this post was submitted on 03 May 2024
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"Their frustration is understandable, but this kind of expectation betrays a misunderstanding of what's actually driving food prices higher in this country."

all 45 comments
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[–] kat_angstrom@lemmy.world 101 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Before the bread price fixing scandal broke, if anyone had asked Galen if they were manipulating the price of bread, he would have shown this same level of deflection and never admitted in a million years what they were doing. If we asked now if there were any other price fixing scandals waiting to be discovered, they'd deny and deflect regardless of the truth.

Now he just wants us to trust him, and take him at his word? This billionaire has given everyone zero reasons to trust him, and many reasons to do the opposite.

[–] ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 48 points 6 months ago (3 children)

It's also psychotic when you think about it .... his family is already worth $8 billion ... but they all have a perpetual need to make even more profits regardless if it means starving people have to pay more for the food they sell.

If I had $1,000 and a box of food and someone with little money came up to me wanting to buy some of my food for $1 and I instead told them it was $2 just because I could .... everyone would look at me like a stingy heartless prick.

A billionaire does it with millions of people every day and it's just called business.

My example is an imaginary hypothetical .... Loblaws and the Weston family do it in real life ... and somehow that is more acceptable than some imaginary story I could come up with.

[–] kat_angstrom@lemmy.world 23 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Absolutely hitting the nail on the head. This is something that isn't being properly discussed anywhere in society; how many billions does a billionaire need before a billionaire has enough billions?

If enough is never enough, then that's not sustainable, it's not healthy for our civilization, and they're absolutely suffering from a form of mental illness that requires social intervention. If a trillion is the number before they'll actually be satisfied; then they need to adjust their goals.

Dare I say it: as long as there are camps full of homeless, as long as people working 60+ hours a week and can't afford both food and a place to live, as long as 50% of the population is one missed paycheck from going broke- there should be no billionaires.

Our economy is dysfunctional and serving the interests of the rich above everyone else. We need an adjustment before the tipping point tips us from untenable into chaos, because these current trends are leading us all into ruin.

[–] ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 24 points 6 months ago (1 children)

β€œPoverty exists not because we cannot feed the poor, but because we cannot satisfy the rich.”

  • an anonymous quote from the internet
[–] girlfreddy@lemmy.ca 15 points 6 months ago (1 children)
[–] ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 4 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

beautiful .... great organization and advocacy group to tag too

https://www.badassteacher.org/

We should be celebrating and promoting a world where we encourage those at the bottom rather than giving away our wealth to those who need it the least.

[–] SoylentBlake@lemm.ee 18 points 6 months ago

That's why it's called 'obscenely wealthy'. We just got to remind everyone that it is, in fact, obscene.

[–] BCsven@lemmy.ca 15 points 6 months ago (1 children)

And to rub it it poors faces they toss out half the food because at the high prices it did not get sold in time

[–] Poutinetown@lemmy.ca 11 points 6 months ago (1 children)

They should get fined for any food thrown away.

[–] FlyingSpaceCow@lemmy.ca 2 points 6 months ago

I'm visiting France right now and found out that they passed a law forcing grocers to discount or give away expiring or old food. Was great to see

[–] lautan@lemmy.ca 12 points 6 months ago

100% with you.

[–] terribletortoise@lemmy.world 67 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I'd like to hear him deliver a detailed analysis of how sky rocketing food prices has no bearing on Loblaws record setting corporate profits.

[–] something_random_tho@lemmy.world 12 points 6 months ago (1 children)
[–] AmosBurton_ThatGuy@lemmy.ca 1 points 6 months ago

Tbh if he had to try anywhere near that hard to deflect, that would be an improvement in and of itself. As it is, the 2 major parties aren't gonna do shit about them even if they straight up said they're trying to maximise profits at the expense of the common Canadian.

Liberals and Cons are just 2 sides of the same shitty coin. Unfortunately a ton of Canadian's think voting for the NDP is "socialism" and it doesn't help that Singh doesn't seem to be particularly popular.

The unfortunate state of Canada really fucking sucks.

[–] streetfestival@lemmy.ca 46 points 6 months ago

What an entitled, lying PoS. We've seen his company's quarterly results. We're not all as stupid as he thinks we are

[–] rab@lemmy.ca 44 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Um they literally price fixed bread for how many years

[–] GeekFTW@lemmy.zip 33 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

20+ last I checked.

Edit: 14 officially.

Edit 2: Fuck yourself, Galen.

[–] rab@lemmy.ca 25 points 6 months ago

And lied about it

[–] TSG_Asmodeus@lemmy.world 33 points 6 months ago (1 children)

β€œTheir frustration is understandable, but this kind of expectation betrays a misunderstanding of what's actually driving food prices higher in this country.”

Food prices first soared above headline inflation starting in December 2021, rising as much as 11.4 per cent annually, according to Statistics Canada. February marked the first time since then that the price of food purchased from grocery stores (2.4 per cent increase year-over-year) fell below headline inflation (2.8 per cent.)

