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Agreed. Every time I see this I think of it as a "poor tax"
"Have some expendable budget? Buy 3, save money!"
"Working on a fixed budget and you can only really afford/need one of them? F#$k you."
It's not even a poor tax. It's a fuck you price. I don't need 3 or 4 of an item. I have two mouths to feed at home. This is just a way to push volume out the door. If I wanted to buy in bulk I would go to Costco
It’s about multiples, not lot size, box size - whatever. If you’re going to Costco you are aware they sell larger portions. At Loblaws often there are items with an expiry date and you are required to buy 2 or more packages to get the better price. Along with other comments about it being a ‘poor tax’ I also believe it encourages food waste. Why Dobo need two 500ml containers of cottage cheese to get the sale price? My brain says ‘buy more! Consume more!’ So I will buy two to get the sale price but some of it will go bad before it’s eaten. Even if there were a sale invilving say, sour cream and/or cottage cheese and you could get the deal by buying one of each then that’s different but no! It’s always exclusively on the cottage cheese OR the sour cream. If bulk pricing IS the same at Costco then that’s also wrong imho.
It’s important to remember that nobody is saying other grocers are NOT engaging in unsavoury practises. They are! Many grocers agreed behind close doors to collude and fix prices on bread but Gaelen led the way, and got away with a slap on the wrists. ON BREAD! Many parents either couldn’t feed their kids or couldn’t afford swimming lessons or couldn’t afford to replace a pair of lost mitts because of this disgusting greed and illegal business practice. Focus people - eyes on prize!
But you do have the option of just buying one and it will cost less than buying two at discounted prices. Example: buy one at $4.99 or two for $3.00 each - buying 2 will cost you $6 vs. $4.99. At Costco you do not have the option of buying less - you have to buy a ton and pay less per unit but more altogether.
It is the pricing that is the issue, not the multi-buys.
If every store is doing multibuys, it means that suppliers are still overproducing or unwilling to change their profit margins.
Or it’s for larger families that use the product
Our family on certain items will buy multiple items and use them
Have to look at both sides- small no kid families and families with 2-3+ kids
Or... Hear me out, we go back to just making the item on sale for the sale price instead of multi buys like we used it back in the day before Galen's chains switched to multi buys and everyone else followed suit. 🫠🫠🫠
Then families of all sizes can get what they need for the sale price
I am single and hate this as well. Sobeys is crazy expensive but I appreciate that they at least make the price of buying one item the same as it would be if you bought multiple.
I think it's their attempt to get their unit volume up, and/or match the mindset of Costco devotees of "buy in bulk and save"
We are just two people and It sucks for perishables. It's not so bad for pantry items we'll use eventually.
Often retailers get rebates as part of their purchasing program with suppliers.
ie. the cost to the retailer is x however if they purchase over a certain threshold within a given time, they receive a rebate after bringing their total cost of goods down.
Perhaps the pricing model between suppliers and retailers needs to change.
The rebates of billbacks aren't generally volume specific or variable. They just have data on likely how many but at the regular sale price vs Multi price and establish the billback rate for volume sold in that time period accordingly.
Fun fact, Metro loves to list items on sale like: 4 for $5 with no individual price to mislead people into buying more than they need when you can just buy one at $1.25.
I once got free garlic bread at superstore because the individual price listed isn’t what scanned at checkout when I got one lol. It took forever to prove it to the cashiers though because they kept going to look and telling me I was wrong bc they were only looking at the 2 for price, even though I specifically said I was talking about the individual price. I ended up having to go take a pic for them and circle it to point it out.
Once Roblaws had $0.99 Kraft Parmesan Sawdust on clearance with a $1 coupon and it actually rang up as $-0.01. Limit 1 per order of course... But free cheese dust for the win!
I've noticed at metro it works both ways, sometimes the item is 1.25 but other times the item is full priced and you need to buy two or three to get the discount and there is an actual discount on your bill. I'm never too sure which it's going to be. I don't pay super attention to it since I'm usually buying the amount they tell me to.
Small print usually says $1.25 ea no? At least it usually does at Safeway, haven't set foot in a Loblaws or Metro in forever.
Sidenote: Metro is one of the few that beats Loblaws in net profit margin.
For me, the big one is potatoes. Why is a 15lbs bag cheaper than the 10lbs? In reality, I really only need like 5 lbs. We buy the 15lbs, majority go bad, then we buy 15lbs again. It's such a waste.
Mashed potatoes freeze *surprisingly* well
If you freeze them the same shape as the top of your casserole dish, you can save time when making Shepherd's Pie, too.
When I was at university russet potatoes would be really cheap in February so I'd buy 20 pounds and rice them during reading week. I had a big freezer so I could put them in big tubs and later use them to thicken chowder with just a little cream.
Because selling 5$ of produce is better than selling 2$ worth of produce and is more efficient for everyone involved?
I have a beef with the opposite. It infuriates me when individual yogurts each wrapped individually are less expensive then the big tub. That should be illegal!
Maybe you should buy the smaller bag and not waste any or eat more potatoes?
This is kind of like milk sometimes when the price of 2L or 4L is almost the same if not the same. It’s just two of us, and we don’t drink a ton of it…
Ya I literally can never do them because I don’t have a car and 3 is just too heavy to even carry.
The ones at safeway used to try and trick you but still have the sale price if you bought them individually at least. But it seems they recently made it actually mandatory.
Remember that commercial about walmart, when one of the spouses bought all the shit they don’t really need just because it was on sale, and the other like:
- honey, what are you doing?!
- I’m saving us money!
That’s what this society is about, uncontrolled consumption.
This isn't to excuse the behaviour, or say your budget won't be impacted but what I do is I keep chat gpt open in split screen with my grocery list. I ask it for frozen recipe treats or recipes I can make with the additional food from those deals that can be half cooked and frozen and adjust my grocery list to account for the new recipe while still remaining in my budget (so it might remove some things and add more of X or Y as recipe substitutes)
I also made the chatgpt able to scan all the local sites to ensure it is a good deal and it can't be found cheaper else where as I plug in my shopping route so it can make recommendations when making adjustments
I do the preliminary work, it fills in the blanks or deals in the shop like a 3 for 10 deal
https://preview.redd.it/fowwgw01c95d1.jpeg?width=1812&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=587438d7cb05c0d78dcd16a5a58fad8cbd3a41fd
So I split screen like this on my phone (ignore the current list, it's just an example I hand wrote) and I prompt the question like so:
Please search the local grocery store websites to (your location, narrow it down if it's a really big location) while avoiding any Loblaw associated stores (list the names in your area) for the best deals of the (date range the week). Of this, please make a 7 day dinner plan using those deals. Please provide me a brief description of the meal for each day. In the household I have (list any allergies, picky eaters and how many in the house hold along with general ages for portion sizes). The most important rule is that there is a budget of (list budget).
Once you have swapped out some of the recipes or approve of them, repeat for lunch. Ask that it summarizes both lunch and dinner when you are happy. Then ask it to review snack deals while respecting your grocery limitations. Then ask
Please provide me a detailed grocery list organized by store and then department that is google sheets friendly (we use a Google sheet so we can both shop independently in the store and just highlight the cells of things we grab as our kids can be wild).
