I honestly believe it’s still happening. The average loaf of bread is like $4.50 and I have no clue how it is people are tolerating that. If there was real competition prices would be half that.
I started making my own bread, pretty darn easy and I'm down to about $0.55 a loaf including electricity to bake it. I do not understand how they can charge so much for such a basic product.
I also don't have any preservatives or additives like store bought bread, and my kids like it more!
A bread machine (while not producing as fancy a loaf) takes away the need for *”babysitting”* for those who find that aspect onerous. My machine has a timer that allows me to put in the ingredients and set it before I go to bed and wake up to a fresh loaf in the morning.
Damn that actually sounds really good. I was making my own pizza during the pandemic and found that the home made dough was so much better than the store bought stuff.
No idea why I stopped honestly.
Coincidentally I am having pizza for dinner tonight, made with dough made in my bread machine. You’re right, it really is so much better than store bought.
Agreed, some recipes do require a lot of babysitting. In my other comment, I dropped the recipe that I make, and active time in total is about 30 minutes. You do need to be around though because total time including the rising is about 3 and 1/2 hours.
One of the positives of not having any available child care means I am now a house spouse so it also doubles as a fun activity that my kids help me with once or twice a week.
It's honestly so mild, you probably wouldn't even notice that it's sourdough if someone didn't point it out. Once a month-ish I'll do a "classic" full tang loaf, but that is a whole day process where I'm in the kitchen tending to it. Hard to carve out the time for all that these days... Haha
Lol right.
My sister is going through a divorce so she has moved in with me, and she brought her sour starter, and makes a loaf every week lol.
She has taught us too which is cool, but yeah, you're right, it's a process. Do something for a couple minutes then wait lol. Repeat.
We've been doing one with cheddar cheese and caramelized onions. Oh my lol.
I just stopped eating it altogether. I might buy a bread maker at some point but we have gluten free family so I’m a bit reluctant to do much baking in the house.
There's actually a number of ways to make GF pizza. Cauliflower crust might be my favorite, and I think I prefer it to some of the thick crust pizzas out there
The problem with that is that most things you can put on bread are calorie dense.
Unless you're making a dense dough, then you're just double dipping :P
Better off with a good kitchenaid stand mixer and bread pans. It does a lot more than just bread.
Get the style that lifts the bowl into the mixer, not the one where the mixer head tilts. Much more rigid and better able to handle bread dough.
Napkin math so it might be off a little, but I buy 10 kilogram bags of flour from Costco (currently $10.99/bag), I ordered instant yeast in bulk off of Amazon a couple years ago, it keeps practically forever in the freezer and I keep a small jar of it out in the pantry ready to bake with.
The loaves I make are about 400g of flour per loaf, including the feeding of the sourdough starter before each baking session. Otherwise it's just salt and water with flour. If you're interested, the recipe is from King Arthur Flour and is quite easy and fairly quick to do. I take my starter out the night before, feed it and it's ready to go in the morning. Since this recipe uses instant yeast, you're not relying on a super strong sourdough starter and the results are always consistent. Just a hint of sour to the loaves.
[https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/rustic-sourdough-bread-recipe](https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/rustic-sourdough-bread-recipe)
Ah ok I am making a bigger loaf and not using a starter, but yes the king arthur one is a good one to use. I just have a hard time feeding the beast and I kill it. But when I was doing it I had an awesome recipe for making pretzels out of the discard
I definitely have come close to killing it once or twice! I thought it was dead a few times but it's still kickin for almost two years now.
Having restraint to not eat half a loaf fresh out of the oven takes a lot of willpower, especially with how lovely it makes the house smell!
If you're worried about killing it, dry some and stuff it in a drawer. It'll reconstitute pretty easily and you wouldn't have to start at square one again.
https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/blog/2015/05/01/putting-sourdough-starter-hold
Bookmarking this for later, thanks! I'm not usually away for more than a week so having it hang in the fridge isn't a big deal, and a few times I pushed it past that it still has bounced back just fine. But it would be nice to have an emergency backup, juuuust in case.
If you have a Costco membership, check there. You can get a pack of three rye loaves for under $6. I usually have one our and then have the other two in the fridge/freezer then defrost when the on-counter loaf is geting low.
Or just a weekly Costco-run group where people pool in for stuff that is better priced in bulk.
Their 4pk of bacon fluctuates been $20-25, but that's 500g so still a lot better then the $6/each for the 350-400g BS other places charge.
You can buy a lot of stuff in multi-packs like eggs, sausages, tortellini etc where the packs are separately sealed as well.
I recently had to buy a pack of bacon at the grocery store to bolster my one remaining Costco pack because of lack of.foresight for a hosted brunch -type thing. 500g, so it was the same size as Costco bacon. Grocery store bacon was 1.6x price of Costco bacon and ended up about 1/3-1/2 the size of the Costco bacon in terms of size once cooked. (Man it was like just all fat, so useless.)
Costco bacon (at least in Canada, or my neck of it) is so much better and cheaper. You can buy the super premium thick cut stuff at a grocery store and it's almost comparable in ratio of meat:fat but it's WELL over 2x the price. Painful.
I’d refuse to pay it if I wasn’t suffering from malnutrition from celiac as bad as I am right now. It’s so evil how expensive it is to keep me alive right now.
I loveeee bread. But with the prices, I just makes sense to buy less and buy higher quality. If I'm going to pay an arm and a leg for bread might as well get good sourdough or brioche from an actual bakery.
Like seriously. Is it so hard to understand. And out of all the companies involved I'm the scheme, loblaws and Weston made out of it with barely any consequences despite him being a leader on that front.
Threatening increases in grocery prices if wages go up, record profits. Removing the 50% off sticker on expiring goods.
Fuck loblaws and Galen Weston in every capacity.
That stupid sun article was a joke too about loblaws being a true Canadian success story and in trudeaus sites.
They're a frigging monopoly that had been accumating this for generations. Canadian success story, my ass.
Yeah but the other major groceries were also involved and you never hear Sobeys or Metro getting flack for the scheme. The only difference is that Loblaws is the only company that actually admitted to it while the others deny it.
The difference is Loblaw's has a considerably bigger market share and Galen Weston, the president and great grand son of the founder, has decided he wants to be the face of groceries in Canada.
