People are fed up with Loblaw stores' rising prices. Would a boycott accomplish anything?

It may very well havestarted with a tweet about a$37 package of chicken breasts. Or it could have been the $10 birchsticks.

The $9 butter didn't help, or $30 for Feta cheese allegedly twice the pricea competitor was chargingfor the same product.

Whatever may have been the social media tipping point, a lot of people areangry about high prices in grocery stores, Loblawbrands in particular. Throw in shrinkflation, skimpflation and greedflation, and now a growing group of people online is calling for a boycott.

"I think a lot of people have very little faith in our politicalleaders to actually hold corporations accountable for the positions they are putting Canadians in,"said Emily Johnson, a mental health and addictions workerin Milton, Ont., who runs a quickly growingReddit community called "Loblaws is out of control."

"People feel voting with their dollar is the best way of showing companiesthat they've had enough," Johnson told CBC News.

In a post last month, she and the other moderators of the subreddit encouraged its 45,000 members to start boycotting Loblawand Loblaw-owned stores, such as Superstore and No Frills, in May. Themovement has gained traction on other socialmedia platforms like X, formerly Twitter,and TikTok.

"Canadians are facing a cost-of-living crisis, and grocers are a major contributor to this. Vulnerable populations such as seniors, persons with disabilities, and those on fixed incomes are left further behind," the post reads.

The goalis for the company to reduce prices by 15 per cent and remove member-only pricing, Johnson said. But some grocery and economics experts say a boycott of a brand as massive as Loblawis unlikely to have much, if any, impact.

Loblawis sensitive to bad press like any corporation, said NicholasLi, an assistant professor in the department of economics at Toronto Metropolitan University. But he'sskeptical about the planned boycott, he added.

"Loblaws showed earlier in its fight with PepsiCo/Frito-Lay that it is willing to leave shelves empty in a fight over money with suppliers, so I find it highly unlikely that a boycott like this ...would make them change their mind," he said.

WATCH | Are the grocery giants gouging us?

Are the grocery giants gouging us?

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Sylvain Charlebois, Director of Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University, says costs for the big grocery chains have legitimately gone up, but the industry as a whole is taking a lot of heat from consumers for higher food prices right now.

#BoycottLoblaws

The planned boycott points to howfrustrated many consumers are about food prices,which have gone up everywhere, not just at Loblaw-owned stores,said SylvainCharlebois, senior directorof the Agri-Food AnalyticsLab at Dalhousie University in Halifax.

Ina subsequent post, the Reddit group acknowledges the problem extends to "The Big Five"Loblaw, Sobeys, Metro, Walmart and Costco and shares a list of alternative shopping options.

Loblaw is heavily targeted for two reasons, Charlebois said.First, because it'sthe top grocer in the country.Second, because its chairand former president, Galen Weston, was a very visible face of the company and now people see him as a villain.

"He's paying for that PR strategy," Charlebois said.

"I suspect that most Canadians don't know who the CEO of Metro is."

That's evident in the "boycott Loblaws" hashtag making the rounds on socialmedia,and in the subreddit, where Weston'simage is often used in memesand his name is often cited when people are angry or confused about Loblaw prices.

"Are you ready to take down GalenWeston Jr. and Loblaws? I am," one person associatedwith the Reddit group said in a TikTok video posted March25.

"Can someone explain the Galen Weston math on this one?" a TikToker said in a video posted in December about the price of carrots.

Michael Mulvey, an associate professor of marketing at the University of Ottawa who teaches consumer behaviour, says it will be difficult for Loblaw to ignore this "down with the overlord" type of discourse happening on social media right now.

"Loblaws is certainly listening. Whether they abide by it is another question, but they cannot ignore whenthey are headline news," Mulveysaid.

In an email statement to CBC News, a Loblaw spokesperson said that customers also say on Redditthat "they'regetting real value at our stores, often the best across the industry."

"As a business, we are acutely aware of the fact that we have to win our customers' business each and every day. The last few years have been tough for Canadians, and we continue to do what we can to combat inflation at our stores," the company said.

Company difficult to avoid for some

One potential issue with the boycott is the sheer scope of it, some have pointed out. TheReddit group's post explains the boycott is for allLoblaw-owned storesand subsidiaries.

Loblawis a massive company, extending intogroceries where it has nearly a third of national salesas wellas pharmacy, health and beauty, apparel, general merchandise, financial services and wireless mobile products and services.

Interms of grocery stores, there's Loblaws, Atlantic Superstore, Dominion, Maxi, No Frills, Provigo Le March, Valu-Mart, Real Canadian Superstore, Wholesale Club, Your Independent Grocer, T&T and Zehrs.

But on top of that, Loblawalso ownsmajor nameslike Shopper's Drug Mart, Pharmaprix, Wellwise by Shoppers, Joe Fresh, Beauty BOUTIQUE and QuoBeauty, financial products likePC Financial and wireless provider PC mobile.

According to itswebsite, it hasmore than 2,400 stores across Canada. And it'snot slowing down. In February, the retailer announced it plansto build 40 more.

This ubiquity could make a boycott difficult for consumers who are unable to shop around, such as people without cars, the elderly, people with disabilities, and people in rural areas,Mulveysaid.

"We do have individualswho are basically captive consumers," he said.

Johnson, the Reddit moderator, says she recognizes that Loblaw's market share leaves some people without manyother shopping options. For them, the group has posted a list of other ways people can get involved, including writing a letter to their MP and donating time or money to food banks.

'People need to eat'

Johnson started the subreddit Nov. 3, 2023, the same day someone on Reddit posted a photo of $85 Christmas plantersthey said they saw at Loblaws in Ontario. What started with a few thousand members mostlyposting memesexploded inJanuary when Loblaw announced it was getting rid of its half-price discount on food nearing its expiration date.

"It kind of startedto take a shift from having fun and then talking about'this is a serious problem,'" Johnson said.

Loblawquickly reversed the decision, but the Reddit group continued to grow. Today it has more than 45,000 members.

Just because the company reversed its 50 per cent discount decision doesn't mean we should expect a similar response to a potential boycott, Li said. Reintroducing thediscount probably didn't have much impact on its bottom line, he said, and because it was a recent change, they wouldn't lose face.

"But cutting prices by 15 per centand removing ...special access to discounts for optimum card holdersare anathema to Loblaw'sbasic business model," Li said.

Charleboisalso says he thinks a boycott wouldn't affect the company. "People need to eat," he said.

Charlebois, for his part,also hasn't been neutral about the idea on his social media accounts, where he's referred to boycottersas "frustrated young idealists." In 2018, Charlebois's lab received a $60,000 grant from the Weston Foundation, which has ties to Loblaw. He says the funding was provided to a student.

Whether or not the company feelsany kind of pinchor people actually boycott the stores, Mulvey says the movement could give some consumers a moment of pause and question their grocery bills.

"When you start hearing a chorus or an orchestra of people all tuned in onprice sensitivity, it makes it more salient."