I owned Loblaws (TSX: L) at one point earlier this year but sold the entire position at a small loss last spring. I had no idea that the troubles at Canada’s largest grocer would worsen and sold simply to increase our exposure to bonds, which was far less than target.
Earlier this year, it was easy to see that Loblaws was in trouble because of empty shelves and high-priced wilted produce. At a store near our home, they even regularly ran out of staples like brown sugar. When I gently mentioned to the girl at the checkout counter that a grocery store should always have basic necessities, she replied that many customers have been saying the same thing and could I please let the store manager know. I did, but got the impression that the manager was annoyed by the complaint and didn’t once promise to look into the issue.
From my recent experience, it seems that Loblaws is a long way from fixing its problems. Yesterday, I dropped into a store near work around lunchtime. The bakery section carried bread that is three days old though I managed to find one loaf that was only one day old. Unfortunately I also purchased an item from the deli counter that had a “best before” date a full two weeks earlier!
Sadly, I will continue to shop at Loblaws because they are the only ones that carry the Jamaican-style ginger beer that I’m addicted to. But I am not at all surprised that the stock has fallen off a cliff and is currently at multi-year lows.
Do you shop at Loblaws? Do you see any evidence that they are starting to fix their problems?
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60 responses so far ↓
1 Phil S // Nov 28, 2007 at 9:28 am
Hi CC. I recently made a play on Loblaw’s, but not directly through their stock - I bought shares of First Capital Realty, the company that owns the real estate on which most of the Loblaw’s grocery stores are located. The way I look at it, supermarkets are necessary, independent of whether the economy is doing well or poorly. Even if the Loblaws in my neighbourhood closes down, I am certain that some other supermarket will probably move into that same space.
First Capital Realty’s bread & butter properties are the Loblaw’s anchored shopping centres. But they have been diversifying by acquiring a number of Shoppers Drug Mart anchored shopping centres as well. Either way, I figure that even if we head into a recession, people will still get hungry and will still get sick, so those are relatively good recession-proof industries.
With all that being said, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with the Loblaws in my neighbourhood, except for the fact that it isn’t very big. Since it has a rather small footprint, there isn’t very much selection and it’s a bit pricey but I think that is because I live in a wealthy neighbourhood - their only direct competitor is a Bruno’s which is even more expensive than Loblaws, so they look cheap in relative terms. On my way home from work, I pass right by a No Frills (which is another Loblaw brand), so I can pick up all of the staples there at a much lower price. Then I get the deli or specialty stuff at either the Bruno’s or Loblaw’s in my neighbourhood.
2 Stephen // Nov 28, 2007 at 9:38 am
I’m guessing that they are still having problems and not just at the regular Loblaw’s . The Superstores I have been into, have lots of clothes, furniture and President’s Choice frozen dinners but almost always are running low on orange juice, milk and for some strange reason kitty litter.
I do not know how many times I have gone to the Superstore to get groceries and then have to drop by the local Loeb’s to pick up the missing orange juice, milk and kitty litter. It is beginning to get to the point that we are skipping the shopping at the Superstore and just going to the Loeb’s.
If a grocery store cannot consistingly have the staples in stock then they really shouldn’t be calling themselves a grocery store.
3 Frog of Finance // Nov 28, 2007 at 9:53 am
I shop at Loblaw’s regularly here in Quebec City, and I haven’t seen that kind of problems at my store. Although they occasionally run out of some items that are on sale, that hasn’t been a big problem.
I noticed about six months ago that the shelves were not fully stocked (although never empty), but that’s not the case anymore.
I have two negative points about their stores, though. Half of the store is for non-grocery products, and I don’t see many shoppers in those sections. So I wonder how profitable these are.
My second point is about the gas stations, which when they begun were offering a 4 cents per litre kick-back to buy products within the store, which was later brought down to 2 cents per litre without fanfare. That kind of bait and switch is not something I like.
Cheers,
Frog
4 Mike // Nov 28, 2007 at 10:14 am
Hi CC, you are talking about the Ottawa ones I imagine. When I was there, the one on baseline/merivale was particularly bad. Here in Waterloo, we have zehrs which is part of Loblaws. The stores here are extremely well maintained and merchandise is always excellent, however I don’t shop there because there is food basics, and the prices there are substantially lower.
I’m sure they are going to pull through. I suspect the problem lies in them trying to increase growth/revenue and trying other avenues to sell non-food merchandise (and trying to compete with Walmart). They are concerned with the walmart expansion, but I suspect the walmart food concept won’t work here, at least not from the stores that I’ve seen.
