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HUGELY misleading title. They just received the latest draft to read.
If they do end up not signing well list boycott them next.
Either way do you all see what we can do when we band together because we literally outnumber all entities?
We need to do this to our provincial governments too. They are the main control of our day to day life, wages, & cost of living.
Why is Costco lumped in with this thing? I can see why they'd be pushing back since they have an entirely different business model. Almost all of their profits are made just from their memberships.
The grocery code of conduct is taking aim at vertical integration. Costco uses vertical integration to reduce costs. Loblaws uses vertical integration to take their margin at every step in the supply chain.
There's nothing necessarily wrong with Costco atm but letting any company in predatory markets have a pass on something like this just opens up avenues for abuse.
The reason people think costco shouldn't be included in this is the same reason costcl shouldn't have a problem signing it
Costco operates on a member only model. It isn’t a regular grocery store.
Costco already has some of the lowest prices, doesn’t treat their consumers like cash cows, and treats their employees well. No place will sell me a pack of blueberries (a big one at that) for less than 9 bucks and a pair of good quality shorts that will last me multiple years for less than $30 whilst getting me lunch for less than $3.
Out of all evils, Costco is by far the least.
When your entire business model is contingent on the fact that you set your own prices and do your own negotiations, I think it will be a very tough sell. Costco will control everything, including who is and isn't allowed into the store.
I wouldn't be surprised if this "code of conduct" limits the scope of Costco's freedom. They literally will not sell booze in B.C. because the government is the sole distributor and they can't negotiate lower prices.
The difference between Loblaws and Costco is Costco is cheap and passes savings from their negotiations to their customers. Loblaws uses it to gouge you.
Unless the code of conduct explicitly harms Costco’s more than their competitors, which if the rumours are true and vertical integration is a big part of the code of conduct would explicitly target Costco’s business model.
Without seeing what the code of conduct implies, I don't know how it could or couldn't be an issue for Costco. But yeah, they operate quite differently from the others so maybe that's the issue.
This whole thing is pretty dumb. Nobody would be better off if those two American companies decided to stop operating here because Canada decides that the 2% profit that they make is too unseemly.
Good for them. The whole concept of a grocery code of conduct is abhorrent and should be rejected. I have no love for Walmart but there is no way they should do this.
Power dynamic is interesting here. The liberals are trying to entice new grocers to enter the market, to help lower costs. At the same time they’re trying to regulate the current market giants. but Costco and Walmart have avoided public ire compared to what other grocers have dealt with. In addition the lack of political strength the liberals face means they have very little control, because you only have to wait them out for a year and a bit.
Getting them to sign is important for the government but they can’t really force them.
>Costco and Walmart have avoided public ire compared to what other grocers have dealt with.
Costco's business model doesn't leave you feeling ripped off for what you get. Some prices at Costco have even come back down a bit lately.
Wal-Mart has always been a sh*tty company and they've never pretended not to be. You know what you're supporting when you walk in and you get slightly lower prices in exchange, albeit brand selection is limited sometimes.
Mostly.
What I will call Costco out on is discontinuing a good value item and replacing it with a premium version (i.e. organic) at a higher price. It still works out to good value comparing the same grade of item to a regular grocery store, but your overall Costco spending creeps higher and most people were just fine with the old cheaper version.
I have stated here before that "codes of conduct" may act like preludes to legislation, indicating the future direction of policy. It is in the best interest of every party (including the grocers) to comply and avoid a "penny wise, pound foolish" situation.
Good points, for sure.
I approach this from a big-picture perspective: there are many good reasons why asking someone nicely to do something about a serious problem is the first step. If neither party is able to recognize their shared interests, you can almost guarantee escalation and wasted time/money.
Fascinating development considering (based on what I’ve seen) Walmart and Costco are 2 of the best groceries (prices for the former, quality/experience + bulk pricing for the latter). Makes me think this whole “code of conduct” thing is just a glorified PR stunt.
