Loblaws boycott scores a win: What’s next for Loblaws, boycott groups, Galen Weston as the face of the company

Boycotters of Loblaw-affiliated stores in Canada plan to extend their shunning of the country’s largest grocery chain indefinitely as the discourse and impacts around the cost of living crisis intensifies. This, after a month-long boycott started on Reddit has yielded at least one major win: The Loblaw-owned No Frills stores plan to eliminate multi-buy discounts, which forces customers to purchase multiples of the same item in order to receive a discount.

The “Loblaws Is Out of Control” Reddit forum, started in November by Emily Johnson of Milton, Ont., now boasts 85,000 members. The group’s reach has ballooned since they organized a May-long boycott of stores like Loblaws, No Frills, Zehrs, Shoppers Drug Mart, Maxi, Real Canadian Superstore and Dominion.

Boycott organizer: People don’t understand ‘drastic reach’ of grocery giant Loblaw

Some Canadian users on Reddit have wondered why Loblaw and its affiliated stores became the target for the month-long May boycott when other major retailers like Sobeys or Metro also have retail footprints across the country, and also have been targets of customer ire over high prices.

Mental health and addictions worker Emily Johnson of Milton, Ont. started the Reddit forum and helped organize the boycott. She says Loblaws was targeted because of its range, which the grocery empire isn’t shy about: “More than 90 per cent of Canadians live within 10 kilometres of the 2,400 Loblaw-affiliated” stores.

She says there are no plans to rotate grocery giants to boycott as organizers felt such a move might water down their efforts.

“I don’t think people understand the drastic reach particularly when you see folks popping up and saying ‘I can’t actually avoid Loblaw, there’s only a Loblaws or an Atlantic Superstore or a Real Canadian Superstore or a Zehrs or a No Frills in my town,’” she tells Yahoo Canada. “It’s that illusion of choice that gets to you.”

Johnson says she is open to ongoing dialogue with Loblaw CEO Per Bank, who she met with earlier in the month. At that meeting, which she characterized as “great,” Johnson was told by Bank that the company would be removing multi-buy discounts from No Frills stores. That means customers won’t have to buy multiples of the same item in order to receive a discount.

Personalization of Galen Weston as company face backfires

Loblaw chairman Galen Weston is frequently subjected to direct criticism by those taking part in the boycott on Reddit. Over the years, he’s taken a public-facing role, appearing in ad campaigns for the company’s various in-house brands.

He’s also been criticized and questioned by members of Parliament, who’ve pressed him and other grocery leaders in the House of Commons over allegations of profiteering in the grocery business, something he’s denied. Weston also described the current boycott as “misguided.“

Using a real person to publicly represent a giant corporation is a common branding strategy, says Brad Davis, associate professor of marketing at Wilfrid Laurier University. It’s a way for big institutions to feel less impersonal, though it’s a move that can backfire.

“The problem is you also become a little bit of a target,” he says. “When you personalize the brand, and people feel the brand betrays you, it becomes a personal betrayal. It’s a little easier to focus a sense of resentment or a sense of betrayal against a person than it is a faceless institution.”

Davis suspects Weston will be kept as the face of the brand, which continues to be successful, but will keep a low profile for now.

“Maybe some of the advertising [will] phase him out personally but keep the tone of Loblaws as family oriented and caring about customers,” he says. “I wouldn’t be surprised if his profile is reduced somewhat for a while but what they’re saying as a brand will probably stay where it is.”

What’s next for the Loblaws boycott?

As for the future, members of the forum on Reddit voted to extend the boycott indefinitely. Johnson says they are also shifting focus to education and advocacy efforts. Plans include organizing Ask Me Anything threads with professors of economics and business, letter-writing campaigns to spread awareness and educating consumers about foods that are available during different seasons.