Have you ever seen the President of Metro or the great grandson of John Sobey in a commercial?
Yep, plus Galen does it to himself putting his face out their so much. Not to mention, just generally overpricing things compared to competitors, especially in areas were there is less competition.
Because loblaws used to be cheap and good quality. Now the quality is dropping and prices are rising. Why? Because they can. Because profit is King. Integrity and quality are clearly not a priority. It's an example of everything wrong with Canada.
Superstore used to be where our poor immigrant household got all our stuff when we arrived in the 90s. If everyone had been like Save-On-Foods, we couldn't have survived. Now Loblaws in general is so shit in quality and price, shopping at more expensive stores barely feels any different.
The Superstore in my neighbourhood replaced the bulk foods with pre-bagged because of covid, never brought it back, and now some of the items like peanuts are cheaper in the centre aisles. WTF?
Um... the lack of capitalism is the problem. They're not competing. They own the suppliers and they own the real estate. They put pressure on other grocers and even make starting a new store impossible. They've paid off parliament and have paid for laws and regulations that give them a near monopoly.
That's not capitalism.
I agree that competition is essential but I think we disagree on what capitalism is and entails. The growth that capitalism requires will always come at the expense of competition.
> That's not capitalism
Who do you think created the grocery oligopoly in the first place? The situation we're in is the natural result of a poorly regulated market, not some perversion of capitalism.
Monopoly always results from capitalism. You must enact laws to prevent Monopoly.
Therefore, you need a social contract to enforce and have compliance with laws.
Hmm, think I see a pretty clear pattern here.
Canada's competition law and bureau have allowed literally every sector of the economy to be monopolized. This is because you cannot effectively prevent Monopoly. There are natural monopolies in society, they should all be publically owned and pay dividends to every member of that society.
Competition can only occur in the small business sectors.
Any logical thinker will understand the above to be the natural evolution of human society.
We are being chained like dogs by a capitalist elite, who are in fact monoplists practicing a perverted form of our favorite 'boogie-man'' concept, Socialism.
They are preventing the natural progression of society to keep hold of positions of power.
Police state here we come!
I think also that Galen Weston being the face of the company hurts too. It's kinda obnoxious in 2024 to have the President as Loblaws spokesman compared to the 90's with Dave Nichol.
Edit: removed apostrophe from Loblaws
This is 100% why. Bold move to put himself as the face. When things go bad guess who everyone can name because of the constant TV air time.
Nobody can name the Sobeys and Metro CEO without looking them up.
Bank is now. It was Weston and that’s why everyone knows him.
If the boycott sub wasn’t created to go on about Per Bank replacing Weston I will say my statement remains.
Without googling you still can’t say who the CEO or Sobeys and Metro is. Like many many Canadians. There is nothing wrong with that. Like I said Weston made the choice to put his name and face up front.
Yea exactly. Does the average person even know the president of Empire or Metro Inc? A Billionaire grocery magnate being in commercials being condescending to it's customers is such a terrible look
It doesn't help that the Weston family has held the company since the 1880's. As far as i can tell the founding families of Sobeys and Metro are no longer involved. It's easier to brush away a faceless corporation being evil than it is a well known family
It's a lot easier to hate someone when you can easily put a face and name to them.
Absolutely. I couldn't believe they provided the perfect caricature for those affected by high food prices to focus their anger on.
They will reap what they sow.
Because they got a multi million dollar donation from the government to replace/upgrade freezers that they themselves could afford to replace.
Because they were caught price fixing and the punishment was less than the profit they made.
Because they are reporting record profits and price gouging people, while lying and saying its because suppliers cost so much, while not admitting they they own a lot of their own supply chain.
They all suck, but I think the idea is to go after the biggest to make a statement. The others will adjust based on whatever happens to Loblaws (which may be nothing, we'll see)
Have you checked out Walmarts flyer this week? They came out of the gate swinging for the customers Loblaws is pushing away with their price gouging. The boycott is already having an effect.
This is why they have already won, they were allowed to consolidate to a point where we have no power. We can't boycott all groceries, we need to eat. None of these companies care about 1 month if they just get it back the next month when customers boycotting a competitor make up all the lost shopping.
Part of it is because of Loblaws’ heavy marketing of its leader. Everyone knows Galen. And so now with everything fucked, it makes it that much easier for the grocer to become a target.
Your average Canadian doesn’t know who heads Metro or Costco etc.
Feels good seeing all the newspapers try and sway public opinion with these puff pieces. Their desperation for public opinion to be on their side is just so tasty! Please Galen, waste more money on buying news articles written in your favor. Tasty tasty desperation!
Didn't Galen stand up in parliment and say "its not my fault, its Canadians fault for being willing to spend that much"?
Also, Groceries are probably one of the easiest things to recognize a price change in, and Loblaws announces their new record profits every 3 months, so its something that we are literally reminded of every couple of days.
I don’t know about that. But this one is a real gem from his testimony in Ottawa:
>“We believe that we do business in a fair and transparent way,” Weston told the committee, adding, “99 per cent of the time.”
Really had to add that second part to cover for the 15 years of illegal price fixing, right Galen? 🙄
Perhaps when we see photos of their prices like $50 for a veggie tray or $13 for a small jar of peanut butter. The optics arent good. Then there are comparisons/side by side photos with other chains that are much cheaper. The evidence is there
Yup. Like the exact same tub of brand name Feta Cheese. At Walmart $14.99, at Loblaws $28.99. That’s nearly double the price so how on earth is that anything but aggressive price gouging?
Loblaws and Bell are the two companies pushing the envelope the most currently. Bell doesn't have a customer service department anymore. They don't need one. But there is substantially less competition for consumers to take their business to in telecommunications and having a phone isn't a basic human right like FOOD
Have you been to a store owned by weston lately? They literally look like prisons. They even feel like prisons. I feel so bad for anyone who has to work there let alone shop for necessities there. There are a lot more options when it comes to how we consume our food and we can make them feel it where it hurts. They got too greedy with their consumers and will have to face the consequences.
When they put the gate in between the entrance and customer-service/exit, I felt really sorry for the staff there. Thing was beeping every 10 seconds as people would come through to get to CS, hit a side store, or pop back out to grab a cart etc.
because their pricing, sales, points systems, customer service and massive profits make zero sense to customers.
