Group boycotting Loblaws over rising food prices

Fed up with the ever rising price of food, an online movement has sprung up to fight back in the form of a boycott.

Fed up with the ever rising price of food, an online movement has sprung up to fight back in the form of a boycott.

The group has turned its sights squarely on one target –- Loblaws -- the company that owns Superstore and No Frills here in Winnipeg, along with Shoppers Drug Mart.

According to organizers, the plan is to boycott the Loblaws-owned stores for the entire month of May. They're asking for prices to be reduced by 15 per cent.

Loblaw chairman Galen Weston called the boycott "misguided criticism,” saying his company alone can't be blamed for rising costs because inflation is a global issue.

"The real problem to me has always been up the supply chain with vendors. That's really where the problem is,” said Sylvain Charlebois, the director of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University

Charlebois explained that vendors have to negotiate a price with the grocery chains like Loblaw to get their products on the shelves.

When those fees go up, the price of the food goes up too.