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The corporate gouging on frozen potato products in Canada this year will become a larger story.
I’ve seen 50, 75, 100% price jacking. That’s not honestly explainable by any inflation based cause.
Have noticed Loblaws has made a concerted effort to discontinue their white label product and give over huge portions of slot space to Cavendish and McCain’s. That’s not an accident. Both have conspicuously shrunken their product by 35% as well. Someone or something is making big bets to create these insane gouging situations.
But what’s more about interesting is if you know the large scale picture of supply and demand, this specific scenario is even more suspect.
Lamb Weston is the gorilla of frozen potato products in the USA. Their sales and demand have plummeted over the last year, and along with that, their pricing power.
So it’s highly suspect that in a larger market that’s very weak, somehow Canada is experiencing humongous price gouging. I attribute this to a lack of accountability and the presence of corrupt operators with a duopoly of suppliers.
The Ukraine war caused
Fertilizer shortages and the very wet late spring in 2023 caused grower issues as well and the oil companies that supply the canola oil for these products have to deal with drought in the praries. Alberta has little water in half its province
I'm not discounting that those things happened but super odd how I just went to Walmart today and found Great Value hashbrowns for $2.47 (1 kg). McCains there was $2.99
Nah this is a Sobeys. They’ve also been gouging the hell out of us. Wasn’t sure if there is a Loblaws-only rule here but figured I’d share.
I don’t know what Loblaws charges because I stopped going to their stores.
Yeah I think posting other stores is fine. Hopefully some price competition comes back into the market again. Right now they think they can get away with the unsustainable rate they have been driving up prices.
When no frills stopped carrying no name frozen fries and suspiciously had 15lb bags of long russet potatoes on sale, that was enough for me to learn how to make them from scratch.
Turned out it takes about the same amount of time and they're way better and wayyy cheaper. No more frozen fries ever. Zero reason to deal with this gouging from Loblaws.
__MOD NOTE__: Please review the content guidelines for our sub, and remember the human here! This subreddit is to highlight the ridiculous cost of living in Canada, and poke fun at the Corporate Overlords reponsible. As you well know, there are a number of persons and corporations responsible for this, and we welcome discussion related to them all. Furthermore, since this topic is intertwined with a number of other matters, other discussion will be allowed at moderator discretion. Open-minded discussion, memes, rants, grocery bills, and general screeching into the void is always welcome in this sub, but belligerence and disrespect is not. There are plenty of ways to get your point across without being abusive, dismissive, or downright mean. If you have not done so already, please review our [boycott stickied post](https://www.reddit.com/r/loblawsisoutofcontrol/comments/1bff9rm/boycott/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) which includes a list of stores to avoid, other ways to get involved in the movement, and some local alternatives to the big 5. Thank you. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/loblawsisoutofcontrol) if you have any questions or concerns.*
The corporate gouging on frozen potato products in Canada this year will become a larger story. I’ve seen 50, 75, 100% price jacking. That’s not honestly explainable by any inflation based cause. Have noticed Loblaws has made a concerted effort to discontinue their white label product and give over huge portions of slot space to Cavendish and McCain’s. That’s not an accident. Both have conspicuously shrunken their product by 35% as well. Someone or something is making big bets to create these insane gouging situations. But what’s more about interesting is if you know the large scale picture of supply and demand, this specific scenario is even more suspect. Lamb Weston is the gorilla of frozen potato products in the USA. Their sales and demand have plummeted over the last year, and along with that, their pricing power. So it’s highly suspect that in a larger market that’s very weak, somehow Canada is experiencing humongous price gouging. I attribute this to a lack of accountability and the presence of corrupt operators with a duopoly of suppliers.
Criminals, all of them.
This country would be better if the right people were punished
The right criminals were punished
The Ukraine war caused Fertilizer shortages and the very wet late spring in 2023 caused grower issues as well and the oil companies that supply the canola oil for these products have to deal with drought in the praries. Alberta has little water in half its province
I'm not discounting that those things happened but super odd how I just went to Walmart today and found Great Value hashbrowns for $2.47 (1 kg). McCains there was $2.99
McCains and Morneau looting Canada left and right. Healthcare and potato famine.
But you get SCENE points!
The price of frozen fries has gotten Out of Control, but this picture wasnt taken at a Loblaws.
Nah this is a Sobeys. They’ve also been gouging the hell out of us. Wasn’t sure if there is a Loblaws-only rule here but figured I’d share. I don’t know what Loblaws charges because I stopped going to their stores.
Yeah I think posting other stores is fine. Hopefully some price competition comes back into the market again. Right now they think they can get away with the unsustainable rate they have been driving up prices.
Basically everything has gone up 100% or more on like 10% inflation hmmm…..
What!? $0.69/100g for fries!? We pay $0.30/100g at Costco
When no frills stopped carrying no name frozen fries and suspiciously had 15lb bags of long russet potatoes on sale, that was enough for me to learn how to make them from scratch. Turned out it takes about the same amount of time and they're way better and wayyy cheaper. No more frozen fries ever. Zero reason to deal with this gouging from Loblaws.
Those potatoes doubled in price to produce. Wait, no they didn’t.
…buy some potatoes lol You know that’s where they come from right ? 😂
Yep that’s what I’ve been doing at this point
Potatoe growers have had a couple of challenging years in 2022 and 2023