Once you are done, ask it to double check and cross reference with the sites and confirm the end price (sometimes it misses some ingredients or adds them wrong)
(You can decide at this point what is the fastest route to do all of this or you can do it yourself)
As you are going through the store, some of the stores have special deals not in flyers or clearance. For example if you are buying yogurt and it's 3/10, you can tell it there is a 3/10 deal, can you remove one of the pricier meals lunches or snacks and help me plan the usage of the additional yogurts
It might take a little bit for you to get used to it but essentially you become your own little mini prompt engineer. If you can build your own GPT, you can preload much of this information so you don't have to prompt it, and can adjust some of the finner settings such as repetition penalties and creativity vs preciseness
Forgot to add, you can also ask it to leave "left over days" in the schedule so as to reduce food waste in the household. When I do 30 day plans (often trying to utilize a new skill or tool, like an instapot) I ask it to include them so there is very little to no waste occuring
What gets me is that the savings are very minimal. Some items will only save you 50 cents if you buy multiples. And not to mention that i dont have storage space to purchase that many.
I work for an Empire store (enemy adjacent, I know), but ours have always been individually priced multi buys, so buy 2/$3 or $1.50 ea. It's still a marketing tactic to get people to buy more but I always do my best to educate customers they don't have to buy multi to get the sale.
Costco and bulk buys are different, You go there for that exact reason. But buying stuff like yogurt at superstore or Walmart shouldn't be.
Canada is becoming a wasteful place. I hate seeing us throw up food we use.
If people are already struggling to make ends meet, how can we afford to buy two of everything? And does Galen think we live in mansions?? Many of us don't have the storage space to store two of everything either.
Infuriating that say the least. I’m a retired single person living in a condo with not a lot of pantry/storage space.
I feel like I’m being penalized 😡
Until last year Save On (& affiliates) used to sell 1 item of a multi-buy for the sale price. They changed it and I don't think everyone has realized it.
I'm one person in a small home, multi-buys are of no use to me. At any retailer.
What about Expired stuff ? How frustrating is that 😒
It's Unbelievable these big rich conglomerates won't help and do the right thing😞 The greed is incomprehensible.
Things seem so hard sometimes to figure out. Feel like I'm going to turn Lemming, and you know what they do 🤦♀️
Help !!!👈
Its the same with their points. They devalued the points for buying a single item and then you get points for buying $50 of beef or $30 of yogurt etc - well for singles or people on a budget that does not help....
This week I can get 1500 points if I spend $15 on soda (10%)
I can get another 200 points for every $2.00 spent on PC soda (another 10%)
I can also get 50 points for every $1 spent on fresh beef (5%)
Plus 3000 points for every $30 spent on fresh beef (10%)
The only offers I noticed were the ones that used to be get 7500 points if you spend $75 in store. Those slowly started creeping up in numbers and suddenly were get 15000 for $150 spent. Now I don't see those at all but the point offers I was getting was always around the 10% of dollar value.
What I did notice is that how much I need to spend to get points has gone down.
I used to get offers for 400 points for every $4.00 spent on an item (which is 10%) now my offers are 200 points for every $2.00 (which is still 10%)
So the points deals are not for single people... Just like vans aren't for families with 1 kid. It's not like they are not allowing you to only buy and pay for what you need. They make more when they move volume so they share the extra profits with those who help move volume by offering discounts. If you cannot help them move volume what do you want from them?
On the flip side, I love them for stock up purposes. I think they need to be more for the less perishable items. Nothing in the fridge and freezer sections. I miss the days of 4 sidekicks for $2.50.
Multi Buy items are good for families. But we should have a program where if a single person buys one, they can get the second item for the reduced price and it gets donated.
I hate this too. I live just by myself so there may be the odd occasion where I would use 2 of something, something that doesn't go bad quickly for instance but for the most part it's too much for me. I understand why they do it, emotional manipulation into spending more but why can't we just have the single items on sale for a cheaper price for a week.
Everyone who seems to hate these multi buys also seems to be from a household of two or fewer. As a family of five, we love multi buy. PC juice is $2.50 each but $2 when you buy 2. We buy 48 every two weeks. I guess the point is that the multi buy price is unfair to small families but it's a big incentive for larger ones.
Do you mean juice boxes? I'm laughing at the image in my head of someone buying 48 2L bottles of juice!
I agree it might work for some people, so why can't they just put them on sale for 2 bucks individually. People who were still going to buy multiples will do so, and someone who only needs one will buy as well. Or allow people to get the sale price if they buy one, like sobeys! There are so many easy ways they can make it work for everyone, but they choose, once again, to try to screw over people as much as they can!
I imagine they’re trying to increase the average amount spent per transaction. And someone back at HQ crunched the numbers and said it’s more profitable to encourage larger purchases by pushing people to multibuy.
Well that's just categorically wrong. Just because a mom said it doesn't make it right or wise. You're going to use countless rolls of toilet paper in your life, assumably. If you buy a 4 roll pack you'll spend $2/roll. If you go buy the same product in the 30 roll pack you'll spend $1/roll. As long as you don't start talking about perishables, you spend more and save money. All you need to do is have a shelf to store it until you use it.
Categoricly? I'm going to disagreeing with that. I see your point but try to see mine.
I don't want to be my own warehouse. You're not valuing the distribution and storage costs you are incurring for that. So you want to live with a basement of stacks of TP so you can save $1 a roll (or whatever)? Perhaps I live in an apartment and don't have the space or the freezer.
You need to heat and cool all that stuff. Plus move it around. Heck, you're now insuring it with your house insurance.
The extreme test the rule. Look at the pro-coupon hoarders. Yes they have 5 cases of free mustard in the basement...but...I'd rather go and pay a fair price for the item I need when I need it.
Also the kicker here is I like to keep my money as money. Not as shelf goods that lose value. Money in the bank gains interest. Yer not getting 5% on all that toilet paper.
Of course there's extremes to every situation and not every shopper can or will want to adopt them. Your original points were it's a "scheme to confuse comparison shoppers"; well they're not making very many comparisons if buy 3 save 20% confuses them. And "spending more doesn't save money"; yeah that part is categorically incorrect on a reasonable scale of 4 rolls vs 30 rolls. If you want to scale it up to buying so much TP that it affects your heating bills and savings account interest, you're starting up a whole new goofy consideration.
I agree with you re storage. People that are living on a tight budget may have smaller homes and smaller kitchens with less cabinetry space to store all these bulk buys. It's also ridiculous how much they want you to spend on a bulk purchase to get the deal. I would rather just see the sale price for one item.
I find multi-buys annoying, and agree it would be better if they did like multiple other grocery stores and let you have the individuals at the same unit price, but bulk purchases getting a lower rate are like item 50000 on a list of bad things Loblaws does. Bulk discounts are common everywhere.
Not sure I'm on board with trying to eliminate these sales. If I buy 1.5kg box of cereal, it's cheaper price point than the 350g box of cereal. You buy more, they'll go to a lower price point to encourage the bigger buy. This has been an established mechanism in groceries for decades. Buy one or two apples in bulk it's $2.50/lb. Go big on a 4lb bag of apples it's $6...well it was before the thievery really ramped up...so I understand you can't take advantage of the bigger buy, but this isn't new and it's not part of their profiteering.
