Loblaw Companies Ltd. says it has locked in prices on the popular house brand, which includes more than 1,500 grocery items, until Jan. 31, 2023. In a letter shared with customers Monday, Loblaw chairman and president Galen G. Weston says the price of an average basket of groceries is up about 10 percent this year, with items like apples, soups and chips to increase even more. He says a lot of it is “crazy” out of the company’s control as food suppliers pass on higher costs to Loblaw. Weston says that while the grocery chain fights back against unfair price increases, most are reasonable and stem from increases in base costs for suppliers. He says that’s why Loblaw has decided to focus on what it can control and is locking in No Name prices and promising more deals in the coming weeks to provide relief from escalating food costs. “Anyone who regularly visits the grocery store knows that over the past year the cost of food has increased rapidly,” Weston said in a letter shared with members of the company’s PC Optimum rewards program.
Similar movements in other countries
The decision to freeze prices of the private label brand with its distinctive yellow and black packaging follows similar announcements by grocers in other countries. In August, French supermarket chain Carrefour announced plans to freeze prices on around 100 of its branded products until November 30. In June, Lidl’s US arm introduced a summer price-cutting campaign to ease the inflationary burden on customers. The company said it cut prices on more than 100 products at its stores in nine East Coast states through August. “We’ve seen grocers voluntarily freeze prices across the G7 for some time now,” said Sylvain Charlebois, professor of distribution and policy at Dalhousie University. “It should have happened a long time ago in Canada.” But the No Name price freeze will provide much-needed relief to Canadians, he said. It will also help fix some of the image problems facing Canada’s big grocers, Charlebois said. “This is also a public relations strategy … many Canadians are blaming grocers for what’s happening with food inflation,” he said. “Some of it is deserved … but much of this criticism is unfair because food prices can go up for a variety of reasons beyond a grocer’s control.”
