It’s Time To Fight Grocery Greed

The Saturday Huddle is a weekly column that features opinion, analysis and reflections on Huddle stories, podcasts and business news in the region. Derek Montague is a Huddle reporter based in Halifax.

Inflation is the boogeyman who doesn’t want to go away. I’m guessing If I surveyed people across the country, most would say it has been a bigger concern over the last half year than Covid-19.

With Covid you can take precautions; if you’re healthy, chances are you’ll survive it after a weeks-long battle. But inflation has taken a chunk out of everyone.

As I write this, a cold wind keeps howling, reminding me that the humid days of Halifax summer are almost over and we’ll soon have to turn on our heaters. That’s just fantastic, considering the cost of home heating oil has skyrocketed during the pandemic. And, as we speak, Nova Scotia Power is trying to justify raising rates to increase its profit.

Yes, corporate trust across Canada is in the toilet — almost like we vomited up some bad food. That analogy is fitting since food prices these days are enough to make anyone sick. It is by far the biggest stress when we talk about inflation.

We can add a blanket or sweater when we get cold instead of constantly turning up the heat. We can sacrifice car trips to save on gas. But it’s much harder to live on an empty stomach. It doesn’t help that our healthiest food staples were expensive before the pandemic. Now, ordering a large pizza gives you more bang for your buck than a large salad.

And given that we only have two major grocery companies in Atlantic Canada (Loblaws and Empire), we seem to be at the mercy of these folks being good corporate citizens.

I’m sure it won’t shock you to learn that these companies are not good corporate citizens. Those of you with long memories may remember the bread-fixing fiasco. Then, of course, came the Ottawa hearings on hero pay.

These greedy grocery giants all got a big pat on the back for upping the wage of frontline workers in the early days of the pandemic. “Coincidentally,” all of these companies suddenly cut the new wage at the same time–even though Covid was still raging and frontline workers were still at risk.

RELATED: Halifax Demonstrators Condemn Grocery Giants For Cutting ‘Hero Pay’

If you didn’t need any more convincing that grocery giants aren’t going to help you and your family during times of high inflation, just check out these comments from Michael Medline, the CEO of Empire Company.

We reported on a speech Medline gave at the company’s AGM on September 15 — one that made it sound like Empire itself was under attack during times of high inflation by those in the public fed up with food prices.

“Quite frankly I am tired of these armchair quarterbacks who make little effort to understand even the basics of our business but are comfortable sitting on the sidelines pontificating about how Canadian companies are reaping unreasonable profits off the backs of inflation,” he said.

“These reckless and incendiary attacks are meant to divide us and sit in stark contrast to the collaboration and problem solving that we experienced in the darkest moments of the pandemic.”

RELATED: Sobeys Boss On Rising Profits: ‘I Refuse To Apologize For Our Success’

That same day, Empire revealed it had posted a $187.5 million profit in the first quarter of this fiscal year- up 4.1 percent compared to last year.

Medline’s comments show extreme arrogance on behalf of Empire. But he can afford to be arrogant and tone-deaf when he only has one competitor with virtually the same prices.

It’s clear that grocery giants don’t expect the average consumer to fight back, but I’m here to tell you there is a way. When Medline’s comments were made, we had a discussion in our newsroom about grocery alternatives in our cities. Sure, the mom-and-pop stores are a dying breed, but they are still out there.

On social media, one Huddle reader mentioned Fredericton’s Victory Meat Market as an option. That brought back great memories of a great corporate citizen.

When I attended St. Thomas University, it was universal knowledge that Victory had competitive prices for meat and, best of all, supported the student community. I once won a Welcome Week hot dog eating contest that was made possible after Victory donated the dogs without asking for any fanfare.

In Dartmouth, many people shop at Dave’s for high-quality, reasonably priced, fruits and veggies. I’ve gone there many times and not once did I find anything overly ripe or not fit to eat. When you go to Sobey’s or Superstore, however, you must constantly check a pack of strawberries to make sure you won’t have to return it later.

So, if we love our neighbourhood shops so much, why aren’t there more of them? And why don’t we use them more? One word: convenience.

We are a society that will spend more money on something if it saves us time and effort. For all of its flaws, the giant grocery chain offers convenience in spades. You can find all your food types (and more) in one location. In a day and age where we all believe to be too busy, this is often worth the extra money.

The problem with the smaller shops is there’s no way you can stock up your fridge or pantry in one stop. Dave’s is great for my fruit but I have to go elsewhere for most other items. That’s more time, and more bus stops, to do my shopping.

But I am now willing to argue that those extra stops will be worth our time. We need to send a message that the arrogance and lack of leadership shown by grocery giants will not be tolerated, especially during a time of incredible financial stress.

So many people are struggling to afford food right now that, not long ago, Halifax Police were stationed in Superstores to cut down on shoplifting. A couple of months ago I spoke to some of the workers at a Halifax Superstore who told stories of people trying to get away with hundreds of dollars worth of food. I can only assume how desperate they must be to try and run off with a cart loaded with groceries.

These companies clearly keep good track of how much money they rake in. If enough people started shopping at independent outlets, they will surely learn about this new trend.

I mentioned Fredericton earlier, and how blessed you are to have Victory Meat Market. You are also blessed with arguably the greatest weekend market known to humankind.

If you’re reading this, chances are it’s early Saturday morning. That gives you plenty of time to head down to the market and buy as many local products as you can.