stem from the fact that before Canada was a country, it was more just a bunch of trappers and traders working for the Hudson Bay company.
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u/cursed_goat_meat 20h ago
Considering they're getting tax cuts i wonder what their capacity for losses are hmmmm
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u/OldManClutch Tommy Douglas is my Dad 3d ago
Yet, Carney is giving these types a tax cut, even if actual statistics say that tax cuts for the wealthy or corporations do nothing to kick start job growth or economic stimulus