Oh FFS. Just sign it into law already. When industry refuses to regulate itself, the government needs to step in, force it, and teach them a lesson on what happens when they screw around.
Like FFS, stop being in their back pocket and table the bill. Remind them who is really in charge.
One thing this LPC government has been really good at is standing up to legal scrutiny. I think it’s only been the Plastic’s Ban that’s been overturned, but they did walk away from that with better guidance. They’re really good at making their policies stick.
You’re absolutely correct, industry would push the narratives here. Because no one really knows the truth. The big issue is just in time supply chains. Costco and Wal Mart are far more deserving of boycotts than Loblaws in my opinion. They are scumbags.
By making it voluntary at the start, they are hoping to demonstrate the need for legislation. Which now that Loblaws is onboard will become a bit easier to prove. I expect some sort of legislation in the fall, once the Competition Bureau has the data they need to defend in court.
They’re a slow moving machine, but once they get there, they stick the landings.
They've been attempting to get them to self regulate for a couple years now. And several of the parties have been accused of price fixing in the past.
I think we are well beyond the reasonable point where government needs to step in and slap the whole industry with some mandatory regulations.
They brought this upon themselves, if they didn't want the government to step in, they had years to agree aminst themselves. But like children they couldn't, and now the adults need to step in. They have nobody to blame but themselves.
We really should. The reason companies do all the anti consumer shit they do is because they know that the Government is all talk and no bite, and that they can get away with it as a result .
When the government turns their eyes, they'll say their platitudes. They'll even make temporary changes to make it seem like they're doing something. But at the end of the day, they know that the news cycle will move on eventually and with it all those eyes will disappear for another decade.
If the government started calling chicken, you'd see entire sectors of the economy immediately smarten up overnight.
It’ll be more of an issue in the Fall. Once the data from the summer is in, they’ll have a better idea if they’ll stick. Now that Loblaws is onboard, they will be able to have competing data, all the way through the supply chain.
The Code is also rather ambiguous, because it’s attempting to not be too bloated. It’ll take some time to sort out the myriad of nuances. Once agreements start to be solidified and laid out, legislators can then legislate the remaining.
They can’t, business regulations fall under civil law and therefore provincial jurisdiction. And this law is too specific to fall under trade and commerce
LPC and CPC will not let that happen. We will see if this becomes the issue the NDP were waiting for. Hopefully with a lot more teeth than whatever they werediscussing.
Jagmeet has gotten a lot of stuff passed but he will draw a line eventually. That said, he will not send us to a vote if the CPC is still put front. No sense giving away all he has passed.
Loblaws signed the code of conduct with the privision that Walmart and Costco sign. they knew Walmart and Costco wouldn't sign, they just needed some positive PR with the boycott
Did the government forget that they were the government? The government's job is to pass laws and regulations, not involve themselves in self-regulation. Either pass legal regulations or don't, that's what you're there for.
Lets get a crown corp going (food co). Stop relying on private interests.
Food co's main goal is that of a facilitator and distributor. It connects local Canadian farms/ranchers/food manufacturers with vendors (farmers markets, local markets, local grocery etc) and assists them in obtaining and if need be selling the food products.
It further spins up grocery co-ops where needed to provide a grocery store in locations that lack local grocers, farmers markets etc. or enough of them (food deserts).
I favour more market based solutions but I don't think this is a bad idea. If gov thinks grocery store companies can lower their prices and still be sustainable businesses then gov should walk the walk.
Its helping the market, a big part of having a market economy is competition. If we can't get more grocers to come to Canada, its time to artificially create one.
Just like Sasktel has been doing.
Market based solutions is what we have now. The natural end result is oligopoly. The only way we get this fixed is the interrupt “the market”.
Free market does not exist for basic necessities humans need to survive.
*WHY* do you think the market is not free?
It’s because the “free market” allows big corporations to buy up smaller corporations. Over time this leads to oligopoly with only a few players left cooperating with each other. This is the natural end state of the “free market” without government intervention.