5 Causalien // Nov 28, 2007 at 10:18 am
I ran by walmart and took down some of the staples groceries people would by and ran by Loblaws to do a comparison. Walmart’s prices are lower in every item that they offer where Loblaws also offer. So for single people who really don’t buy fresh meat and freshly baked French bread, there’s really no need to go to Loblaws.
I’ve seen Loblaws run out of Broccoli several times and just give up buying Broccoli there all together.
6 venter // Nov 28, 2007 at 10:37 am
We have no Loblaws in Hamilton, but do have Fortino’s which is owned by Loblaws. No problems with stale food, running out of staples etc. If all the Loblaws stores were run like the Fortino’s stores here they would be in the black in no time!
7 TonyR // Nov 28, 2007 at 10:49 am
We have their “Real Canadian Superstores” out here. The general consensus is don’t buy meat there because they’ve been known to leave meat overnight on the shipping dock in warm weather. You also have to check all your items because quite often the stock boys are overzealous with the box cutter and cut into the bag/box of product itself. The final straw was seeing a 3 inch dead cockroach on the floor in the frozen food aisle. We now buy as much as possible at Walmart and then pay a premium for everything else at Safeway or Sobey’s with the occaision trip to Costco or a butcher out in the country.
8 Canadian Capitalist // Nov 28, 2007 at 11:06 am
Phil: That’s an interesting nugget about Loblaws real estate. Whatever their current state, they are located on some prime real estate.
Stephen: How can a grocery store regularly run out of basics? That’s just an invitation for current customers to visit a rival store and soon enough stop going to Loblaws entirely. After all, most people just don’t have the time to visit two grocery stores the same day.
Mike: Actually, it was the Loblaws at Baseline and Merivale that carried stale bread and hummus well past its “best before” date. I don’t usually shop there and now I know to avoid it entirely.
And I’m not sure if I can generalize my experience with buying clothes but out of two shirts I once picked up for the boys from the Loblaws clothing line, the seams came off one of the shirts the very first time they were washed. I didn’t have the receipt with me or I would have returned it back.
9 Canadian Capitalist // Nov 28, 2007 at 11:17 am
In Loblaws favour though, despite all their troubles their stores are still crowded. Even the store I dropped into yesterday had a fair amount of traffic for a weekday afternoon.
10 nobleea // Nov 28, 2007 at 11:47 am
I agree about some of the stocking issues at Superstore (I’m in Edmonton). They quite often run out of 1% milk (I asked why they don’t change the order ratios of skim/1%/2% and the manager said it was the vendor who set the ratios - seems like that’s something the customer should do!). They are often out of food like soy sauce, tomatoes, ground beef (in Alberta!!! though this seems to be a problem at other stores). I still shop there as they’re the cheapest and fairly convenient. I refuse to shop at Wal Mart (lowest price guaranteed, but at what cost?).
11 Rob // Nov 28, 2007 at 11:52 am
My personal opinion…..
Their logistics are nothing short of brutal meaning they can’t get the right goods, keep them in stock so people can buy them but not overloaded and tying up cash, and then keep produce fresh at the same time.
Walmart has no equal in the logistic department and that is why their prices are low and stuff never seems to be out of stock. Costco often (but not always or on everything) has great prices if you don’t mind buying large quantities .
Loblaws is finding itself between the high margin Whole Foods of the grocery world and the low price WalMart. No matter where they want to sit in that spectrum, fresh food that is in stock has to be part of the equation.
Loblaws stores may be full but a full store doesn’t help if the margins are declining faster than the crowds are growing. Declining margins are a harder thing to fix than say a one-time charge for some isolated problem.
Galen Weston seems to think that selling reusable grocery bags will bring shoppers in but I don’t see that working. They may have made money selling them for dollar but I haven’t seen anybody re-using them at the cash (given the energy to produce cloth bags, it may not have saved the world like he proposed - and I think anyone who truly cares about being green knows this).
What is stupider is where he says that Presidents Choice has the number one frozen hamburger but you should NOT buy it… rather, you should buy their low-fat version because ‘everyone would be better off’.
I am no grocery store tycoon but if you have the number one seller of anything, leave it alone and spend your advertising money telling customers to buy something from new from you.
I suspect we are seeing the ugly side of nepotism. In any event, I say Galen Jr. should fire the advertising agency, stay off the tv and hire some smart people who are leaders in logistics and cost cutting.
Declining margins are tougher to fix than many problems and this could take a few years. On the other hand, the food/grocery business will be remain part of the economy and Loblaws is trading at a pretty deep discount to what it once was.