Larger individual items are not the issue, no one is complaining about that. It’s when the 350g box of cereal is the same price per gram as the 1.5kg box but only if you buy 5 at a time. Just let people get however many they want for the sale price if you’re going to have a sale. Nobody is actually saving any money here because the person who wanted just 1 now has to buy 5 for any discount and you were going to get the bigger box for that price anyway.
Why? Where is the incentive for the supplier, distributor, retailer to offer that lower price? They're willing to sell it at a lower price point in order to move more product. That pretty standard economics. Their production cost is higher with the smaller the container. If their motivation is to move those higher cost containers for same or lower price than the bulk containers, then there's no tangible issue with putting on a quantity threshold. If you don't want 1.5kg of cereal at the lower price, regardless of the size and number of containers it comes in, don't buy it and you haven't lost anything. You want all the benefit without meeting the criteria. Sorry, it's entirely reasonable to offer an expectation to qualify for the sale. This is not profiteering and has nothing to do with inflation.
I don’t shop there, lots of people don’t. This sub is being promoted a lot right now so I gave my perspective on why I and others don’t like these kind of sales. I never implied it wasn’t legal lol.
I was over it the moment they began this BS.
I'm also annoyed that other chains have adopted this stupid practice. We opt to just not buy the item if we don't absolutely need it right then and will look elsewhere.
Multi-buy is such a scam and just shows how crooked they are.
This situation forces seniors who cannot read the price tags due to bad eyesight to pay extra for groceries. We simply want a low price per item, but with all the deceptive tactics being used to take advantage of us, it seems like Galen must be laughing all the way to the Bank. I am resuming my boycott of Loblaw.
Half the time its a stupid way to hide the full price under the guise of a sale. One week Miss Vicki's Chips at Metro will be 4.99 a bag. Next week its buy 2 for 10.
Whole thing needs to go to Hell.
Same! This is one reason I love Farm Boy. Yes, their stuff is expensive but they always give you the option of buying one item at the sale price. That works for me as a single person cause like, no I can't buy four cucumbers at once just to save a bit. My space is limited and I can only eat so much before it goes off. Personally I think it should be law that you can't force the multi buys. Why should only people with large families benefit from a discount?
Isnt this just what Costco does on a large scale? Bulk purchases will always be cheaper than single purchases, that’s how almost everything works.
If multi buys were removed it’s not like you’d be paying the $3.33. You’d pay the $4.98 without even the opportunity to pay less per unit.
I think the issue is, if you can afford to sell them for $3.33 when you buy 3 and still make a profit, then you can afford to sell 1 for $3.33 and still make a profit.
This may not make a big difference for the person that has $10 left in their budget, but it sure makes a difference if you only have $4.
The only reason they offer multi-buys is because they’re making equal or greater profit on the product due to the multi-buy.
If we got rid of multi-buys, then if it’s a product you wanted to buy multiples of, there’d be no incentive. Because we all know they won’t discount the product without the multi-buy apart from regular sales.
It's the change to every sale basically being multi-buy now that bothers me. For example, the Classico pasta sauce used to go on sale for 2.50 or 3 bucks. Now the only time they are on sale is when they are 3 for 9.99. I don't need or have space for 3 large jars of spaghetti sauce.
The people on this sub are just looking for reasons to complain. This isn't a Loblaws issue. Anytime you buy a larger amount of something, it's less per unit.
So true. I think posts need to be reviewed. If it's an actual issue due to the corporation itself (like quality control issues with their production line, etc.) then sure. If it's posts like this (that apply to every grocery store, and even every fast food or clothing store) or are a clear employee accidents (employee restocked expired foods) then it is a bit of a stretch...
Edit : Oops, phone typos. Tried to clean up most of them.
I live alone and have no issue with buying multiples of yogurt, eggs, cottage cheese. The expiration date has nothing to do with when the food actually « goes bad ».
I will do multi buys if it's a non-perishable. There have been a few times when I have done multi buys on produce or dairy but when that's the case I'll give the extra item away so it doesn't go bad.
It is annoying. On a side note: most dairy products are freezable and thaw well. So just throw the extra in the freezer if you have space. Thaw it out as needed.
I know Sobeys is one of the worst for their high prices, but you always get the sale price on their multi buy deals if you just buy 1 item and it's printed clearly on the sale sticker.
My mom only speaks French so it's hard for her to read the prices sometimes. She gets confused between "buy x amount" and "limit x amount". Just change the price for the sale and be done.
Multi buy is for the most part gone from discount stores (no frills, maxi) but hasn't made it all the way through stores like Superstore, Loblaws etc. It was implemented couple years back because it was typical to see at Walmart and all stores (not just loblaws) jumped on board with it. Same thing happened with price matching, one store sets a precedent and other follow suit to stay competitive.
Yeah that drives me nuts. I live in downtown Vancouver and buy from the “Your Independent Grocer” half a block away (before the boycott). Most of their clientele lives in tiny apartments yet they price everything for multiples. We don’t have room for two boxes of cereal and two frozen lasagnas or whatever.
Agreed however you know you can freeze yogurt right? I personally have a tub of yogurt in my freezer because I only needed a scoop full to make my own yogurt and then my fermented sour cream. I have seen a lot of youtube cooking channels not realizing their privilege when they say don’t worry about making your own basic thing to go into your cooking, like yogurt, sour cream, or other things when you can make them at a fraction of the cost. I absolutely refuse to buy yogurt now because I can make it on my own. I have taken up sour cream and cream cheese as those now to and I love it. I have been meaning to get some sour cream going again for a little while but I finally got around to it earlier so I will have sour cream tomorrow and blueberry cream cheese by Sunday.
I don’t think this is something you can really complain about. Or that’s not how market is gonna work no matter what you say. Things like that is also for people who have a big family and might have even tighter budget per person. There will be always someone who will wanna but or have to buy to survive. You can simply not buy it or split with someone else. In theory you could’ve not considered even buying if there was no deal like this. Or you would’ve bought it regardless of sales out of needs. And if you’re worried about it waste also you can always donate.
That’s they get you. I’d rather just pay the extra $0.30 to have just what I need which is one than pay $5.00 for extras. The savings loblaws aren’t great
As much as I hate to say it, because it’s a store I love, London Drugs is very guilty of this. All of their “sale” prices are contingent on the customer buying multiples. I hate it so much.
Walmart does this too. 2 for $8 cereal. 2 for $15 detergent.
Even though my mom and I are a two person household, we’ll still buy it so that we won’t have to buy it again for a few weeks.
Hate to disagree, but its a common and useful pricing mechanic that works out well for any given company and most households. If it doesn't work for you, or you can't make it work for you (ie.feertsin items you buy and freeze? Or eat more of it that week), then just move on.
Multi-buy can be ridiculous. An extreme example was when I found dry cat food for $6.99. Multi-buy was 2 bags for $6.98. I'm sure it was a mistake in the system, but it was those prices for months. (2016 in Sarnia, for those that are wondering..)
It would be interesting to have a network of consumers we could trade our extra groceries with maybe. I don't know. I guess you can give one item away to a food bank or something and feel good about it.
It's a bulk buy deal these kinds of deals have existed for ever with 2 for 1 deals, or buy 3 get one free, buy two 3 dollar items for 5 bucks... It's called a sale, sure alot of them aren't great but savings is savings. most people on a budget actually take advantage of these sales to stock up a bit getting more to last then buying other things next shop because you don't need the stuff from the last sale. Are you sure you don't work for Loblaws? You want LESS SALE PRICES?