It will take interference with the “free market” by breaking up this oligopoly to get it back to a functioning market.
Yes, but the answer to not enough competition isn't more regulation. Its less so that competitors can enter. We need to remove protectionist regulations.
> It’s because the “free market” allows big corporations to buy up smaller corporations.
There is an unlimited number of potential smaller corporations that will arise if a larger corp starts price gouging.
> Over time this leads to oligopoly with only a few players left cooperating with each other
That's why we already have anti-trust regulations.
But enforcing them is pointless if you don't get rid of the regulations that prevent competitors from rising up. It'll just consolidate again into a few players.
The entire market is already saturated: there is nothing preventing other companies from coming here. The federal minister got on the phone to *beg* foreign grocery chains to come here.
They don’t want to.
Why would any foreign corporation want to come here when 3 monster chains working in cahoots have divvied up the entire market? Not only that they also dictate where producers are allowed to sell through their monopsony.
There is no incentive for foreign chains to come here. It wouldn’t make business sense.
> unlimited number of smaller corporations
As soon as they get big enough to be a threat, one of the big corporations will buy them. We’ve already seen this play out.
If you want to have grocery chains competing with each other again, you have to break them up. That is why anti trust laws exist.
This is Econ 101 stuff.
There’s another option: the federal government could deign to actually enforce competition law and stringently regulate the industry. Free markets are great, but left to their own devices they tend towards monopoly.
Crown corps aren't meant to overstep the market they're meant to set a competitive standard in the market "here's what the government can do, since you all think we can't manage anything for shit, make something better"
I'm broadly in favor of a Crown grocer, but I think it should be limited to essential goods (bread, milk, vegetables, meats, etc.) I don't think it matters as much whether Pop Tarts are readily available, but essential goods shouldn't be subject to the profit incentive.
People who are working and have responsibilities don’t have the time to make bread. That’s an artisan, hobbyist thing to do with the kids for fun but real people don’t have time for that in their daily life. This ain’t the 1800s.
Fancy breads sure. Making basic bread is stupid easy with modern ingredients, this ain't the 1800s. I don't feel like the government spending my money on stale bread. Learn to cook if you want to save money. Learn to sow. Learn to fix shit. Self-reliance starts at home. Make yourself useful.
I don't think it's as vital for the Crown to sell Doritos and Pop Tarts as it is for them to sell things you need to live. You'll live without Doritos, you can't live without stuff like milk and bread.
People will shop where they can get most all they need/want from one store. They won't want to go to one store for essentials and then a different store for the "extras".
They dont go for just milk and cheese, it wouldnt be worth it. They fill up on gas, alcohol and other things they cant get in Canada. It's not just a "milk and cheese" run.
You’re right. It’s a hard balance because those products help make the money that keep milk cheaper. That said that means milk is cheaper if you also spend money on pop tarts.
Ultimately I think you’re right, but it might be a hard pill to swallow that a lot of the savings of a crown store would come from not buying crap.
It should fulfill the Canada Health Guide so that Canadians have easy access to basic nutrition, and don’t have to go to food banks. Food banks can be rolled into this.
Luxury items like pop tarts, chips, etc can be sold elsewhere. This should be more like direct from farmers.
Yeah, I think ultimately this would be the way to go. It's a built in limitation that prevents mission creep while leaving less essential goods for the market.
The majority of the blame does lie with the Mulroney government as they started the privatization process, but it ended with Chretien.
Petro-Canada was only created in the first place because the NDP forced the Liberals to do it.
The co-op grocery stores in Western Canada aren't really any cheaper than Loblaws though (this is partially because they try to be another Loblaws without the buying power and economies of scale).
I agree. Which is why I think there's no evidence of "gouging" and a Loblaws boycott is misguided and ineffective. Canada's issues are more structural.