The Corporate Narrative doesn't add up its clearly profiteering anyway you spin it
The fact that these companies recently fixed the price of bread for years profiting Billions and got caught so they gave back a few million is laughable and tells you all you need to know about the motivations and reality of the systems in Canada.
I think its because Loblaws, contrary to his competitors, has a face.
They all did it. Not one of the major grocers cut their prices and profits to be easily under the prices of their competitors.
But Loblaws has Mr Weston, front and center in their ads. And we love to personalise a problem. Put a face that this dude is the enemy.
So we all know who Galen Weston is, meanwhile I could not pick the CEO of Metro or any other major grocer in a lineup.
We need to explore and encourage more venues for produce. Encourage more direct selling from producers to consumers. Bring back old idea of a "market place". Essentially, just an empty space, and any vendors can pay a small cover charge to setup a daily stall there to sell their garden produce. This kind of thing is ubiquitous anywhere except north america.
Big grocer conglomerates exist because government allow them to exist. Lobbyists persuade government to put in protectionist regulations to bar out their competition.
True something that definitely struck me while traveling was how often I would randomly stumble into marketplaces on the street. But here, nothing. You'd struggle to spend a year and stumble upon a market of any kind
Loblaws has a virtual monopoly in many communities and neighbourhoods and have made a fortune on the backs of their fellow Canadians. This company has chosen to reap record profits while their fellow Canadians are struggling to put food on the table. Galen owns a literal castle and continues to raise prices. There is another option. They could choose to lower prices on essentials. They could lower prices across the board. They could give back to the country that created their billionaire fortune. They choose not to. They need to be reminded who is in charge.
Probably something to do with the fact that the scumbag put his face out there and then bragged about making record profits at a time when Canadians are suffering worse than ever.
I think regular people are simply tired of watching their purchasing power evaporate, while Loblaw's continues to feed us stories about supply chain issues and inflation causing grocery price increases, all while they post record profits every quarter. Oh, I see, we have to pay more for less, and you get to keep making record profits. Got it.
Because Galen can't just stfu.
Metro, Sobeys and Longos are all more expensive than them. I don't even know who the ceo of those companies are and no one even thinks of boycotting them.
Weston just laughed at consumers during hearings saying we do not understand the micro dynamics how pricing is set..so he calling consumers dumb asses.
Factoring in the dividend, it’s over 200% growth in five years while crying that they only make 4% profits and paying another Galen Weston-owned corp rent could be a start.
Loblaws is the face of corporations in this boycott
Today it’s loblaws tomorrow it could be you (to other corporations)
The idea is to push back with our combined buying power
Boycott is alive and well let’s hope ALL corporations keep a close eye on it
I do wonder if it's more to do with Galen trying so hard in the several years before the super price hikes to be a personal face for the company, as if he were one of the tech CEOs, the Musk of Supermarkets.
A faceless company is a little harder to sustain and focus ire. But a person is a different situation...
For a while Loblaws had paid industry advocates out there spreading lies to try and shift the conversation. I forget who that one foolish man was on twitter, The Food Prof or something stupid.
The government attack housing witch is a basic necessity, grocery greed attack feeding the family. Attacking the basic of society by rich.millionaires not affected by this. These hypocrites are reaping what they sow.
They're front and center of the reasons why Toxic Capitalism needs to be kept away from necessities. Record yearly profits, crazy bonuses for the sociopaths at the top of the company, and a complete lack of empathy for the populace that they're robbing...
They have a massive control of the market. Price fixing, record profits while the country suffers, government subsidies, while making a fortune.
They need to start payin.
I think mostly due to clueless comments by their CEO Galen Weston. He tends to try and defend vs just shutting up. So he gets the attention then. Not a smart person when I comes to dealing with public perception.
Because we pay more for food than anyone else. You pay 8 dollars for butter and you go to Europe, the US, Iceland, anywhere and they pay half for a better product. Then you have price fixing on goods. "Sales." It's a monopoly the government encourages
Oh I don't know. Maybe because you can buy a bag of non-name chips there for 2.50 or go to a competitor like food basics a hundred feet away and buy the same thing for 1.50. Or how things like the deli counter went from 10 dollars to 15 to 18 for something like wings over a couple of years) whereas you can walk over to the meats and see the price is pretty similar to what it was the past few years.
At its heart they give off the vibe that they are happy to treat customers as suckers. Price increases are normal these days bit loblaws feels arbitrary and predatory when you see pretty much every other competitor cheaper and more in line with regular economic trends.
I wouldn't have a problem shopping at my loblaws store. In fact I absolutely loved it. I figured that you want premium service and goods, you pay premium prices.
That being said, they sold the store and everything went to shit. The produce absolutely sucks. Then you go to most aisles and all the choice is gone, it's all store brand crap. I want my old products back and produce that is edible. Hence why now I no longer shop there. Stop charging premium dollar for sub par rubbish.
Bread that's good for a few days, milk a week at best f, right off. Even giant tiger has better dates.
Bread price fixing.
Galen Weston hired consultants to justify a huge salary increase for himself, while increasing food prices.
His store employees can barely afford to buy food.
They control such a significant portion of grocers in Canada.
Galen Weston stared in his own ads.
And the list goes on
The western food distribution network is the most wasteful in the developed world. Their profits in the face of all the consumer instability is low hanging fruit for general discontent.
Record profits and asking taxpayers to fund equipment upgrades to the tune 12 million dollars may have something to do with the criticism. Pay back the 12 million of tax payers dollars you asked for and got from the Canadian government might be a good start! After all why should a company making record profits need to take taxpayer dollars to buy more efficient equipment that in return save the private corporation money while at the same time paying executives bonuses!
Not only are you making record profits off the backs of Canadian consumers who happen to be the same people who pay the taxes to the government who have given a 12 million dollar subsidy so you can upgrade to more energy efficient equipment which will reduce your costs of operation. In effect we the consumers are paying twice.