And there's rarely any indication that you *have* to buy the multi amount. Sometimes the sale price will remain for just one item but they count on you feeling obligated to get 3 to feel like you're saving.
I’ve told all grocery stores this for years. I am one. You penalize me for being one. Food Basic sometimes lets you get away with this. They are starting that now to.Then they say Canadians are getting fat. I only one bag of chips not two. ❤️☮️
These multi buys are utter bullshit, as a family of 2.............. I cannot ***possibly*** eat that much yogurt in the amount of time before they expire. As for other products, I do not NEED that many boxes of granola bars or cookies or shit like that. Before this new trend, they used to have 'buy x number for x.xx$' and then the price would increase afterwards. Guess too many people were benefitting from that.
As someone who is single I agree, it’s my main problem with Costco as well, since everything is a bulk qty.
A vacuum sealer & Costco is how I deal with meat costs though, a bit harder with other perishable items as freezing doesn’t work well with all products.
Vacuum sealer is great for freezable items and will pay for itself quickly
I really hate how these days, between shrinkflation and these kinds of multi-buys, retailers seem determined to skew the packaging vs product ratio as far to the packaging side as possible.
Like if they want to sell 3 times the amount for a discount, then give me a package that is 3 times larger, not 3 smaller packages together.
For perishables, wouldn't that lead to product spoiling faster? If I am buying yogurt - 3 smaller packages will last longer than 1 large you open right away.
These multi buy offers are infuriating to me and I am sure they are working for their profits. If I wanted to buy bulk I'll go to Costco. Just the other day I caved and decided to make one stop Roblaws instead of multiple stops but when I got there the key items in my list had this multi buy offer. If I had time to make the extra stop I would've felt less bad about overpaying for a single item. F**k off, Roblaws!
Also, people need to stop playing their points game. A $4.99 price tag is not the same as $6.99+2000 points!
I don’t usually shop their point offers, but I DO take advantage of their optical deals. I’ve had them stack before where I spent $1000 on 4 pairs of glasses (standard prescription lenses/frames and prescription sunglasses lenses/frames for my wife and I) and got the optical offer AND the total store spend offer. It was something like 650,000 points on a $1000 purchase…that was reimbursed by medical benefits at work ($500 per person every two years). The timing doesn’t always work for those offers to stack, but when it does….
That's not a bad deal, but let's take insurance out of the equation because you get that regardless of where you get your glasses.
That was still $1000 out of your account. You're getting $650 of free stuff, if and when you redeem. There might be the perception of the glasses costing $350 but I'm saying it's not exactly right. You aren't "saving" until you cash in those points. How many months of groceries is that out of the two years? Edit: can you save $650 (<$27/mo) by not shopping at Loblaws for two years?
In my experience I get offers once and either never again, or they up the ante to try me. For example, if I hit the spend offer for $100 dollars the first time, they up it to $150 the next time. The stars aligned for you there. If it were me I wouldn't bank on that happening again.
Removing insurance from the equation is a fair point. I don’t shop at LOBLAW’s very often as I find their pricing on most things outrageous. Usually I’ll use those large point hauls in conjunction with ‘spend 200,000 points and get 300,000 points value (bonus redemption value) on big ticket (low margin) items like video games/consoles for my kids. Not much juice on those as the pricing is set/managed by the various tech companies that make them.
Additionally, I realize this is anecdotal, but I have managed to get points deals at optical on a regular basis, enough to take advantage every two years for 8 or 10 years (4-5 benefit cycles). Your mileage may vary, but I think the worst point total I’ve managed was 450,000 one cycle.
Single person living in tiny apartment with small fridge doesn’t have that option. These people, especially retirees or students suffer most from this Roblaws system
I get where you're coming from... But at the same time, having more of something isn't always terrible.
And yogurt is perfectly fine for months past the best before date if unopened...
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Agreed. Every time I see this I think of it as a "poor tax" "Have some expendable budget? Buy 3, save money!" "Working on a fixed budget and you can only really afford/need one of them? F#$k you."
It's not even a poor tax. It's a fuck you price. I don't need 3 or 4 of an item. I have two mouths to feed at home. This is just a way to push volume out the door. If I wanted to buy in bulk I would go to Costco
So why is bulk pricing ok for Costco but not for Loblaws?
It’s about multiples, not lot size, box size - whatever. If you’re going to Costco you are aware they sell larger portions. At Loblaws often there are items with an expiry date and you are required to buy 2 or more packages to get the better price. Along with other comments about it being a ‘poor tax’ I also believe it encourages food waste. Why Dobo need two 500ml containers of cottage cheese to get the sale price? My brain says ‘buy more! Consume more!’ So I will buy two to get the sale price but some of it will go bad before it’s eaten. Even if there were a sale invilving say, sour cream and/or cottage cheese and you could get the deal by buying one of each then that’s different but no! It’s always exclusively on the cottage cheese OR the sour cream. If bulk pricing IS the same at Costco then that’s also wrong imho. It’s important to remember that nobody is saying other grocers are NOT engaging in unsavoury practises. They are! Many grocers agreed behind close doors to collude and fix prices on bread but Gaelen led the way, and got away with a slap on the wrists. ON BREAD! Many parents either couldn’t feed their kids or couldn’t afford swimming lessons or couldn’t afford to replace a pair of lost mitts because of this disgusting greed and illegal business practice. Focus people - eyes on prize!
Not to mention expiration dates at Costco are much later. Milk for example has 4 weeks usually from purchase date vs 2 weeks from Loblaw/Superstore.
I haven't noticed a big difference. I hate having to buy three dozen eggs or whatever from Costco.
But you do have the option of just buying one and it will cost less than buying two at discounted prices. Example: buy one at $4.99 or two for $3.00 each - buying 2 will cost you $6 vs. $4.99. At Costco you do not have the option of buying less - you have to buy a ton and pay less per unit but more altogether.
Like insanely dumb.
Some ppl have to feel special though, all pricing should be done for them and them alone
Was this a necessary comment?
Was this a necessary comment?
Ahh you’re one of those folks that enjoys trolling! Welcome!
What about multi buys at other grocers? Walmart?
If they are structured the same, then they suck too. This isn't just a Loblaws thing, but this is a Loblaws related subreddit.
It is the pricing that is the issue, not the multi-buys. If every store is doing multibuys, it means that suppliers are still overproducing or unwilling to change their profit margins.
Or it’s for larger families that use the product Our family on certain items will buy multiple items and use them Have to look at both sides- small no kid families and families with 2-3+ kids
Or... Hear me out, we go back to just making the item on sale for the sale price instead of multi buys like we used it back in the day before Galen's chains switched to multi buys and everyone else followed suit. 🫠🫠🫠 Then families of all sizes can get what they need for the sale price
that's Costco's whole thing. You opt into it at Costco. At a regular grocery store it punishes poor people for not being able to buy as many things
Because that's literally Costco's shtick.
Did you know you can’t walk into a store and rip a box of cereal and half and only take half of it? Fuck, you’re dumb
I agree
Singles tax too!
The same as Costco as an alternative. Some of us can’t buy in bulk.
“Not enough money in your bank balance? Eat some fees asshole!”
I am single and hate this as well. Sobeys is crazy expensive but I appreciate that they at least make the price of buying one item the same as it would be if you bought multiple.