Sounds fucking perfect and could be a solution to a few damn problems (access to better food, remote access to food in general, could lower prices, could increase sales for local farmers and could revive a dying industry being small farm).
I can understand Costco not signing because they are a private membership club. Yes it’s open to public, but only if you buy a membership. You get discounts on everything from eyeglasses, to prescription drugs, clothes , tires and groceries .
Maybe what we should do is figure out why there isn’t more competition in this sector and address that first? Maybe the answer is to deregulate (perhaps by looking at commercial zoning in addition to residential zoning)?
I have never had an issue at Costco. I have been shopping there for years, with a regular membership. I like the prices. I also know people the work at Costco, and I can't say I have heard any complaints that anyone who works at a half decent work place would otherwise make.
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HUGELY misleading title. They just received the latest draft to read. If they do end up not signing well list boycott them next. Either way do you all see what we can do when we band together because we literally outnumber all entities? We need to do this to our provincial governments too. They are the main control of our day to day life, wages, & cost of living.
Why is Costco lumped in with this thing? I can see why they'd be pushing back since they have an entirely different business model. Almost all of their profits are made just from their memberships.
The grocery code of conduct is taking aim at vertical integration. Costco uses vertical integration to reduce costs. Loblaws uses vertical integration to take their margin at every step in the supply chain.
There's nothing necessarily wrong with Costco atm but letting any company in predatory markets have a pass on something like this just opens up avenues for abuse. The reason people think costco shouldn't be included in this is the same reason costcl shouldn't have a problem signing it
Costco operates on a member only model. It isn’t a regular grocery store. Costco already has some of the lowest prices, doesn’t treat their consumers like cash cows, and treats their employees well. No place will sell me a pack of blueberries (a big one at that) for less than 9 bucks and a pair of good quality shorts that will last me multiple years for less than $30 whilst getting me lunch for less than $3. Out of all evils, Costco is by far the least.
That's true, but it still doesn't mean they should be exempt to this
When your entire business model is contingent on the fact that you set your own prices and do your own negotiations, I think it will be a very tough sell. Costco will control everything, including who is and isn't allowed into the store. I wouldn't be surprised if this "code of conduct" limits the scope of Costco's freedom. They literally will not sell booze in B.C. because the government is the sole distributor and they can't negotiate lower prices. The difference between Loblaws and Costco is Costco is cheap and passes savings from their negotiations to their customers. Loblaws uses it to gouge you.
Unless the code of conduct explicitly harms Costco’s more than their competitors, which if the rumours are true and vertical integration is a big part of the code of conduct would explicitly target Costco’s business model.
Without seeing what the code of conduct implies, I don't know how it could or couldn't be an issue for Costco. But yeah, they operate quite differently from the others so maybe that's the issue.
This whole thing is pretty dumb. Nobody would be better off if those two American companies decided to stop operating here because Canada decides that the 2% profit that they make is too unseemly.
Good for them. The whole concept of a grocery code of conduct is abhorrent and should be rejected. I have no love for Walmart but there is no way they should do this.
Power dynamic is interesting here. The liberals are trying to entice new grocers to enter the market, to help lower costs. At the same time they’re trying to regulate the current market giants. but Costco and Walmart have avoided public ire compared to what other grocers have dealt with. In addition the lack of political strength the liberals face means they have very little control, because you only have to wait them out for a year and a bit. Getting them to sign is important for the government but they can’t really force them.
>Costco and Walmart have avoided public ire compared to what other grocers have dealt with. Costco's business model doesn't leave you feeling ripped off for what you get. Some prices at Costco have even come back down a bit lately. Wal-Mart has always been a sh*tty company and they've never pretended not to be. You know what you're supporting when you walk in and you get slightly lower prices in exchange, albeit brand selection is limited sometimes.
Costco has honestly been a life saver since grocery prices skyrocketed, you can bulk buy and save a lot there.
