Lablaws fights inflation with freezing prices
As we all grapple with the high cost of food, the biggest grocer in the country has announced it is freezing prices on all No-Name products until the end of January 2023.
The approximate 1,500 items, which usually come in yellow packaging, are sold in Newfoundland and Labrador in Dominion stores and their subsidiaries.
Sylvain Charlebois, Dalhousie University professor of food distribution and policy, sees it as a public relations maneuver badly needed at a time when many feel that grocers are gouging consumers.
Charlebois says what Loblaw did yesterday was no small feat as they were probably the only ones who could have done that because of their supply format with the in-house brands.
He will appear before a parliamentary committee looking into food pricing next week. Charlebois says he will tell them that the country needs a competition bureau with teeth.
He says the competition bureau needs to be more proactive. One thing he does not wish to see is price regulation as that would result in shorter supply and higher prices.
The No Name brand is sold in more than 2,400 stores across the country, including Loblaws, Zehrs, Real Canadian Superstore, No Frills, T&T, Atlantic Superstore, Maxi and Shoppers Drug Mart.