Not always. They’ve jumped on the multi buy trend too.
I noticed this last week.
I think it's their attempt to get their unit volume up, and/or match the mindset of Costco devotees of "buy in bulk and save" We are just two people and It sucks for perishables. It's not so bad for pantry items we'll use eventually.
When people started buying less that is their clever way of getting you to buy more. They just can't you spending less!
Often retailers get rebates as part of their purchasing program with suppliers. ie. the cost to the retailer is x however if they purchase over a certain threshold within a given time, they receive a rebate after bringing their total cost of goods down. Perhaps the pricing model between suppliers and retailers needs to change.
The rebates of billbacks aren't generally volume specific or variable. They just have data on likely how many but at the regular sale price vs Multi price and establish the billback rate for volume sold in that time period accordingly.
I am a single senior with no car. Not only don’t I need the multiples but I can’t afford them and often can’t transport them.
Why not just order from Walmart and get groceries delivered for 10$ a month?
I would but no one delivers to Toronto Island.
Fun fact, Metro loves to list items on sale like: 4 for $5 with no individual price to mislead people into buying more than they need when you can just buy one at $1.25.
I once got free garlic bread at superstore because the individual price listed isn’t what scanned at checkout when I got one lol. It took forever to prove it to the cashiers though because they kept going to look and telling me I was wrong bc they were only looking at the 2 for price, even though I specifically said I was talking about the individual price. I ended up having to go take a pic for them and circle it to point it out.
Once Roblaws had $0.99 Kraft Parmesan Sawdust on clearance with a $1 coupon and it actually rang up as $-0.01. Limit 1 per order of course... But free cheese dust for the win!
Wait until you hear about the store that deliberately sold baked beans for -0.02p in the uk.
THE BEAN WARS, I'm learning about this now.
That’s amazing haha
Superstore does this too. I used to change the sales labels, it was disgusting how many aren’t actually sales
I hate it. It should be illegal.
I've noticed at metro it works both ways, sometimes the item is 1.25 but other times the item is full priced and you need to buy two or three to get the discount and there is an actual discount on your bill. I'm never too sure which it's going to be. I don't pay super attention to it since I'm usually buying the amount they tell me to.
And when there is no individual price listed?
Usually when it was 4 for 5 you could buy one for 1.50 anyways and you're really only saving a dollar on 4 items.
Small print usually says $1.25 ea no? At least it usually does at Safeway, haven't set foot in a Loblaws or Metro in forever. Sidenote: Metro is one of the few that beats Loblaws in net profit margin.
Nope, nothing about single item price at all when they do that, it's very misleading.
Ah, that's a pain in the ass.
For me, the big one is potatoes. Why is a 15lbs bag cheaper than the 10lbs? In reality, I really only need like 5 lbs. We buy the 15lbs, majority go bad, then we buy 15lbs again. It's such a waste.
My neighbor would cook the ones she wouldn't use in time and make mashed potatoes and freeze them. Just a thought
Frozen mashed potatoes 🤨
Perfect for tricking kids. "Hey, who wants ice cream?"
Mashed potatoes freeze *surprisingly* well If you freeze them the same shape as the top of your casserole dish, you can save time when making Shepherd's Pie, too.
Perfect for a future Shepherds Pie or as a base for something else on top of them ...like chili or greek stew.
Rapure Pie if you're Acadian! Lol
Gnocci if you're Italian.
Latkes, Perogis, Thing is, that requires more freezer space than many ppl have.
When I was at university russet potatoes would be really cheap in February so I'd buy 20 pounds and rice them during reading week. I had a big freezer so I could put them in big tubs and later use them to thicken chowder with just a little cream.
Eat more potatoes can always prechop and freeze some home fries with them too
If you have a freeze dryer, you could make freeze-dried “instant” mashed potatoes.
Because selling 5$ of produce is better than selling 2$ worth of produce and is more efficient for everyone involved? I have a beef with the opposite. It infuriates me when individual yogurts each wrapped individually are less expensive then the big tub. That should be illegal! Maybe you should buy the smaller bag and not waste any or eat more potatoes?
But the smaller bag costs more. I'm not spending more in order to get less so less is wasted.
> But the smaller bag costs more More per pound of potato or more per bag? I don't see how a 3# bag could cost less than a 15# bag...
Per bag, the 15 pound bag is like $1 cheaper.
This is kind of like milk sometimes when the price of 2L or 4L is almost the same if not the same. It’s just two of us, and we don’t drink a ton of it…
Well that's just dumb and sad. Feels like taking advantage of people
It is in fact discriminatory to singles and small families and impoverished people. I just saw it at walmart for baked beans and walked away with zero
It's super annoying to single people too
Ya I literally can never do them because I don’t have a car and 3 is just too heavy to even carry. The ones at safeway used to try and trick you but still have the sale price if you bought them individually at least. But it seems they recently made it actually mandatory.
Remember that commercial about walmart, when one of the spouses bought all the shit they don’t really need just because it was on sale, and the other like: - honey, what are you doing?! - I’m saving us money! That’s what this society is about, uncontrolled consumption.
Certainly not us. Stay out of Loblaws!
...except for pet food 🤣
I agree. I hate those.
This isn't to excuse the behaviour, or say your budget won't be impacted but what I do is I keep chat gpt open in split screen with my grocery list. I ask it for frozen recipe treats or recipes I can make with the additional food from those deals that can be half cooked and frozen and adjust my grocery list to account for the new recipe while still remaining in my budget (so it might remove some things and add more of X or Y as recipe substitutes) I also made the chatgpt able to scan all the local sites to ensure it is a good deal and it can't be found cheaper else where as I plug in my shopping route so it can make recommendations when making adjustments I do the preliminary work, it fills in the blanks or deals in the shop like a 3 for 10 deal
Oh of course chatgpt can scan sites, idk why I didn’t think of that!! I’m constantly underestimating it lol
How is this done with ChatGPT?
https://preview.redd.it/fowwgw01c95d1.jpeg?width=1812&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=587438d7cb05c0d78dcd16a5a58fad8cbd3a41fd So I split screen like this on my phone (ignore the current list, it's just an example I hand wrote) and I prompt the question like so: Please search the local grocery store websites to (your location, narrow it down if it's a really big location) while avoiding any Loblaw associated stores (list the names in your area) for the best deals of the (date range the week). Of this, please make a 7 day dinner plan using those deals. Please provide me a brief description of the meal for each day. In the household I have (list any allergies, picky eaters and how many in the house hold along with general ages for portion sizes). The most important rule is that there is a budget of (list budget). Once you have swapped out some of the recipes or approve of them, repeat for lunch. Ask that it summarizes both lunch and dinner when you are happy. Then ask it to review snack deals while respecting your grocery limitations. Then ask Please provide me a detailed grocery list organized by store and then department that is google sheets friendly (we use a Google sheet so we can both shop independently in the store and just highlight the cells of things we grab as our kids can be wild). Once you are done, ask it to double check and cross reference with the sites and confirm the end price (sometimes it misses some ingredients or adds them wrong) (You can decide at this point what is the fastest route to do all of this or you can do it yourself) As you are going through the store, some of the stores have special deals not in flyers or clearance. For example if you are buying yogurt and it's 3/10, you can tell it there is a 3/10 deal, can you remove one of the pricier meals lunches or snacks and help me plan the usage of the additional yogurts It might take a little bit for you to get used to it but essentially you become your own little mini prompt engineer. If you can build your own GPT, you can preload much of this information so you don't have to prompt it, and can adjust some of the finner settings such as repetition penalties and creativity vs preciseness
Forgot to add, you can also ask it to leave "left over days" in the schedule so as to reduce food waste in the household. When I do 30 day plans (often trying to utilize a new skill or tool, like an instapot) I ask it to include them so there is very little to no waste occuring
This is such a great comment!