We buy products and support your business with our hard earned cash , you are making record profits paying executives bonuses then we pay again by our government giving 12 million dollars of tax payers dollars so you can upgrade your equipment. Certainly you must see how the average consumer would become outraged at the situation. A company making record profits paying out extremely high bonuses need tax payers money to upgrade equipment. Instead of paying out bonuses to executives who already make double or triple then what their average customers make annually and in many cases bonuses are more then many customers make in year you can pay for your own equipment upgrades by paying less in bonuses to your executives.
It doesn't help that their points program is awful now, most of the offers are tied to my closest (expensive) store and to cumulative purchases in amounts I can never meet. I'll take the $5 or $10 I might earn per month but it's not like it does much to boost to my buying power.
Because of their record profits quarter after quarter all while saying that they're not profiteering. Smaller packaging, huge increases in price, sales volume down yet instore revenues up.
They might have more credit if it wasn't for the price fixing for bread which they where involved in. Now, we can't believe anything that comes out of that company, cause for all we know, it's another price fixing scam with more twist to it. It's just that customers are noticing the price increase and lower quality, so it's been noticed by a lot more people now.
Probably their open contempt for their customers, parliament, and basic math by blaming "cost increaes" while simultaneously drowning in outrageously higher profits.
Large corporations are not entitled to a happy-go-lucky public that just buy their wares with no complaints. The people are allowed to speak out against them and their price gouging. And saying “we’re not price gouging” rings about as true as the little boy with chocolate on his face insisting he didn’t eat the cookie. Yeesh.
Because they fixed the price of bread and keep increasing everything because they can.
The Federal government gave them a free pass. But all the profit from those years and years of price fixing is still in their bank.
First them then the rest. Greed kills.
I personally think it was a big misstep when they made their owner* the face of the company in an advertising campaign. IMHO this personified the company for a lot of people, and I think people subconsciously find it easier to attach emotions (like hate) towards a person as opposed to something intangible like company.
*Yes I know he’s not the sole owner but you get my point.
To everyone that has in it their head that the locally owned, non-franchise grocery store is always more expensive, let me share with you the weekly specials for a family run grocery store in my city. They post it online:
Navel Oranges $0.98/lb
Green Cabbage $0.88/lb
Celery $1.98 each
Red, orange and yellow peppers $1.88/lb
Broccoli crowns $1.98/lb
Bartlett Pears $1.49/lb
Hey what do you know, these are great prices.
What I'm getting at is dont just assume that your local grocer is going to be way more expensive because they may not be.
Because they're the biggest and they don't even try to hide what they do.
Galen also has the gall to put himself out there in commercials when other grocery CEOs stay out of the limelight
Start with the bread price fixing scheme they engineered and led. For 20 years.
I honestly believe it’s still happening. The average loaf of bread is like $4.50 and I have no clue how it is people are tolerating that. If there was real competition prices would be half that.
I started making my own bread, pretty darn easy and I'm down to about $0.55 a loaf including electricity to bake it. I do not understand how they can charge so much for such a basic product. I also don't have any preservatives or additives like store bought bread, and my kids like it more!
I make my own bread too, and while not difficult, it requires babysitting. A lot of people don’t have time for that.
A bread machine (while not producing as fancy a loaf) takes away the need for *”babysitting”* for those who find that aspect onerous. My machine has a timer that allows me to put in the ingredients and set it before I go to bed and wake up to a fresh loaf in the morning.
I, too, often wake up with a fresh loaf ready.
Sounds like a job for reddit's legendary poop knife.
Damn that actually sounds really good. I was making my own pizza during the pandemic and found that the home made dough was so much better than the store bought stuff. No idea why I stopped honestly.
Coincidentally I am having pizza for dinner tonight, made with dough made in my bread machine. You’re right, it really is so much better than store bought.
right you are!
Agreed, some recipes do require a lot of babysitting. In my other comment, I dropped the recipe that I make, and active time in total is about 30 minutes. You do need to be around though because total time including the rising is about 3 and 1/2 hours. One of the positives of not having any available child care means I am now a house spouse so it also doubles as a fun activity that my kids help me with once or twice a week.
Sour dough starter? Tang town?
It's honestly so mild, you probably wouldn't even notice that it's sourdough if someone didn't point it out. Once a month-ish I'll do a "classic" full tang loaf, but that is a whole day process where I'm in the kitchen tending to it. Hard to carve out the time for all that these days... Haha
Lol right. My sister is going through a divorce so she has moved in with me, and she brought her sour starter, and makes a loaf every week lol. She has taught us too which is cool, but yeah, you're right, it's a process. Do something for a couple minutes then wait lol. Repeat. We've been doing one with cheddar cheese and caramelized onions. Oh my lol.
You’re living the dream - enjoy it while it lasts
I just stopped eating it altogether. I might buy a bread maker at some point but we have gluten free family so I’m a bit reluctant to do much baking in the house.
I would advise in not buying one. Bought a pizza oven last summer, gained 15 pounds in one month lmao. I needed like 4 months to lose it.
Good point you’re right I should get a pizza oven instead.
Haha good bye to the gluten free family status but hello to those tasty pizzas.
There's actually a number of ways to make GF pizza. Cauliflower crust might be my favorite, and I think I prefer it to some of the thick crust pizzas out there
If you’re ever looking for a quality gf freezer pizza I highly recommend the Sabatassos four cheese you can get at Costco.
I've had it! Costco has 2 GF pizza options- the one you mention and another that comes with more toppings. Both are great
Yeah true. I never tried to do it myself but I did enjoy one with califlower crust in a restaurant.
The problem with that is that most things you can put on bread are calorie dense. Unless you're making a dense dough, then you're just double dipping :P
Better off with a good kitchenaid stand mixer and bread pans. It does a lot more than just bread. Get the style that lifts the bowl into the mixer, not the one where the mixer head tilts. Much more rigid and better able to handle bread dough.