LOBLAW 2024 FIRST QUARTER HIGHLIGHTS Revenue was $13,581 million, an increase of $586 million, or 4.5%. Retail segment sales were $13,290 million, an increase of $555 million, or 4.4%.

Absolutely fuck this waste of air.

[–] stealth_cookies@lemmy.ca 31 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Loblaws literally just announced their quarterly results which included a 9.8% increase in profit year over year. Unless they are claiming that the incrsased profit comes from goods that aren't food then Weston is lying through his teeth.

Unfortunately for consumers the company cares about their shareholders first and don't give a shit about those who can't afford to eat.

[–] ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 9 points 6 months ago

In about a hundred years ... shareholders will weigh the dead bodies of consumers to see how much more profit they can render from a lifeless corpse.

[–] Son_of_dad@lemmy.world 21 points 6 months ago

His family is worth 8.7 billion dollars, but yeah, he's not gouging us? sure buddy.

[–] investorsexchange@lemmy.ca 19 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Luckily, this is still a free country and we don’t need a reason for shopping elsewhere.

When Pierre Poilievre is elected with his Loblaws lobbyist employee, he might force us to shop at Loblaws. For freedom.

[–] Son_of_dad@lemmy.world 4 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I'm convinced the cons don't actually want to win. Pierre Poilievre is gotta be the snobbiest, most arrogant, most unlikable, wet sandwich of a man I've ever seen. Every election they find one worse than the last to run against JT. I can't even remember that last couple, since they toss em off a cliff once they lose

[–] 9488fcea02a9@sh.itjust.works 7 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Are you not aware of how insanely popular PP is right now? I agree he is a piece of shit, but he is polling very high

He is almost certainly going to be the next PM at this rate, which is a scary thought....

[–] Son_of_dad@lemmy.world 1 points 6 months ago

Where the hell is the ndp anyways? I feel like they're hiding in a corner somewhere

[–] avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 15 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Weston also says that while shareholders "may be troubled by these often-repeated stories," the grocery retailer "has and will continue to act with integrity."

I can see his heart is in the right place.

[–] some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 14 points 6 months ago

Also not responsible for huge profits, I guess?

[–] ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 13 points 6 months ago (2 children)

If they aren't the problem ... then the boycott shouldn't be a problem for them then.

If you've done nothing wrong, then nothing bad should happen to you.

[–] LeFantome@programming.dev 11 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (2 children)

I think they have done something wrong but what is going on with this logic?

This is like saying that you are going to drown somebody to see if they are a witch, burning them if they survive, and telling them β€œif you’ve done nothing wrong, then nothing bad should happen to you”. If they have done nothing wrong, you are still going to murder them. Seems bad.

How is starving their business and trashing their reputation not β€œbad” for Loblaws regardless of how deserving they are? Again, I think they probably deserve it but the confusion of ideas in this comment makes my head spin.

[–] ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 3 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

If anything on Weston's part ... it's an admission that they do have something to do with all this. If their profits are so good, a boycott wouldn't be so threatening to them. But the possibility of a boycott has them scared so they have to make a statement about it all.

And a boycott to his business wouldn't exactly hurt his wealth or endanger his life any way. A major well organized boycott could probably severely affect his businesses to the point of shutting some of them down ... but I don't see that happening. More than likely, the boycott will be a half-hearted attempt by Canadians and it will just mean a small decrease in the company's profits.

In the end the boycott will just mean his family wealth will be $8,399,000,000 instead of $8,400,000,000

I don't think it will cause his family to lose their ability to eat .... unlike many Canadians across the country who can't afford to buy their own food.

[–] Kichae@lemmy.ca 8 points 6 months ago (1 children)

"If you've done nothing wrong, then the angry mob I've riled up by telling them you're a child murderer won't hurt you."

This isn't a defense of Loblaws. Your thinking is just wildly wrong, and inherently blames victims.

[–] eskimofry@lemmy.world 1 points 6 months ago

Your example is not at all comparable to a corporation facing music over profiteering.

The angry mob in your example doesn't see proof and is not the same as a shopper who is able to experience the price-gouging right in front of their eyes.

[–] Icalasari@fedia.io 13 points 6 months ago

As a retail employee at loblaws, don't believe any of us who say it's not a problem and the profits aren't obscene. They offer stock options as a perk - So those doing it as a bored get out of the house option are essentially bought

[–] sbv@sh.itjust.works 11 points 6 months ago

I guess I'll just boycott harder then.

[–] xc2215x@lemmy.world 9 points 6 months ago

I don't believe that honestly.

[–] applepie@kbin.social 7 points 6 months ago

Rope is the solution for this typa parasite.

[–] BonesOfTheMoon@lemmy.world 3 points 6 months ago

Galen can kiss every inch of my beautiful behind. Fuck him and his castle.

[–] Leeny@lemmy.ca 3 points 6 months ago (1 children)
[–] girlfreddy@lemmy.ca 1 points 6 months ago

Cause thousands of his PC BBQs are heating up fast.