Personally, I would want to know how much the real estate is conservatively worth on a per share basis so I have a good idea of a floor value. If suitable, then long term buy-and-hold investors may find it worth the wait.
12 David // Nov 28, 2007 at 12:11 pm
I love shopping at Loblaws. I regularly visit their Cedarbrae store in Scarborough, and I used to visit their Heartland store in Mississauga when I was working out that way. Gorgeous! There is a new “Loblaw Superstore” opening in the Spring at the Scarborough Town Centre (very close to my house) that I am eagerly anticipating. Apparently, the branding change from “Real Canadian Superstore” to “Loblaw Superstore” is going to bring some serious strategic changes to what they sell (i.e. a larger Joe Fresh clothing section, less furniture & electronics). Since their stock is so beaten up, now might be an excellent time to invest!
13 Plan Your Escape // Nov 28, 2007 at 12:19 pm
I don’t know that I’ve noticed any issues at our local Loblaws, but I’ll make a point of taking a closer look now. I do agree with you 100% about the ginger beer though; that’s good stuff!
Peter
14 Krusty // Nov 28, 2007 at 1:04 pm
In BC we have the Real Canadian Superstore, which is usually known as Stupidstore.
My wife made the mistake of asking for help once from a store employee. The person had no idea where what she was asking for was, and turned to leave. She made a comment about stupid store, and the employee turned around and said ‘Yeah, we call it that too!’.
Otherwise, no matter which Superstore we visit around here (there are 3 or 4 of them close by), they all consistently run out of staples. We have altered our shopping habits to make sure we visit in the morning, because the shelves are empty by the afternoon.
We keep going back because they have the lowest prices around by far. This area doesn’t need improvement.
I agree with the previous posters - these stores have no issue getting people in the door. However, their logistics issues have to be fixed, and soon. Otherwise these people are going to move permanently to Costco or Save-on-Foods.
I have considered buying their stock previously, as i’m sure we’re responsible for a few cents of their yearly profit
But I always thought it was overpriced. Now that it has come down, i’m sure it was. But i’m still not convinced its at a bottom.
I also agree, they’ve got to change their ad agency… those ads are horrible!
15 Maxpower // Nov 28, 2007 at 1:09 pm
The local superstore I visit recently spent a over a month renovating the store, and while there are some improvements, the store was in complete chaos for this period. The store was severly understaffed, and nobody seemed to care that it was impossible to find anything. They took cashiers off the till and had them all start moving shelves of product. They are still struggling to complete the renovation transitions.
At the same time a local safeway completed their renovations in under 2 weeks, they had large temporary signs indicating products new locations and it appeared that they even had additional staff to help during this time.
16 Michael Gallant // Nov 28, 2007 at 1:36 pm
Out on the east cost they are called “Atlantic Superstore” and I do buy the majority of my groceries there as there are only 2 other alternatives.
Sobeys is too expensive I find most everything costs more there and their Store brands are not as good as those sold at Superstore (no-name/Pres. Choice).
Co-op here is good at times, their meat section is very good and I do prefer to buy my meat there over Superstore. Just don’t buy produce there it always seems to go bad so quickly. Also they aren’t good at rotating stock so you have to check dates on things before you buy things there. It’s also on the way home so I do go there to pickup a few items but generally not for a full order.
Walmarts here don’t have the full Grocery section Supercentres yet but I have been to them in the US and they are impressive. Their prices seemed to be lower than grocery store regular prices but sales prices at the grocery store were always better.
What annoys me is if I want to buy some milk at the Superstore, I have to walk in one end of the building and walk clear to the other end and back again. So it’s like a 15 minute trip to get milk if you but it there. And that is just to walk-in, pay for and walk out!
If the Atlantic superstores were a seperate entity I would buy stock in them, as they represent a significant percentage of the market here with little real competition at least for me personally.
17 Nabloid // Nov 28, 2007 at 1:41 pm
Kristy, it’s Canadian Tire that has the nickname Stupid Store, at least that is how I’ve known it my entire life.
We have the Real Canadian Superstore and its alright. It’s way better than Walmart…. our Walmarts are PACKED with MILLIONS of people and its hard to just shop as you have everyone and thier dog at Walmart… for that reason not very many people buy thier groceries from our Walmart in comparison with other grocery stores. You can barely walk down the isle… so its just too crowded at Walmart.
I shop at every grocery store but Walmart. Prices aren’t that much better after factoring in massive line ups and absolutely zero room to move the cart.