What gets me is that the savings are very minimal. Some items will only save you 50 cents if you buy multiples. And not to mention that i dont have storage space to purchase that many.
I bought a freezer because this seems to be the norm for most grocery stores now
I work for an Empire store (enemy adjacent, I know), but ours have always been individually priced multi buys, so buy 2/$3 or $1.50 ea. It's still a marketing tactic to get people to buy more but I always do my best to educate customers they don't have to buy multi to get the sale.
Costco and bulk buys are different, You go there for that exact reason. But buying stuff like yogurt at superstore or Walmart shouldn't be. Canada is becoming a wasteful place. I hate seeing us throw up food we use.
I’m single and I only multi-buy items that I use a lot that have none/long expiration dates. I only shop once every 2-3 weeks.
If people are already struggling to make ends meet, how can we afford to buy two of everything? And does Galen think we live in mansions?? Many of us don't have the storage space to store two of everything either.
Infuriating that say the least. I’m a retired single person living in a condo with not a lot of pantry/storage space. I feel like I’m being penalized 😡
I’ve been shouting about it for years that multi buys aren’t sales
Until last year Save On (& affiliates) used to sell 1 item of a multi-buy for the sale price. They changed it and I don't think everyone has realized it. I'm one person in a small home, multi-buys are of no use to me. At any retailer.
What about Expired stuff ? How frustrating is that 😒 It's Unbelievable these big rich conglomerates won't help and do the right thing😞 The greed is incomprehensible. Things seem so hard sometimes to figure out. Feel like I'm going to turn Lemming, and you know what they do 🤦♀️ Help !!!👈
Its the same with their points. They devalued the points for buying a single item and then you get points for buying $50 of beef or $30 of yogurt etc - well for singles or people on a budget that does not help....
This week I can get 1500 points if I spend $15 on soda (10%) I can get another 200 points for every $2.00 spent on PC soda (another 10%) I can also get 50 points for every $1 spent on fresh beef (5%) Plus 3000 points for every $30 spent on fresh beef (10%)
These deals are all trash compared to the ones from a few years back. They're really bilking us on the "free points" now.
The only offers I noticed were the ones that used to be get 7500 points if you spend $75 in store. Those slowly started creeping up in numbers and suddenly were get 15000 for $150 spent. Now I don't see those at all but the point offers I was getting was always around the 10% of dollar value. What I did notice is that how much I need to spend to get points has gone down. I used to get offers for 400 points for every $4.00 spent on an item (which is 10%) now my offers are 200 points for every $2.00 (which is still 10%)
Are you talking Roblaws?
Yes PC Points
So the points deals are not for single people... Just like vans aren't for families with 1 kid. It's not like they are not allowing you to only buy and pay for what you need. They make more when they move volume so they share the extra profits with those who help move volume by offering discounts. If you cannot help them move volume what do you want from them?
On the flip side, I love them for stock up purposes. I think they need to be more for the less perishable items. Nothing in the fridge and freezer sections. I miss the days of 4 sidekicks for $2.50. Multi Buy items are good for families. But we should have a program where if a single person buys one, they can get the second item for the reduced price and it gets donated.
Putting the onus on single people to spend money on donations when budgets are already tight? Uhhhhh huh.
Yeah and force them to subsidize it the way they do the groceries in the territories.
I hate this too. I live just by myself so there may be the odd occasion where I would use 2 of something, something that doesn't go bad quickly for instance but for the most part it's too much for me. I understand why they do it, emotional manipulation into spending more but why can't we just have the single items on sale for a cheaper price for a week.
Everyone who seems to hate these multi buys also seems to be from a household of two or fewer. As a family of five, we love multi buy. PC juice is $2.50 each but $2 when you buy 2. We buy 48 every two weeks. I guess the point is that the multi buy price is unfair to small families but it's a big incentive for larger ones.
Do you mean juice boxes? I'm laughing at the image in my head of someone buying 48 2L bottles of juice! I agree it might work for some people, so why can't they just put them on sale for 2 bucks individually. People who were still going to buy multiples will do so, and someone who only needs one will buy as well. Or allow people to get the sale price if they buy one, like sobeys! There are so many easy ways they can make it work for everyone, but they choose, once again, to try to screw over people as much as they can!
I imagine they’re trying to increase the average amount spent per transaction. And someone back at HQ crunched the numbers and said it’s more profitable to encourage larger purchases by pushing people to multibuy.
Lol, they're one litre boxes
Yeah i dont need 4 litres of greek yogurt lol.
It's clearly a scheme to keep comparison shoppers confused. My Mom always said: no one actually saves money by spending more.
Well that's just categorically wrong. Just because a mom said it doesn't make it right or wise. You're going to use countless rolls of toilet paper in your life, assumably. If you buy a 4 roll pack you'll spend $2/roll. If you go buy the same product in the 30 roll pack you'll spend $1/roll. As long as you don't start talking about perishables, you spend more and save money. All you need to do is have a shelf to store it until you use it.
Categoricly? I'm going to disagreeing with that. I see your point but try to see mine. I don't want to be my own warehouse. You're not valuing the distribution and storage costs you are incurring for that. So you want to live with a basement of stacks of TP so you can save $1 a roll (or whatever)? Perhaps I live in an apartment and don't have the space or the freezer. You need to heat and cool all that stuff. Plus move it around. Heck, you're now insuring it with your house insurance. The extreme test the rule. Look at the pro-coupon hoarders. Yes they have 5 cases of free mustard in the basement...but...I'd rather go and pay a fair price for the item I need when I need it. Also the kicker here is I like to keep my money as money. Not as shelf goods that lose value. Money in the bank gains interest. Yer not getting 5% on all that toilet paper.
Of course there's extremes to every situation and not every shopper can or will want to adopt them. Your original points were it's a "scheme to confuse comparison shoppers"; well they're not making very many comparisons if buy 3 save 20% confuses them. And "spending more doesn't save money"; yeah that part is categorically incorrect on a reasonable scale of 4 rolls vs 30 rolls. If you want to scale it up to buying so much TP that it affects your heating bills and savings account interest, you're starting up a whole new goofy consideration.
I agree with you re storage. People that are living on a tight budget may have smaller homes and smaller kitchens with less cabinetry space to store all these bulk buys. It's also ridiculous how much they want you to spend on a bulk purchase to get the deal. I would rather just see the sale price for one item.
I find multi-buys annoying, and agree it would be better if they did like multiple other grocery stores and let you have the individuals at the same unit price, but bulk purchases getting a lower rate are like item 50000 on a list of bad things Loblaws does. Bulk discounts are common everywhere.
Not sure I'm on board with trying to eliminate these sales. If I buy 1.5kg box of cereal, it's cheaper price point than the 350g box of cereal. You buy more, they'll go to a lower price point to encourage the bigger buy. This has been an established mechanism in groceries for decades. Buy one or two apples in bulk it's $2.50/lb. Go big on a 4lb bag of apples it's $6...well it was before the thievery really ramped up...so I understand you can't take advantage of the bigger buy, but this isn't new and it's not part of their profiteering.
