This is what they claim…

Canadian grocery CEOs told a parliamentary committee on March 8, 2023 that it’s not their fault that grocery prices are high.

These are the headlines defending the high prices in their grocery chains:

• It is simply not true’: Grocery CEOs push back at price-gouging allegations
• Grocery CEOs defend ‘reasonable profitability’ in grilling over soaring food costs
• Loblaw, other grocery CEOs grilled by MPs on high food prices and profits
• Grocery CEOs deny accusations that food price inflation is driven by profit-mongering

Or is it?

“We feel and understand that 95 per cent of Canadians are concerned about food prices. But grocery chain profits are not the reason for food inflation,” Galen Weston of Loblaws said during the hearing.

While their explanations of supply-chain issues being responsible for rising food prices may be true in general, we can still hold them responsible for “unfair prices” on some products in their own stores – something they call multi-value pricing.

When you buy multiples of a particular item being promoted, you can save money. This is often called “twofer” prices. The signage will say you pay $X – if you buy more than one. But the small print says that if you only buy only one, you will pay a higher price. The difference in pricing can be significant – often as much as a third more.

These pricing practices discriminate against individuals who can only afford to buy a single item that day. They do not get the “sale” or “special” price because they are poorer or more disadvantaged than the other shoppers in the store on that particular day.

This equates to grocery retailers making a larger profit from the poor – than from the rich – on any given day.

This doesn’t seem FAIR to me. Do you think it’s fair?

Share your ideas on how we can make the retailers accountable for their pricing strategies and STOP this discrimination against the most needy shoppers.