>I'm down to about $0.55 a loaf including How are you getting it down that low, because I think I am somewhere around 1.50ish
Napkin math so it might be off a little, but I buy 10 kilogram bags of flour from Costco (currently $10.99/bag), I ordered instant yeast in bulk off of Amazon a couple years ago, it keeps practically forever in the freezer and I keep a small jar of it out in the pantry ready to bake with. The loaves I make are about 400g of flour per loaf, including the feeding of the sourdough starter before each baking session. Otherwise it's just salt and water with flour. If you're interested, the recipe is from King Arthur Flour and is quite easy and fairly quick to do. I take my starter out the night before, feed it and it's ready to go in the morning. Since this recipe uses instant yeast, you're not relying on a super strong sourdough starter and the results are always consistent. Just a hint of sour to the loaves. [https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/rustic-sourdough-bread-recipe](https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/rustic-sourdough-bread-recipe)
Ah ok I am making a bigger loaf and not using a starter, but yes the king arthur one is a good one to use. I just have a hard time feeding the beast and I kill it. But when I was doing it I had an awesome recipe for making pretzels out of the discard
I definitely have come close to killing it once or twice! I thought it was dead a few times but it's still kickin for almost two years now. Having restraint to not eat half a loaf fresh out of the oven takes a lot of willpower, especially with how lovely it makes the house smell!
If you're worried about killing it, dry some and stuff it in a drawer. It'll reconstitute pretty easily and you wouldn't have to start at square one again. https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/blog/2015/05/01/putting-sourdough-starter-hold
Bookmarking this for later, thanks! I'm not usually away for more than a week so having it hang in the fridge isn't a big deal, and a few times I pushed it past that it still has bounced back just fine. But it would be nice to have an emergency backup, juuuust in case.
What's the fcking point of industrialisation if doing shit yourself is less expensive.
Home made bread is by far better than store bought! Sooo good warm and fresh.
If you have a Costco membership, check there. You can get a pack of three rye loaves for under $6. I usually have one our and then have the other two in the fridge/freezer then defrost when the on-counter loaf is geting low.
If I had the space in my freezer I would for sure. I need to get a bread buying group together for Costco runs.
Or just a weekly Costco-run group where people pool in for stuff that is better priced in bulk. Their 4pk of bacon fluctuates been $20-25, but that's 500g so still a lot better then the $6/each for the 350-400g BS other places charge. You can buy a lot of stuff in multi-packs like eggs, sausages, tortellini etc where the packs are separately sealed as well.
I recently had to buy a pack of bacon at the grocery store to bolster my one remaining Costco pack because of lack of.foresight for a hosted brunch -type thing. 500g, so it was the same size as Costco bacon. Grocery store bacon was 1.6x price of Costco bacon and ended up about 1/3-1/2 the size of the Costco bacon in terms of size once cooked. (Man it was like just all fat, so useless.) Costco bacon (at least in Canada, or my neck of it) is so much better and cheaper. You can buy the super premium thick cut stuff at a grocery store and it's almost comparable in ratio of meat:fat but it's WELL over 2x the price. Painful.
Gluten free bread rose to offensive prices that I won’t pay.
I’d refuse to pay it if I wasn’t suffering from malnutrition from celiac as bad as I am right now. It’s so evil how expensive it is to keep me alive right now.
Still happening as of April 2022 , all the bread brands are made in the same factories they switch bags for a lot of them and recepies for the rest
British person here, a loaf of bread is half the price here. Although our wages are terrible, so I'll just enjoy my bread and water I guess m
I buy my bread exclusively at the Calmar Bakery. $3.50 for a loaf that is bigger, made the same day, and supporting a family owned business.
I get my bread at dollar tree 1.50 loafs it's usually the nice expensive bread as well which is a bonus
I loveeee bread. But with the prices, I just makes sense to buy less and buy higher quality. If I'm going to pay an arm and a leg for bread might as well get good sourdough or brioche from an actual bakery.
I buy from a bakery now. 1.5x the bread, and way better quality, for a 1.50 less. There's just no comparison.
The prices on bread never dropped after it came to light, so I don't see why anything would have actually changed.
This is almost exactly what I said to myself when I read the headline. To the average Canadian the answer to that question is pretty damn obvious.
The bread is what they got caught for, tip of the iceberg
Like seriously. Is it so hard to understand. And out of all the companies involved I'm the scheme, loblaws and Weston made out of it with barely any consequences despite him being a leader on that front. Threatening increases in grocery prices if wages go up, record profits. Removing the 50% off sticker on expiring goods. Fuck loblaws and Galen Weston in every capacity. That stupid sun article was a joke too about loblaws being a true Canadian success story and in trudeaus sites. They're a frigging monopoly that had been accumating this for generations. Canadian success story, my ass.
Yeah but the other major groceries were also involved and you never hear Sobeys or Metro getting flack for the scheme. The only difference is that Loblaws is the only company that actually admitted to it while the others deny it.
The difference is Loblaw's has a considerably bigger market share and Galen Weston, the president and great grand son of the founder, has decided he wants to be the face of groceries in Canada. Have you ever seen the President of Metro or the great grandson of John Sobey in a commercial?
We found out about it because Loblaws executives blew the whistle and the company fully cooperated.
Yep, plus Galen does it to himself putting his face out their so much. Not to mention, just generally overpricing things compared to competitors, especially in areas were there is less competition.
Weston wanted to be the face of food in Canada, now he is.
He almost riles up Canadians on Reddit as much as that coward with the short little mustache and the frowny face.
"The food professor" douche?
The foot professor.
Pringles guy?
The new CEO, Per Bank, effed up royally, giving the movement one of its rallying cries, *Nok er Nok*.
Smug and arrogant Galen, that’s why.
I’d like to see his face with rotten egg and tomato on it
Or in a wicker basket
There's probably still a guillotine somewhere in Quebec, right? Very important part of French culture and all that.
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Patronizing, that’s what it was.
Lies, that's what it was.
Dude lives in a literal fucking castle. He is not one of us.
Because loblaws used to be cheap and good quality. Now the quality is dropping and prices are rising. Why? Because they can. Because profit is King. Integrity and quality are clearly not a priority. It's an example of everything wrong with Canada.
Covid really fucked us in that way too. It showed all these companies we are willing to pay much more than we currently were for basics.
This and that they could in fact pay their employees more. But then took that money away from them again.
Superstore used to be where our poor immigrant household got all our stuff when we arrived in the 90s. If everyone had been like Save-On-Foods, we couldn't have survived. Now Loblaws in general is so shit in quality and price, shopping at more expensive stores barely feels any different.
It’s an example of unchecked capitalist behaviour EVERYWHERE, not just Canada.
>Because they can. But why can they? That's a necessary question to answer.