18 ThickenMyWallet // Nov 28, 2007 at 2:44 pm
I remember reading what happened was that Loblaws moved their logistics/operations from out west to east (or maybe it was the other way around) and they lost a lot of managers in the move which explains why when I went last week half of the tea selection had a “please restock” sign on it. They lost their skilled managers who kept the place going.
Loblaws is a classic case of a business not sticking to their knitting. They sold some great foods but I don’t understand them branding out into clothes, drugs, furniture etc. One day, the fall of Loblaws will be a MBA case study.
I don’t understand Loblaws twisting itself into knots to fight Walmart- Walmart is such a sign of American imperalism that many Canadians will not shop there (Walmart can’t get a store into Vancouver because there is so much resistance to them) and the Walmarts in Toronto are primarily located in middle class neighborhoods while the Loblaws are in upper-middle class neighborhoods; different markets (at least locally). Its like Loblaws psyched itself out.
19 Corey // Nov 28, 2007 at 3:03 pm
Huh… This strikes a cord with me. My wife and I have similar issues with the Superstores here in Calgary that have the same issues with stocking. It’s to the point where I avoid going there in favour of Safeway.
Others have mentioned Walmart but while their logistics may be very good they are NOT good at getting stuff out the door. The line-ups at the checkouts are insane (at least at the Walmarts out here.)
20 telly // Nov 28, 2007 at 3:14 pm
Almost everyone I know shops at Zehr’s. I used to as well, until my MIL told me “that’s where rich people shop”.
So I switched to Food Basics as well.
A few months ago I started car pooling, so now I shop at the A&P because that’s where we meet and park.
I’m pretty much a convenience shopper which is why I just can’t bring myself to shop at the Super Store or even Walmart for that matter. Too often, stores get too big for their own good. I’ll pay $2 more for a bottle of shampoo at Shopper’s than have to deal with the chaos that is Walmart.
21 growthinvalue // Nov 28, 2007 at 3:38 pm
Thickenmywallet hit the nail on the head — Loblaws is trying to fight too many battles at once. Even when I was a kid and had no concept of things like marketing, I insitinctively knew Loblaws was the “nice” grocery store of the two we’d go to. I became, and am still, a huge fan of their President’s Choice line of products. They had a good thing going.
But I don’t understand this obsession with doing something other than groceries. They were the best grocery store in Canada, and then srewed it up by preparing for a needless “fight” on Wal-mart’s terms.
Worse still, they decided that the best way to fight a discount department store threatening to be a grocer, was to become a grocer with a home furnishings division. Then start a spin-off to sell discount clothing.
It’s a mess. To me, Loblaws is one of those classic stock where you look at the share price and say “oh my god! It’s $35! 5 years ago it was twice that! it must be on sale!”
But really, I think the stock has more to fall. I don’t see the fuss for a once-dominant grocery store that has proven itself very fallible, with a microscopic dividend.
Loblaws needs to figure out what it is, and get back to doing that. People have loyalty to the brand, so the stores will stay full if they can pull it off. I don’t see any signs of that happening, but I’d love to be wrong and buy the stock one day.
22 James // Nov 28, 2007 at 3:41 pm
My wife and I live in Halton Hills Ontario and we have the brand new Loblaw superstore in Milton. It is the first bagless store in Canada(you have to bring your own or buy their bins/bags). Its really big. The prices are pretty good, stock selection is good, we haven’t had any out of stock issues and the meat/bakery sections are quite good. As for the Stock…I think around $30 will be the bottem but I don’t expect a recovery for several years. Keep in mind Loblaw owns a lot of their own real estate as well and their dividend is very secure. The payout ratio is still fairly low for the dividend even amidst the restructuring and lower profits. I have a feeling we haven’t seen the last of this stock. If you have a long time horizon I would say its a good time to get in (I already have a small holding and will likely add to it in the next few months)
23 Phil S // Nov 28, 2007 at 3:44 pm
FYI. I also bought units of Crombie REIT, which is the REIT that owns most of the real estate where the Sobey’s grocery stores are located. But the last time I checked, the Sobey family still holds most of the Crombie units and only a minority share is floated on the TSX.
The Walmart stores are located mostly on properties owned by Primaris REIT, but the Primaris unit prices haven’t come down far enough to entice me to start buying. They would be my way of “hedging” my bet, as Walmart is the one competitor feared by all of the other grocery chains. My strategy is to buy the properties on which almost ALL of our supermarkets are located. It would kind of be like “buying the index”, as it were. But I don’t know if Metro Inc (who bought the A&P / Price Chopper, etc. brands) will be breaking off their real estate into a REIT or a corp like the others… If they do, you can bet that I’ll be watching them closely as well!
