Edmonton man starts petition for feds to look into grocery store ‘greed-flation’

An Edmonton man has started a petition that has garnered over 30,000 signatures. The petition is asking parliament to investigate Loblaws for what he calls “pandemic profiteering” and “greed-flation”.

“It’s calling for the government to basically break up these monopolies, to allow natural competition to happen, it’s about ensuring that Canadians are protected through regulations, and I feel like Parliament is best to conduct a study in this,” explained Haruun Ali, petition organizer.

However, an economics professor at the University of Concordia says there is no profiteering or greed-flation, stating it’s simply the way the economy works.

“It’s easy to complain, when prices are rising, that somebody needs to be held responsible for this,” said Moshe Lander, an economics professor. “To view this cynically, or to view this that there’s some sort of conspiracy, it’s none of those things. If the government wants to investigate it to keep people happy, they can. They’re not gonna find that there’s anything there though.

“Let’s say that I buy a product as Loblaws from a supplier, and it costs me a dollar. And my policy at Loblaws is to mark up my products 100 per cent. So when I have to pay my supplier a dollar, I sell it to my customers for $2. Let’s say that prices have gone up 50 per cent. So now my supplier is providing it to me at $1.50,” explained Lander.

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“Because I have 100 per cent markup, I’m going to sell it for $3. So. My margins haven’t changed. I’m doubling exactly like I did before. But notice that my profits will have gone from $1 to $1.50. So this is when you get people tagging me as profiteering and being greedy and greed-flation and all of those wonderful words that they throw in that change.org document, but the reality is I’m not doing anything different than I have in the past.”

While Loblaws is not the only grocery chain in Canada, it is the only one named in Ali’s petition.

Ali hopes that a government investigation into profits for one corporation will lead to more exposure for other companies, and ultimately government intervention in grocery prices. However, in December of 2022, Loblaws executives stated their margins have not increased at all – rather, it is inflation driving prices.

“Our margins on food, gross margins, have been flat,” said Jodat Hussain, Loblaws executive.

Lander says that while he agrees that inflation at the grocery store is a problem, he offers a light at the end of a seemingly endless tunnel.

“The Bank of Canada has increased interest rates eight times in the last 13 months, every time with the same purpose: it’s to bring inflation down by the end of this year, early next year, to where it was for the last 30 years. So the fact is, you just need to find a way to hang in there for 12 months.”