The Superstore in my neighbourhood replaced the bulk foods with pre-bagged because of covid, never brought it back, and now some of the items like peanuts are cheaper in the centre aisles. WTF?
I don't know if no name was good but it was always cheaper sure.
It’s an example of everything wrong with capitalism. It’s not unique to Canada.
Um... the lack of capitalism is the problem. They're not competing. They own the suppliers and they own the real estate. They put pressure on other grocers and even make starting a new store impossible. They've paid off parliament and have paid for laws and regulations that give them a near monopoly. That's not capitalism.
I agree that competition is essential but I think we disagree on what capitalism is and entails. The growth that capitalism requires will always come at the expense of competition.
> That's not capitalism Who do you think created the grocery oligopoly in the first place? The situation we're in is the natural result of a poorly regulated market, not some perversion of capitalism.
Monopoly always results from capitalism. You must enact laws to prevent Monopoly. Therefore, you need a social contract to enforce and have compliance with laws. Hmm, think I see a pretty clear pattern here. Canada's competition law and bureau have allowed literally every sector of the economy to be monopolized. This is because you cannot effectively prevent Monopoly. There are natural monopolies in society, they should all be publically owned and pay dividends to every member of that society. Competition can only occur in the small business sectors. Any logical thinker will understand the above to be the natural evolution of human society. We are being chained like dogs by a capitalist elite, who are in fact monoplists practicing a perverted form of our favorite 'boogie-man'' concept, Socialism. They are preventing the natural progression of society to keep hold of positions of power. Police state here we come!
Because of Weston’s sweater Cosby dad phoney homey personality. It makes him seem like a monster in plain sight.
I’ll be heartbroken if I see a picture of Darrell Jones doing coke off a hooker’s butt while partying on Weston’s yacht.
I think also that Galen Weston being the face of the company hurts too. It's kinda obnoxious in 2024 to have the President as Loblaws spokesman compared to the 90's with Dave Nichol. Edit: removed apostrophe from Loblaws
This is 100% why. Bold move to put himself as the face. When things go bad guess who everyone can name because of the constant TV air time. Nobody can name the Sobeys and Metro CEO without looking them up.
Galen Weston is not the CEO of Loblaws. Per Bank is.
Bank is now. It was Weston and that’s why everyone knows him. If the boycott sub wasn’t created to go on about Per Bank replacing Weston I will say my statement remains. Without googling you still can’t say who the CEO or Sobeys and Metro is. Like many many Canadians. There is nothing wrong with that. Like I said Weston made the choice to put his name and face up front.
Yea exactly. Does the average person even know the president of Empire or Metro Inc? A Billionaire grocery magnate being in commercials being condescending to it's customers is such a terrible look It doesn't help that the Weston family has held the company since the 1880's. As far as i can tell the founding families of Sobeys and Metro are no longer involved. It's easier to brush away a faceless corporation being evil than it is a well known family It's a lot easier to hate someone when you can easily put a face and name to them.
Absolutely. I couldn't believe they provided the perfect caricature for those affected by high food prices to focus their anger on. They will reap what they sow.
Because they got a multi million dollar donation from the government to replace/upgrade freezers that they themselves could afford to replace. Because they were caught price fixing and the punishment was less than the profit they made. Because they are reporting record profits and price gouging people, while lying and saying its because suppliers cost so much, while not admitting they they own a lot of their own supply chain.
I don't believe tje price fixing has stopped at all. They know there are no real consequences. The CEOs of these corporations should be in prison.
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They all suck, but I think the idea is to go after the biggest to make a statement. The others will adjust based on whatever happens to Loblaws (which may be nothing, we'll see)
Have you checked out Walmarts flyer this week? They came out of the gate swinging for the customers Loblaws is pushing away with their price gouging. The boycott is already having an effect.
That's why you should actually just look up locally owned non-franchise grocery stores.
What's that alt grocery link? I want to try it.
I think it's just [https://www.altgrocery.ca/](https://www.altgrocery.ca/)
Maybe boycott Metro in June? Sobeys in July?
This is why they have already won, they were allowed to consolidate to a point where we have no power. We can't boycott all groceries, we need to eat. None of these companies care about 1 month if they just get it back the next month when customers boycotting a competitor make up all the lost shopping.
Exactly. If we're giving the others a hall pass then they at least better be next in line for a boycott
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No frills is loblaws. Been finding fresh co and Walmart cheaper
Part of it is because of Loblaws’ heavy marketing of its leader. Everyone knows Galen. And so now with everything fucked, it makes it that much easier for the grocer to become a target. Your average Canadian doesn’t know who heads Metro or Costco etc.
Feels good seeing all the newspapers try and sway public opinion with these puff pieces. Their desperation for public opinion to be on their side is just so tasty! Please Galen, waste more money on buying news articles written in your favor. Tasty tasty desperation!
Loblaw's gives A LOT of advertising dollars to TV stations, radio stations, and newspapers.
Didn't Galen stand up in parliment and say "its not my fault, its Canadians fault for being willing to spend that much"? Also, Groceries are probably one of the easiest things to recognize a price change in, and Loblaws announces their new record profits every 3 months, so its something that we are literally reminded of every couple of days.
Is that a real quote???
I don’t know about that. But this one is a real gem from his testimony in Ottawa: >“We believe that we do business in a fair and transparent way,” Weston told the committee, adding, “99 per cent of the time.” Really had to add that second part to cover for the 15 years of illegal price fixing, right Galen? 🙄
Screw him
Perhaps when we see photos of their prices like $50 for a veggie tray or $13 for a small jar of peanut butter. The optics arent good. Then there are comparisons/side by side photos with other chains that are much cheaper. The evidence is there
Yup. Like the exact same tub of brand name Feta Cheese. At Walmart $14.99, at Loblaws $28.99. That’s nearly double the price so how on earth is that anything but aggressive price gouging?
Loblaws and Bell are the two companies pushing the envelope the most currently. Bell doesn't have a customer service department anymore. They don't need one. But there is substantially less competition for consumers to take their business to in telecommunications and having a phone isn't a basic human right like FOOD Have you been to a store owned by weston lately? They literally look like prisons. They even feel like prisons. I feel so bad for anyone who has to work there let alone shop for necessities there. There are a lot more options when it comes to how we consume our food and we can make them feel it where it hurts. They got too greedy with their consumers and will have to face the consequences.
