No Name Loblaws products price freeze announcement falls flat

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Talk about PR backlash.

Canadian billionaire and Loblaw CEO Galen Weston Jr. is getting the gears after his announcement via a Oct. 17 email that Loblaws would be freezing No Name food prices until Jan. 31 in an effort to combat inflation.

Turns out this is an industry norm and not really a big deal.

“Galen announces a PRICE FREEZE for inflation!” reads a mass email that hit the inboxes of PC Optimum members on Monday morning.

Over on reddit, baabaaredsheep wrote in part: “Loblaws always freezes prices from Q4 until Q1 anyway and there are blackout periods where increases are not allowed in the industry. They’re just making it look like they’re being the good guys, when they do (or have to do) this anyway. All for show.”

Added InstantNoodlesIsHot on reddit: “This is like schools announcing in July that there will be no homework until September.”

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Profits were up nearly 40% for Loblaw alone during the first quarter of 2022, with the credit going to medications bought at Shoppers Drug Mart, while food bank demands have reached historic proportions.

“If Galen wants to fix his image he can start by stocking the shelves at food banks, then rolling prices back to what they were pre-pandemic when he and his ilk decided to gouge us all,” wrote Doctor_Amazo on reddit.

It also follows years of controversy related to price fixing, minimum-wage workers and accusations of pandemic profiteering.

“Galen “Marie Antoinette” Weston with the always empathetic “Let them eat No Name cake until January,” summed up easywriter on reddit.