How is a grocery chain whose profit margin is a little over 3% supposed to cut its prices by 15%?
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Some internet activists are calling for a boycott of Loblaw for the month of May over the grocer’s prices, which are said to be too high. The boycott is not notable for its logic. On the one hand, if the boycotters are not Loblaw customers to begin with, it’s meaningless. On the other hand, if they are current customers, it must be because they have decided Loblaw’s offering — its combination of price, quality, selection, convenience and other factors that determine shoppers’ choice of grocer — is better than all the other alternatives. Which makes Loblaw an odd target for a boycott over its prices.
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Indeed, in reply to the boycotters, some online posters have said they will not participate “because there’s no viable alternative” where they live and “the other grocers in town are even more expensive.” An Ottawa woman with two young children says she needs “as few stops as possible” and it is No Frills (a Loblaw subsidiary) that........