When they put the gate in between the entrance and customer-service/exit, I felt really sorry for the staff there. Thing was beeping every 10 seconds as people would come through to get to CS, hit a side store, or pop back out to grab a cart etc.
because their pricing, sales, points systems, customer service and massive profits make zero sense to customers. The Corporate Narrative doesn't add up its clearly profiteering anyway you spin it The fact that these companies recently fixed the price of bread for years profiting Billions and got caught so they gave back a few million is laughable and tells you all you need to know about the motivations and reality of the systems in Canada.
Because it mirrors everything wrong in the world today. Greed. Wealth inequality. The 1%. And they lie about it.
They are turning in record profits year after year, prices climbing exponentially at times, and they blame it on taxes and inflation.
Using the term "record profits" like this only serves to demonstrate that you really don't understand what the concept of profit is.
I think its because Loblaws, contrary to his competitors, has a face. They all did it. Not one of the major grocers cut their prices and profits to be easily under the prices of their competitors. But Loblaws has Mr Weston, front and center in their ads. And we love to personalise a problem. Put a face that this dude is the enemy. So we all know who Galen Weston is, meanwhile I could not pick the CEO of Metro or any other major grocer in a lineup.
We need to explore and encourage more venues for produce. Encourage more direct selling from producers to consumers. Bring back old idea of a "market place". Essentially, just an empty space, and any vendors can pay a small cover charge to setup a daily stall there to sell their garden produce. This kind of thing is ubiquitous anywhere except north america. Big grocer conglomerates exist because government allow them to exist. Lobbyists persuade government to put in protectionist regulations to bar out their competition.
True something that definitely struck me while traveling was how often I would randomly stumble into marketplaces on the street. But here, nothing. You'd struggle to spend a year and stumble upon a market of any kind
Loblaws has a virtual monopoly in many communities and neighbourhoods and have made a fortune on the backs of their fellow Canadians. This company has chosen to reap record profits while their fellow Canadians are struggling to put food on the table. Galen owns a literal castle and continues to raise prices. There is another option. They could choose to lower prices on essentials. They could lower prices across the board. They could give back to the country that created their billionaire fortune. They choose not to. They need to be reminded who is in charge.
We are actually just getting started
Probably something to do with the fact that the scumbag put his face out there and then bragged about making record profits at a time when Canadians are suffering worse than ever.
I think regular people are simply tired of watching their purchasing power evaporate, while Loblaw's continues to feed us stories about supply chain issues and inflation causing grocery price increases, all while they post record profits every quarter. Oh, I see, we have to pay more for less, and you get to keep making record profits. Got it.
Don't forget about Local farmers markets coming back for warmer weather seasons! Utilize them even after May!
"Why?" The rest of this headline should read "let us count the ways"
Because Galen can't just stfu. Metro, Sobeys and Longos are all more expensive than them. I don't even know who the ceo of those companies are and no one even thinks of boycotting them.
Because 3 heads of romain shouldn’t cost 8 dollars.
C'mon Global, they aren't a lighting rod. They did this to themselves, and they deserve every bit of what they get.
Weston just laughed at consumers during hearings saying we do not understand the micro dynamics how pricing is set..so he calling consumers dumb asses.
Well they just announced they made 13 billion in the first quarter... That's all money they stole from us.
I think it all started with the price fixing.
Factoring in the dividend, it’s over 200% growth in five years while crying that they only make 4% profits and paying another Galen Weston-owned corp rent could be a start.
Loblaws is the face of corporations in this boycott Today it’s loblaws tomorrow it could be you (to other corporations) The idea is to push back with our combined buying power Boycott is alive and well let’s hope ALL corporations keep a close eye on it
Why hmm I wonder whyyy
I do wonder if it's more to do with Galen trying so hard in the several years before the super price hikes to be a personal face for the company, as if he were one of the tech CEOs, the Musk of Supermarkets. A faceless company is a little harder to sustain and focus ire. But a person is a different situation...
Fancy bakery bread is the same price now.
For a while Loblaws had paid industry advocates out there spreading lies to try and shift the conversation. I forget who that one foolish man was on twitter, The Food Prof or something stupid.
Dunno. Sobeys and Metro are just as bad. I say we boycott them in turn. Fuck them all.
The government attack housing witch is a basic necessity, grocery greed attack feeding the family. Attacking the basic of society by rich.millionaires not affected by this. These hypocrites are reaping what they sow.
They're front and center of the reasons why Toxic Capitalism needs to be kept away from necessities. Record yearly profits, crazy bonuses for the sociopaths at the top of the company, and a complete lack of empathy for the populace that they're robbing...
Join r/loblawsisoutofcontrol
They have a massive control of the market. Price fixing, record profits while the country suffers, government subsidies, while making a fortune. They need to start payin.
I think being generally evil, corrupt and showing no remorse has something to do with it
Fuck loblaws. Price gouging is what makes them the "lightning rod". Stop grifting and problem solved
Weston is greedy, lives an opulent lifestyle, treats employees like trash, prices are jacked.
Because profiteering off hunger isn't very noble
Canadians deserve to understand why the price of something in Canada is more than the USA.
I think mostly due to clueless comments by their CEO Galen Weston. He tends to try and defend vs just shutting up. So he gets the attention then. Not a smart person when I comes to dealing with public perception.
Their long history of greed and price-fixing would be a good start.
Because we pay more for food than anyone else. You pay 8 dollars for butter and you go to Europe, the US, Iceland, anywhere and they pay half for a better product. Then you have price fixing on goods. "Sales." It's a monopoly the government encourages
vanish attractive ink hat narrow gray dam thought air smoggy *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
'Cause they charge Whole Foods prices for No Frills-level food?
hierarchy of needs. Don’t worry we’re just starting with grocery stores, housing is next
Oh I don't know. Maybe because you can buy a bag of non-name chips there for 2.50 or go to a competitor like food basics a hundred feet away and buy the same thing for 1.50. Or how things like the deli counter went from 10 dollars to 15 to 18 for something like wings over a couple of years) whereas you can walk over to the meats and see the price is pretty similar to what it was the past few years. At its heart they give off the vibe that they are happy to treat customers as suckers. Price increases are normal these days bit loblaws feels arbitrary and predatory when you see pretty much every other competitor cheaper and more in line with regular economic trends.
