'STILL GOING UP': Shoppers blast Loblaw for price of PC chocolate
Article content
May has come and gone but that doesn’t mean some people have stopped boycotting Loblaw stores.
A quick perusal of Reddit’s ‘Loblaw is Out of Control’ board and it’s evident that shoppers across Canada still have their share of gripes about the grocery giant.
tap here to see other videos from our team.
'STILL GOING UP': Shoppers blast Loblaw for price of PC chocolate Back to video
tap here to see other videos from our team.
One person took to the Reddit page to share a recent photo of boxes of assorted President’s Choice dark chocolate priced at $8.49 when they were at an unspecified Loblaw store.
“WTF,” read the title of Gr8tbrit’s post.
“Thought I would go in and take a peek,” they wrote. “The only thing on sale was watermelons.”
The poster added: “Prices still going up. These bars used to be $5.99. Robbery.”
The post sparked many in the comments section to reminisce about what the price of the chocolates used to be.
“Didn’t these used to be like … $3.99? one user asked.
RECOMMENDED VIDEO
tap here to see other videos from our team.
Another replied: “They were around $6 normally. When they went on sale at $3.99, I’d stock up on them. I haven’t bought any in years.”
A third person wrote, “I remember a time when they had pallets of the hazelnut ones on sale for $0.47. For MONTHS!”
However, others mentioned that the price of the PC chocolate has been jacked up as recently as within the last year and not from several years ago when the cost of living wasn’t a kick in the pants.
“Last year they had a pallet of these on for sale for a dollar each,” one Redditor commented. “I bought a bunch and gave them to the homeless.”
Others noted the price of cocoa, which has gone up due to the global shortage, however many scoffed, saying that it “doesn’t justify the price gouging.”
A second user recalls their post from a couple of weeks ago about the PC chocolate going up to $8 and “now it’s up another $0.50.”
They explained, “That’s 300g for $8.50 to be clear. You get 400g of equally good, equally Belgian chocolate for $7.00 at Walmart.”
Another added, “I get that cocoa has gotten more expensive but somehow Walmart still does it for 40% less.”
Loblaw told the Sun that “cocoa commodities saw increases of 140%” from January to April of this year.
”Our product prices were slightly adjusted to cover increased production costs,” a spokesperson said.
“The cost of cocoa at grocery stores depends on various inputs and is an industry-wide concern.”
Food Professor Dr. Sylvain Charlebois added that it’s bad news for those with a sweet tooth, explaining that the ever-increasing price of cocoa isn’t stopping anytime soon.
“The price of cocoa has consistently been more than $9,000 US per ton since March, forcing food manufacturers to revisit their suggested price lists,” he told the Sun.
“Before this year, cocoa was never more than $4,000US per ton, with the record set back in 1977,” he continued. “The shift has been quite drastic.”
To make the chocolate news more bitter than sweet, Charlebois added: “We are expecting anything with cocoa to increase in price this year, including Halloween candies, Christmas treats, and Easter chocolates.”
Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion. Please keep comments relevant and respectful. Comments may take up to an hour to appear on the site. You will receive an email if there is a reply to your comment, an update to a thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information.