A former “loyal” Loblaw customer has taken to the internet to post an epic rant against the company about all the reasons that have led him to stop spending his money at its grocery stores.
“I was a loyal, almost evangelical customer of Loblaws and its stores for the past 20 years, sending a big chunk of my household income their way over a long period. But the past few years, the company has become outright antagonistic towards their customers, and I’m fed up,” says the man, who goes by “Scott” on Reddit.
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He delves into the issues that have made him no longer want to shop at Loblaw-owned stores.
Many of his complaints have to do with the lack of customer service at the stores.
Scott notes that as a single dad, he often heads to the “hot and ready” takeout section to grab a quick bite to eat because sometimes he doesn’t have time to cook.
“You could ask somebody to box up some chicken tenders or potato wedges, the kind of stuff that made being a solo dad survivable some days,” says the Reddit user.
“Now, don’t talk to anybody. Look inside the rack and find what you want inside a hot plastic tray with a thermally printed label on it. And if you don’t see it — tough!”
He reminisces the days when check-outs would be fully staffed, but now shoppers are directed to self-checkout.
“This screen, what the heck is this supposed to mean?” he asks as a graphic of the Superstore self-checkout pops up in the video.
The COVID-19 pandemic had a major impact on how Loblaw stores operated, added Scott.
When ordering his groceries online, he noticed that the store would replace items he requested with pricier items.
“It felt like a bait and switch. ‘We don’t have the thing you ordered, but we do have the more expensive version, which we substituted,’” he said.
After trying to confront Loblaw about the issue, he said they responded but didn’t take action.
After the pandemic, he said he started to notice a drastic change at the Loblaw stores he frequented.
“When things opened back up, it felt like the company had been given a new mandate: make money, make more money, train other people so they can make you more money. This here was a step too far,” he said.
The frustrated customer said he repeatedly tried to talk to someone at Loblaw to voice his concerns, but the company never followed up.
“Well, if everything sane hasn’t worked, it’s no wonder I’m in a parking lot shouting at a camera in a foggy car on a rainy morning because I just want to get food and medicine for my son and I in a way that doesn’t make me cry. “F*ck Superstore… I loved you!” he concludes.
His rant is long and sometimes quite personal, but many points seem to resonate with other Loblaw customers.
“He absolutely nails it,” wrote one respondent.
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“This guy complained for years, and they dismissed him. A big corporation like that should understand that complaints are a good thing. Because when you go silent and stop complaining, you’ve had enough and leave,” added another.
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Other Redditors called the video a “high-quality wake-up call” and said Scott’s experiences were “so relatable.”
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Others referred to him as a “hero.”
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The nine-minute rant comes as Canadian shoppers are planning (or have already started) to boycott Loblaw stores.
Plans for the boycott were first announced in early March by the Loblaws Is Out of Control Reddit group. The boycott marked the culmination of resentment among Canadians amid years of skyrocketing grocery prices.
With files from Isabelle Docto