Why these Londoners are joining the Loblaw boycott
CBC
You've heard of inflation and shrinkflation, maybe even pinkflation — but what about greedflation?
It's one of the reasons a growing number of Canadians are joining a month-long boycott against Loblaw companies that launched Wednesday — and some Londoners are joining in the efforts to ditch the corporate grocers and divert money to smaller, local grocery stores.
"I am a big believer in voting with my dollars and really focusing on local options," said Londoner Lisa Cardinal.
Cardinal has cancelled her weekly grocery pickup through a Loblaw-owned grocer, and although she already shops local when she can, is eager to shift her habits even more.
The boycott was launched by a Reddit group with around 70,000 members called "Loblaws is out of control." Loblaw and other major grocers have been under fire from politicians and consumers for reporting high profits as some Canadians are struggling to afford food as grocery prices continue to rise.
Organizers of the boycott say the goal is to reduce grocery prices and increase food security for Canadians, and bring a list of demands, including the company sign a grocers' code of conduct and reduce food prices by 15 per cent.
Cardinal built a list of more than 150 local grocery stories in the London area including communities like St. Thomas, Aylmer and Thames Centre, and posted them to altgrocery.ca, a website geared at supporting small and medium-sized grocers, farmers and bakeries across Canada.
"I think one of the most important things is to talk about it and to understand why [groceries] are getting expensive, and part of that is the profit that the companies are making," said Cardinal.
LISTEN: Why Lisa Cardinal gathered a list of more than 150 small grocers in the London area
Londoner Amy Ford says her family is doing their best to participate in the boycott to send a message that "price-gouging strategies simply aren't OK," she said, but also that the food system needs to change as a whole.
Shopping more at farmers' markets, buying direct from farms and relying on fresh produce from community-supported agriculture (CSA) food boxes are a few of the habits she's ramping up as part of the boycott.
"It goes beyond Loblaws," Ford said.
"We're getting food from faraway places at high prices and it's not flowing to the farmers, it's actually just lining the pockets of billionaires," she said. "The problem is that the folks who are producing the food that's keeping us all alive are not really benefiting from these inflated prices that we're seeing."
For her, lower prices are not the main issue at play.