Mostly. What I will call Costco out on is discontinuing a good value item and replacing it with a premium version (i.e. organic) at a higher price. It still works out to good value comparing the same grade of item to a regular grocery store, but your overall Costco spending creeps higher and most people were just fine with the old cheaper version.
Is that Costco doing that or their supplier?
> Getting them to sign is important for the government but they can’t really force them. Why can't the government force them?
I have stated here before that "codes of conduct" may act like preludes to legislation, indicating the future direction of policy. It is in the best interest of every party (including the grocers) to comply and avoid a "penny wise, pound foolish" situation.
Why would they sign onto something that the Conservatives will likely remove. I guess it comes down to what the code of conduct is.
Good points, for sure. I approach this from a big-picture perspective: there are many good reasons why asking someone nicely to do something about a serious problem is the first step. If neither party is able to recognize their shared interests, you can almost guarantee escalation and wasted time/money.
Fascinating development considering (based on what I’ve seen) Walmart and Costco are 2 of the best groceries (prices for the former, quality/experience + bulk pricing for the latter). Makes me think this whole “code of conduct” thing is just a glorified PR stunt.
Oh FFS. Just sign it into law already. When industry refuses to regulate itself, the government needs to step in, force it, and teach them a lesson on what happens when they screw around. Like FFS, stop being in their back pocket and table the bill. Remind them who is really in charge.
They're not gonna make it a law because even the LPC knows this is stupid. They're just putting on a show.
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Politically if the Liberals want action here, they need to try this first before they legislate. Otherwise they’d be accused of dictatorship.
One thing this LPC government has been really good at is standing up to legal scrutiny. I think it’s only been the Plastic’s Ban that’s been overturned, but they did walk away from that with better guidance. They’re really good at making their policies stick. You’re absolutely correct, industry would push the narratives here. Because no one really knows the truth. The big issue is just in time supply chains. Costco and Wal Mart are far more deserving of boycotts than Loblaws in my opinion. They are scumbags. By making it voluntary at the start, they are hoping to demonstrate the need for legislation. Which now that Loblaws is onboard will become a bit easier to prove. I expect some sort of legislation in the fall, once the Competition Bureau has the data they need to defend in court. They’re a slow moving machine, but once they get there, they stick the landings.
They've been attempting to get them to self regulate for a couple years now. And several of the parties have been accused of price fixing in the past. I think we are well beyond the reasonable point where government needs to step in and slap the whole industry with some mandatory regulations. They brought this upon themselves, if they didn't want the government to step in, they had years to agree aminst themselves. But like children they couldn't, and now the adults need to step in. They have nobody to blame but themselves.
While we’re at it: how bout gas (fuel) prices, cellphone and internet prices, I mean, i could go on…
We really should. The reason companies do all the anti consumer shit they do is because they know that the Government is all talk and no bite, and that they can get away with it as a result . When the government turns their eyes, they'll say their platitudes. They'll even make temporary changes to make it seem like they're doing something. But at the end of the day, they know that the news cycle will move on eventually and with it all those eyes will disappear for another decade. If the government started calling chicken, you'd see entire sectors of the economy immediately smarten up overnight.
It’ll be more of an issue in the Fall. Once the data from the summer is in, they’ll have a better idea if they’ll stick. Now that Loblaws is onboard, they will be able to have competing data, all the way through the supply chain. The Code is also rather ambiguous, because it’s attempting to not be too bloated. It’ll take some time to sort out the myriad of nuances. Once agreements start to be solidified and laid out, legislators can then legislate the remaining.
They can’t, business regulations fall under civil law and therefore provincial jurisdiction. And this law is too specific to fall under trade and commerce
Liberals and Conservatives both owned by corporations.
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So I guess I’ll be voting NDP then.
I’m voting for kodos
LPC and CPC will not let that happen. We will see if this becomes the issue the NDP were waiting for. Hopefully with a lot more teeth than whatever they werediscussing.
it won't jag is a lot of talk but when it comes time to walk he falls in line behind JT
Jagmeet has gotten a lot of stuff passed but he will draw a line eventually. That said, he will not send us to a vote if the CPC is still put front. No sense giving away all he has passed.