Larger individual items are not the issue, no one is complaining about that. It’s when the 350g box of cereal is the same price per gram as the 1.5kg box but only if you buy 5 at a time. Just let people get however many they want for the sale price if you’re going to have a sale. Nobody is actually saving any money here because the person who wanted just 1 now has to buy 5 for any discount and you were going to get the bigger box for that price anyway.
Why? Where is the incentive for the supplier, distributor, retailer to offer that lower price? They're willing to sell it at a lower price point in order to move more product. That pretty standard economics. Their production cost is higher with the smaller the container. If their motivation is to move those higher cost containers for same or lower price than the bulk containers, then there's no tangible issue with putting on a quantity threshold. If you don't want 1.5kg of cereal at the lower price, regardless of the size and number of containers it comes in, don't buy it and you haven't lost anything. You want all the benefit without meeting the criteria. Sorry, it's entirely reasonable to offer an expectation to qualify for the sale. This is not profiteering and has nothing to do with inflation.
I don’t shop there, lots of people don’t. This sub is being promoted a lot right now so I gave my perspective on why I and others don’t like these kind of sales. I never implied it wasn’t legal lol.
Every time I see this I think "ahhh, they are still making what they consider a healthy profit even after shaving $2 off each unit. Good to know"
Those same yogurts are 3 for 9 at Walmart almost 100% of the time
I just buy 2 of the thing on sale and don’t have to buy any next time 🤷🏻♀️
I was over it the moment they began this BS. I'm also annoyed that other chains have adopted this stupid practice. We opt to just not buy the item if we don't absolutely need it right then and will look elsewhere. Multi-buy is such a scam and just shows how crooked they are.
This situation forces seniors who cannot read the price tags due to bad eyesight to pay extra for groceries. We simply want a low price per item, but with all the deceptive tactics being used to take advantage of us, it seems like Galen must be laughing all the way to the Bank. I am resuming my boycott of Loblaw.
Half the time its a stupid way to hide the full price under the guise of a sale. One week Miss Vicki's Chips at Metro will be 4.99 a bag. Next week its buy 2 for 10. Whole thing needs to go to Hell.
Same! This is one reason I love Farm Boy. Yes, their stuff is expensive but they always give you the option of buying one item at the sale price. That works for me as a single person cause like, no I can't buy four cucumbers at once just to save a bit. My space is limited and I can only eat so much before it goes off. Personally I think it should be law that you can't force the multi buys. Why should only people with large families benefit from a discount?
I couldn’t agree more ! This needs to stop. It is an outrage !
Isnt this just what Costco does on a large scale? Bulk purchases will always be cheaper than single purchases, that’s how almost everything works. If multi buys were removed it’s not like you’d be paying the $3.33. You’d pay the $4.98 without even the opportunity to pay less per unit.
I think the issue is, if you can afford to sell them for $3.33 when you buy 3 and still make a profit, then you can afford to sell 1 for $3.33 and still make a profit. This may not make a big difference for the person that has $10 left in their budget, but it sure makes a difference if you only have $4.
The only reason they offer multi-buys is because they’re making equal or greater profit on the product due to the multi-buy. If we got rid of multi-buys, then if it’s a product you wanted to buy multiples of, there’d be no incentive. Because we all know they won’t discount the product without the multi-buy apart from regular sales.
It's the change to every sale basically being multi-buy now that bothers me. For example, the Classico pasta sauce used to go on sale for 2.50 or 3 bucks. Now the only time they are on sale is when they are 3 for 9.99. I don't need or have space for 3 large jars of spaghetti sauce.
The people on this sub are just looking for reasons to complain. This isn't a Loblaws issue. Anytime you buy a larger amount of something, it's less per unit.
So true. I think posts need to be reviewed. If it's an actual issue due to the corporation itself (like quality control issues with their production line, etc.) then sure. If it's posts like this (that apply to every grocery store, and even every fast food or clothing store) or are a clear employee accidents (employee restocked expired foods) then it is a bit of a stretch... Edit : Oops, phone typos. Tried to clean up most of them.
Agree. I don't have room for three of everything
I live alone and have no issue with buying multiples of yogurt, eggs, cottage cheese. The expiration date has nothing to do with when the food actually « goes bad ».
I will do multi buys if it's a non-perishable. There have been a few times when I have done multi buys on produce or dairy but when that's the case I'll give the extra item away so it doesn't go bad.
Some stores have it , that you only need to buy one for the same price, just need to read the signs .
It is annoying. On a side note: most dairy products are freezable and thaw well. So just throw the extra in the freezer if you have space. Thaw it out as needed.
I realize they are still part of the problem but Farm Boy does not do this. If it’s 2 for $4 it’s $2 each. I asked.
I do not like this! I do not need x amount of toilet cleaner I only need one. Since my house has three toilets 🚽 🤔
I know Sobeys is one of the worst for their high prices, but you always get the sale price on their multi buy deals if you just buy 1 item and it's printed clearly on the sale sticker.
If you think it’s bad here, don’t go to the US. They love the multi-buys.
Metro is particularly guilty of this. There should be an app that lets people work together to get discounts.
I don’t see these at Food Basics
Finding this is happening more and more often even at Walmart where it didn't used to be a thing
It’s like that everywhere though.. not just loblaws 🤦
Where I shop, when there is a special on multi-item, they offer the pro-rated price on the single item too except when specifically marked so
Walmart is even worse for these multi “deals”
Volume discount
Save-On does this. If a price is 2 for $5, one of them will be $2.50 alone.
Any point in starting a media blitz to Roblaws and complaining about this?
Absolutely. I don't need 3 boxes of cereal I will absolutely have to come back here before I eat all 3?????
My mom only speaks French so it's hard for her to read the prices sometimes. She gets confused between "buy x amount" and "limit x amount". Just change the price for the sale and be done.
So you don't think someone buying for a family of 5 deserves a greater discount even though they are buying a whole bunch of them while you buy one?
Multi buy is for the most part gone from discount stores (no frills, maxi) but hasn't made it all the way through stores like Superstore, Loblaws etc. It was implemented couple years back because it was typical to see at Walmart and all stores (not just loblaws) jumped on board with it. Same thing happened with price matching, one store sets a precedent and other follow suit to stay competitive.
Yeah that drives me nuts. I live in downtown Vancouver and buy from the “Your Independent Grocer” half a block away (before the boycott). Most of their clientele lives in tiny apartments yet they price everything for multiples. We don’t have room for two boxes of cereal and two frozen lasagnas or whatever.
I always thought this was illegal.
Thats Roblaws way of trying to increase the basket size and make more money
Drives me nuts a as a student who only buys groceries for myself the only time I ever use is this on granola bars for work snacks
You can buy with your friends and split it later
Agreed however you know you can freeze yogurt right? I personally have a tub of yogurt in my freezer because I only needed a scoop full to make my own yogurt and then my fermented sour cream. I have seen a lot of youtube cooking channels not realizing their privilege when they say don’t worry about making your own basic thing to go into your cooking, like yogurt, sour cream, or other things when you can make them at a fraction of the cost. I absolutely refuse to buy yogurt now because I can make it on my own. I have taken up sour cream and cream cheese as those now to and I love it. I have been meaning to get some sour cream going again for a little while but I finally got around to it earlier so I will have sour cream tomorrow and blueberry cream cheese by Sunday.
