Grocery Corporations are making bank off of the cost of living crisis
While millions of Canadians are struggling to feed themselves, Galen Weston Jr and our country's biggest grocers refuse to answer for their record profits.
While Canadians are facing sky-high food costs (like $40 chicken), supermarkets made record profits:
Loblaw's quarterly profits are up 10%, Empire and Metro are making the biggest gross profits in history. At the same time, food bank use is up 60%.
We know that grocers have been unfairly price gouging, too. Food prices increased by 11.4% last year, almost double the inflation rate of 5.9%.
The only thing hungrier than corporate greed is millions of Canadians.
Last week, Canada's biggest grocers (Metro Inc., Loblaw Co. Ltd., and Empire Co. Ltd.) were summoned to the House of Commons to answer for their sky-high profits and unaffordable grocery prices.
So, what did they have to say?
Galen Weston Jr refused to answer questions from his shoppers - you know, the ones who are paying the price for his record profits.
He evaded blame by claiming that his profits don't come from groceries, but from medicine, clothing, and other basic human necessities.
Loblaw's makes $1 million a day in excess profits, which Galen claimed doesn't go to him, but "to the country."
In 2022, the highest-paid execs at Loblaws received bonuses of over $1 million.
Btw, this isn't the first time Loblaw's has been super sketchy.
Loblaw's was engaged in a price-fixing scam where they artificially inflated bread prices at least 15 times, between 2001-2015. They deliberately deceived customers to crush competition, and they haven't been held accountable.
Our government could do something about this, and yet they choose not to.
The NDP proposed a Windfall Tax on excess profits that would force large, profit-hungry sectors (like food and gas) to pay their fair share. The $4.3 billion generated from this tax could be used to help struggling households.
Demand action
These grocery oligarchs are profiteering off of our suffering because they know we have no choice.
They earn their billions by monopolizing basic human rights. So to us, it sounds like
No Name has No Shame.