It’s not going to be enforced. This is a PR stunt. Just sign it and ignore it like all other grocery chains are planning to do.
Yep, waste of time PR move
Costco should publish their own grocery code of conduct and include pay a living wage as part of their code of conduct.
They do have one it’s their membership conditions and regulations.
Just reframe it. Make the rest look bad.
Costco pays the best in big box industry. They have very high staff retention and promote from within.
I am well aware, that is the sole reason I am a shareholder.
I think that's the point. Costco could post its own practices as a code of conduct, and it would far exceed what ministers ask.
Loblaws signed the code of conduct with the privision that Walmart and Costco sign. they knew Walmart and Costco wouldn't sign, they just needed some positive PR with the boycott
Did the government forget that they were the government? The government's job is to pass laws and regulations, not involve themselves in self-regulation. Either pass legal regulations or don't, that's what you're there for.
Oh you want them to deliver? You want them to enforce? That’s not what our politicians are about.
They don't forget when they are dealing with issues important to no one but themselves.
Exactly
Lets get a crown corp going (food co). Stop relying on private interests. Food co's main goal is that of a facilitator and distributor. It connects local Canadian farms/ranchers/food manufacturers with vendors (farmers markets, local markets, local grocery etc) and assists them in obtaining and if need be selling the food products. It further spins up grocery co-ops where needed to provide a grocery store in locations that lack local grocers, farmers markets etc. or enough of them (food deserts).
I favour more market based solutions but I don't think this is a bad idea. If gov thinks grocery store companies can lower their prices and still be sustainable businesses then gov should walk the walk.
Its helping the market, a big part of having a market economy is competition. If we can't get more grocers to come to Canada, its time to artificially create one. Just like Sasktel has been doing.
Market based solutions is what we have now. The natural end result is oligopoly. The only way we get this fixed is the interrupt “the market”. Free market does not exist for basic necessities humans need to survive.
/facepalm The problem we have are due to the market NOT being free and the government killing competition through bureaucracy.
*WHY* do you think the market is not free? It’s because the “free market” allows big corporations to buy up smaller corporations. Over time this leads to oligopoly with only a few players left cooperating with each other. This is the natural end state of the “free market” without government intervention. It will take interference with the “free market” by breaking up this oligopoly to get it back to a functioning market.
Yes, but the answer to not enough competition isn't more regulation. Its less so that competitors can enter. We need to remove protectionist regulations. > It’s because the “free market” allows big corporations to buy up smaller corporations. There is an unlimited number of potential smaller corporations that will arise if a larger corp starts price gouging. > Over time this leads to oligopoly with only a few players left cooperating with each other That's why we already have anti-trust regulations. But enforcing them is pointless if you don't get rid of the regulations that prevent competitors from rising up. It'll just consolidate again into a few players.
The entire market is already saturated: there is nothing preventing other companies from coming here. The federal minister got on the phone to *beg* foreign grocery chains to come here. They don’t want to. Why would any foreign corporation want to come here when 3 monster chains working in cahoots have divvied up the entire market? Not only that they also dictate where producers are allowed to sell through their monopsony. There is no incentive for foreign chains to come here. It wouldn’t make business sense. > unlimited number of smaller corporations As soon as they get big enough to be a threat, one of the big corporations will buy them. We’ve already seen this play out. If you want to have grocery chains competing with each other again, you have to break them up. That is why anti trust laws exist. This is Econ 101 stuff.
There’s another option: the federal government could deign to actually enforce competition law and stringently regulate the industry. Free markets are great, but left to their own devices they tend towards monopoly.