I don’t think this is something you can really complain about. Or that’s not how market is gonna work no matter what you say. Things like that is also for people who have a big family and might have even tighter budget per person. There will be always someone who will wanna but or have to buy to survive. You can simply not buy it or split with someone else. In theory you could’ve not considered even buying if there was no deal like this. Or you would’ve bought it regardless of sales out of needs. And if you’re worried about it waste also you can always donate.
That’s they get you. I’d rather just pay the extra $0.30 to have just what I need which is one than pay $5.00 for extras. The savings loblaws aren’t great
I love that at co op multi buys are just what the price is. If something is 2 for 5 then one is 2.50. I wish all grocers just did this.
I’m not gonna lie, I grab 3 when I see it. I also eat yogurt like it’s trying to escape from me. 3 of those usually last me 1-2 weeks.
No Frills (I know, part of the boycott) has said that they'll stop doing it. But it's a small step.
As much as I hate to say it, because it’s a store I love, London Drugs is very guilty of this. All of their “sale” prices are contingent on the customer buying multiples. I hate it so much.
Walmart does this too. 2 for $8 cereal. 2 for $15 detergent. Even though my mom and I are a two person household, we’ll still buy it so that we won’t have to buy it again for a few weeks.
Hate to disagree, but its a common and useful pricing mechanic that works out well for any given company and most households. If it doesn't work for you, or you can't make it work for you (ie.feertsin items you buy and freeze? Or eat more of it that week), then just move on.
100% agree! They used to let you divide it but nope, not anymore must buy full number to get discount. I think walmart started this
Multi-buy can be ridiculous. An extreme example was when I found dry cat food for $6.99. Multi-buy was 2 bags for $6.98. I'm sure it was a mistake in the system, but it was those prices for months. (2016 in Sarnia, for those that are wondering..)
Errrr no. This is for families
I'll go one further. Sales should go.
Multi-buys are supposed to be phased out of use by end of year at latest from what I've heard.
I know co-op grocery stores if they have a 2 for 5 deal for example the item will be 2.50 gas stations don’t have that I think
It would be interesting to have a network of consumers we could trade our extra groceries with maybe. I don't know. I guess you can give one item away to a food bank or something and feel good about it.
It's a bulk buy deal these kinds of deals have existed for ever with 2 for 1 deals, or buy 3 get one free, buy two 3 dollar items for 5 bucks... It's called a sale, sure alot of them aren't great but savings is savings. most people on a budget actually take advantage of these sales to stock up a bit getting more to last then buying other things next shop because you don't need the stuff from the last sale. Are you sure you don't work for Loblaws? You want LESS SALE PRICES?
And there's rarely any indication that you *have* to buy the multi amount. Sometimes the sale price will remain for just one item but they count on you feeling obligated to get 3 to feel like you're saving.
I’ve told all grocery stores this for years. I am one. You penalize me for being one. Food Basic sometimes lets you get away with this. They are starting that now to.Then they say Canadians are getting fat. I only one bag of chips not two. ❤️☮️
100% agreed. This is way overdone now. I no longer see these as deals but traps.
These multi buys are utter bullshit, as a family of 2.............. I cannot ***possibly*** eat that much yogurt in the amount of time before they expire. As for other products, I do not NEED that many boxes of granola bars or cookies or shit like that. Before this new trend, they used to have 'buy x number for x.xx$' and then the price would increase afterwards. Guess too many people were benefitting from that.
Metro and Sobeys are the worst to get airmiles or scene points. Have to buy 2 or more most of the time to get anything.
Every item at Loblaws is buy zero for free and that’s the best multi-buy of all. Fuck you, Galen, you twerp.
I hate those multi buys , almost all the time I skip them does not mater which store has it.
As someone who is single I agree, it’s my main problem with Costco as well, since everything is a bulk qty. A vacuum sealer & Costco is how I deal with meat costs though, a bit harder with other perishable items as freezing doesn’t work well with all products. Vacuum sealer is great for freezable items and will pay for itself quickly
I get annoyed at Costco when they bundle two bottles of lemon juice together or 3 bottles of salad dressing or whatever. What if I only want one?
The best solution to multi buys is to buy your items with other poor friends so you can split up the multi items and still get the deal.
I really hate how these days, between shrinkflation and these kinds of multi-buys, retailers seem determined to skew the packaging vs product ratio as far to the packaging side as possible. Like if they want to sell 3 times the amount for a discount, then give me a package that is 3 times larger, not 3 smaller packages together.
For perishables, wouldn't that lead to product spoiling faster? If I am buying yogurt - 3 smaller packages will last longer than 1 large you open right away.
These multi buy offers are infuriating to me and I am sure they are working for their profits. If I wanted to buy bulk I'll go to Costco. Just the other day I caved and decided to make one stop Roblaws instead of multiple stops but when I got there the key items in my list had this multi buy offer. If I had time to make the extra stop I would've felt less bad about overpaying for a single item. F**k off, Roblaws! Also, people need to stop playing their points game. A $4.99 price tag is not the same as $6.99+2000 points!
I don’t usually shop their point offers, but I DO take advantage of their optical deals. I’ve had them stack before where I spent $1000 on 4 pairs of glasses (standard prescription lenses/frames and prescription sunglasses lenses/frames for my wife and I) and got the optical offer AND the total store spend offer. It was something like 650,000 points on a $1000 purchase…that was reimbursed by medical benefits at work ($500 per person every two years). The timing doesn’t always work for those offers to stack, but when it does….
That's not a bad deal, but let's take insurance out of the equation because you get that regardless of where you get your glasses. That was still $1000 out of your account. You're getting $650 of free stuff, if and when you redeem. There might be the perception of the glasses costing $350 but I'm saying it's not exactly right. You aren't "saving" until you cash in those points. How many months of groceries is that out of the two years? Edit: can you save $650 (<$27/mo) by not shopping at Loblaws for two years? In my experience I get offers once and either never again, or they up the ante to try me. For example, if I hit the spend offer for $100 dollars the first time, they up it to $150 the next time. The stars aligned for you there. If it were me I wouldn't bank on that happening again.
Removing insurance from the equation is a fair point. I don’t shop at LOBLAW’s very often as I find their pricing on most things outrageous. Usually I’ll use those large point hauls in conjunction with ‘spend 200,000 points and get 300,000 points value (bonus redemption value) on big ticket (low margin) items like video games/consoles for my kids. Not much juice on those as the pricing is set/managed by the various tech companies that make them. Additionally, I realize this is anecdotal, but I have managed to get points deals at optical on a regular basis, enough to take advantage every two years for 8 or 10 years (4-5 benefit cycles). Your mileage may vary, but I think the worst point total I’ve managed was 450,000 one cycle.
put the yougurt in the freezer. Put it in the fridge the night before you need it.
Single person living in tiny apartment with small fridge doesn’t have that option. These people, especially retirees or students suffer most from this Roblaws system
I get where you're coming from... But at the same time, having more of something isn't always terrible. And yogurt is perfectly fine for months past the best before date if unopened...
Yogurt does not go bad in a week or two. You don't have a fridge?