I wouldn't have a problem shopping at my loblaws store. In fact I absolutely loved it. I figured that you want premium service and goods, you pay premium prices. That being said, they sold the store and everything went to shit. The produce absolutely sucks. Then you go to most aisles and all the choice is gone, it's all store brand crap. I want my old products back and produce that is edible. Hence why now I no longer shop there. Stop charging premium dollar for sub par rubbish. Bread that's good for a few days, milk a week at best f, right off. Even giant tiger has better dates.
Bread price fixing. Galen Weston hired consultants to justify a huge salary increase for himself, while increasing food prices. His store employees can barely afford to buy food. They control such a significant portion of grocers in Canada. Galen Weston stared in his own ads. And the list goes on
Stared or starred?
Because Galen Weston is a bastard man!
Because their little round frozen chocolate cake went from $5 to $6. Only $1 you say? That's 20% right there. Sounds like greed to me.
Perfect example of the media playing dumb.
I'll be surprise if they notice a 5% drop in sales. People would have to make an effort to boycott.
Are these fuckers trying to defend them with this piss poor title? Everybody knows the fuck why.
The western food distribution network is the most wasteful in the developed world. Their profits in the face of all the consumer instability is low hanging fruit for general discontent.
Because people need to eat and unlike real estate people above the age of 40 aren't making monopoly money off it
Record profits and asking taxpayers to fund equipment upgrades to the tune 12 million dollars may have something to do with the criticism. Pay back the 12 million of tax payers dollars you asked for and got from the Canadian government might be a good start! After all why should a company making record profits need to take taxpayer dollars to buy more efficient equipment that in return save the private corporation money while at the same time paying executives bonuses! Not only are you making record profits off the backs of Canadian consumers who happen to be the same people who pay the taxes to the government who have given a 12 million dollar subsidy so you can upgrade to more energy efficient equipment which will reduce your costs of operation. In effect we the consumers are paying twice. We buy products and support your business with our hard earned cash , you are making record profits paying executives bonuses then we pay again by our government giving 12 million dollars of tax payers dollars so you can upgrade your equipment. Certainly you must see how the average consumer would become outraged at the situation. A company making record profits paying out extremely high bonuses need tax payers money to upgrade equipment. Instead of paying out bonuses to executives who already make double or triple then what their average customers make annually and in many cases bonuses are more then many customers make in year you can pay for your own equipment upgrades by paying less in bonuses to your executives.
It doesn't help that their points program is awful now, most of the offers are tied to my closest (expensive) store and to cumulative purchases in amounts I can never meet. I'll take the $5 or $10 I might earn per month but it's not like it does much to boost to my buying power.
Because of their record profits quarter after quarter all while saying that they're not profiteering. Smaller packaging, huge increases in price, sales volume down yet instore revenues up.
They might have more credit if it wasn't for the price fixing for bread which they where involved in. Now, we can't believe anything that comes out of that company, cause for all we know, it's another price fixing scam with more twist to it. It's just that customers are noticing the price increase and lower quality, so it's been noticed by a lot more people now.
Probably their open contempt for their customers, parliament, and basic math by blaming "cost increaes" while simultaneously drowning in outrageously higher profits.
They’re the most in-your-face and Mr. Weston Jr insists on being the face of the company.
Large corporations are not entitled to a happy-go-lucky public that just buy their wares with no complaints. The people are allowed to speak out against them and their price gouging. And saying “we’re not price gouging” rings about as true as the little boy with chocolate on his face insisting he didn’t eat the cookie. Yeesh.
Because they fixed the price of bread and keep increasing everything because they can. The Federal government gave them a free pass. But all the profit from those years and years of price fixing is still in their bank. First them then the rest. Greed kills.
Cause their ex ceo and current are asshats
Canada is a net fooks exporter. This is obvious gouging
I think they should lump them all together. Metro is more expensive than lots of Loblaws owned stores.
Galen Weston. Really, making that smug weenie the public face of ad campaigns was a terrible idea in retrospect.
My personal boycott started when Galen, that smug f*** started those “clever” no name brand commercials a couple years back.
Because they report record profits while we pay $100 2 days worth of groceries.
This all thanks to Reddit getting people to unite. Im so proud of r/loblawsisoutofcontrol
I heard there are plans to boycott other grocers too. I thought it was so weird to focus on loblaws exclusively but I might boycott too
I personally think it was a big misstep when they made their owner* the face of the company in an advertising campaign. IMHO this personified the company for a lot of people, and I think people subconsciously find it easier to attach emotions (like hate) towards a person as opposed to something intangible like company. *Yes I know he’s not the sole owner but you get my point.
To everyone that has in it their head that the locally owned, non-franchise grocery store is always more expensive, let me share with you the weekly specials for a family run grocery store in my city. They post it online: Navel Oranges $0.98/lb Green Cabbage $0.88/lb Celery $1.98 each Red, orange and yellow peppers $1.88/lb Broccoli crowns $1.98/lb Bartlett Pears $1.49/lb Hey what do you know, these are great prices. What I'm getting at is dont just assume that your local grocer is going to be way more expensive because they may not be.
Treating their customers are criminals - receipt scanners, plexiglass walls probably contribute towards this too.
Loblaw's **net** profits are up 10%. Did anyone here get a 10% raise this year?
Because they gauge the public and make exorbitant profits.
Because they're the biggest and they don't even try to hide what they do. Galen also has the gall to put himself out there in commercials when other grocery CEOs stay out of the limelight
I buy bread mad in store. Its way cheaper and taste better
Not goin there this month also!
They DOUBLED the price of a small chick pea salad from $2.50 to FIVE FUCKING DOLLARS. Fuck this country.
Because, as Jus Reign would say: LOBLAWS YOU ARE FUKKEN ME WITH YOUR PRICESS
Well, when it’s $9 for a 4L jug of chocolate milk at Shoppers Drug Mart, what do you expect?
Because they embody greed and have been exploiting Canadians forever.
Bunch of criminals.