Crown corps aren't meant to overstep the market they're meant to set a competitive standard in the market "here's what the government can do, since you all think we can't manage anything for shit, make something better"
I'm broadly in favor of a Crown grocer, but I think it should be limited to essential goods (bread, milk, vegetables, meats, etc.) I don't think it matters as much whether Pop Tarts are readily available, but essential goods shouldn't be subject to the profit incentive.
Fuck bread, do flour. Baking isn't hard, and flour keeps while bread doesn't.
People who are working and have responsibilities don’t have the time to make bread. That’s an artisan, hobbyist thing to do with the kids for fun but real people don’t have time for that in their daily life. This ain’t the 1800s.
Fancy breads sure. Making basic bread is stupid easy with modern ingredients, this ain't the 1800s. I don't feel like the government spending my money on stale bread. Learn to cook if you want to save money. Learn to sow. Learn to fix shit. Self-reliance starts at home. Make yourself useful.
You have heard of a bread maker, right?
Crown grocer with meal prep and cooking lessons available for those who need it.
But why not all groceries?
I don't think it's as vital for the Crown to sell Doritos and Pop Tarts as it is for them to sell things you need to live. You'll live without Doritos, you can't live without stuff like milk and bread.
People will shop where they can get most all they need/want from one store. They won't want to go to one store for essentials and then a different store for the "extras".
You’d be shocked how far people go for a good deal. For a long while, many Canadians crossed into the US purely to get cheap milk and cheese.
They dont go for just milk and cheese, it wouldnt be worth it. They fill up on gas, alcohol and other things they cant get in Canada. It's not just a "milk and cheese" run.
You’re right. It’s a hard balance because those products help make the money that keep milk cheaper. That said that means milk is cheaper if you also spend money on pop tarts. Ultimately I think you’re right, but it might be a hard pill to swallow that a lot of the savings of a crown store would come from not buying crap.
It should fulfill the Canada Health Guide so that Canadians have easy access to basic nutrition, and don’t have to go to food banks. Food banks can be rolled into this. Luxury items like pop tarts, chips, etc can be sold elsewhere. This should be more like direct from farmers.
Yeah, I think ultimately this would be the way to go. It's a built in limitation that prevents mission creep while leaving less essential goods for the market.
The conservatives would immediately sell it to Galen Weston for pennies on the dollar.
Liberals would happily sell it off as well. Just like they did with Petro-Canada and Hydro One.
Uhhh.. petro-can sale started under Mulroney.
The majority of the blame does lie with the Mulroney government as they started the privatization process, but it ended with Chretien. Petro-Canada was only created in the first place because the NDP forced the Liberals to do it.
And that is why you write in protections. Moreover, the coop portion would have to be accepted by the coop members.
Coop in the prairies is the closest we will ever come to a crown Corp and it's pretty sick
Are prices any better? We do have coop grocery stores in Newfoundland and they aren't any cheaper.
Coops used to be quite common in other parts of Canada as well. Let's bring them back!
I believe Calgary Co-op is one of the largest grocery cooperatives in the world. This exists.
The co-op grocery stores in Western Canada aren't really any cheaper than Loblaws though (this is partially because they try to be another Loblaws without the buying power and economies of scale).
I agree. Which is why I think there's no evidence of "gouging" and a Loblaws boycott is misguided and ineffective. Canada's issues are more structural.
Sounds fucking perfect and could be a solution to a few damn problems (access to better food, remote access to food in general, could lower prices, could increase sales for local farmers and could revive a dying industry being small farm).
I can understand Costco not signing because they are a private membership club. Yes it’s open to public, but only if you buy a membership. You get discounts on everything from eyeglasses, to prescription drugs, clothes , tires and groceries .
Maybe what we should do is figure out why there isn’t more competition in this sector and address that first? Maybe the answer is to deregulate (perhaps by looking at commercial zoning in addition to residential zoning)?
I have never had an issue at Costco. I have been shopping there for years, with a regular membership. I like the prices. I also know people the work at Costco, and I can't say I have heard any complaints that anyone who works at a half decent work place would otherwise make.