24 Canadian Capitalist // Nov 28, 2007 at 3:45 pm
I agree with Corey about the line ups at the checkout counter at Wal-Mart. I try to avoid Wal-Mart for precisely that reason. It’s not just that there is a line up, the line moves very slowly. Compare that to Costco, which almost always has a line up as well but moves fast.
Thicken, you’re right about Loblaws self-destructing. It’s not as if Wal-Mart has no surviving competition. Costco is doing just fine, thank you. And Best Buy didn’t panic and start selling shoes, sauce pans and toys when Wal-Mart announced they were selling electronics.
25 FourPillars // Nov 28, 2007 at 5:00 pm
I agree L should stick to groceries but I have to say that I bought a cheap bbq there this year ($100) and it is awesome!
Mike
26 Steve // Nov 28, 2007 at 8:43 pm
It always struck me as dumb for Loblaws to, as a strategy, decide to go head-to-head with W-Mart, and try to sell furniture and other non-grocery stuff like they do. You can’t out wal-mart a wal-mart for heavens sake, and if all you compete on is price, well, they can get heinz to sell them a can of beans for less than Loblaws can….. They would be smarter to revamp and position themselves as Whole Foods Canada. Take a different approach and go all fresh/organic and not try to compete on commodities. But oh well Galen who got his job because of his dad thinks that a canvass bag will ‘change everything’. Right.
27 Jon D. // Nov 28, 2007 at 9:27 pm
2 comments:
1.) I have a neighbour who took a part-time job there for some extra cash working as a cashier. The horror stories I hear about ineptitude around schedules, and pushing promos and acceptable behaviour is outrageous.
2.) I do believe I laughed for the very first time here after the line: “Jamaican-style ginger beer that I’m addicted to.”
28 Potato // Nov 28, 2007 at 11:23 pm
Every summer I’ve been well impressed by the Charlottetown Atlantic Superstore (though it is a bit pricey, and we tend to try to pick our own veggies when we’re on the Island).
Here in London, I haven’t noticed any problems in Loblaws or the RCSS in terms of keeping stock up and fresh (they’re not as good as the local A&P at keeping things fresh, but I haven’t noticed anything past its due date on the shelves). Loblaws is ridiculously expensive here for some reason, 25-50% more than A&P/Sobeys/RCSS on many things. I hardly ever see anyone off in the department store half of the RCSS.
The biggest problems are the chronic long lineups (every time I go to the RCSS the lineup is 15 minutes or longer, even for the self-checkout; Loblaws is that bad maybe 50% of the time), but that might still indicate a management problem, especially when they have more people out in the deli, heat-and-eat, bakery, fish, and prepared salad counters than they do on cash.
In Toronto however, I haven’t shopped there for years. The Bayview Village Loblaws had those exact same supply issues for years and my family just gave up on them. My mom shops at the Empress Walk one occasionally, and says its pretty good though, but again, pricey.
I do find PC to be one of the best store brands around, and PC Financial has been fantastic. I don’t know why Loblaws isn’t doing better as a company…
29 Nabloid // Nov 28, 2007 at 11:52 pm
Wow, I’m an idiot in my prior comment about Canadian Tire.. that’s crappy tire… you’re right about stupid store Kristy.
I can’t tell you how bad the Walmarts out here are (in Alberta)… so busy (cause there ain’t that many) and the ones in poorer neighborhoods are like zoo’s… I can’t stand it. There are so many people buying furniture, clothing, dvd’s, games, garden supplies, pet supplies and everything else, that I can’t be bothered to wait in a line up with my food… PLUS, I’ve said it before… THERE IS NO ROOM IN THE ISLES for all the people, shopping carts, etc. It’s just TOO crowded. I’ll pay a bit more for quality and convenience.
As for Loblaws… them having empty shelves makes it rediculous to go there. There are two Real Canadian Superstores in my area… one is rather quiet and large… I like going there. The other Real Canadian Superstore is so darn busy its almost as bad as walmart.
30 TonyR // Nov 29, 2007 at 10:58 am
Here in Winnipeg, Canadian Tire’s nickname is Ukrainian Tire.
Also, Walmart’s lines aren’t too bad, RCSS’ are way worse, plus we’re also now in the season where RCSS starts raising prices on everything.. My wife’s cereal will go up $1 and stay the same everywhere else.
RCSS here also seems to attract the rudest customers. (The kind who park their cart in the middle of a busy aisle.)
31 Adam // Nov 29, 2007 at 11:40 am
Walmart is evil. That’s why I don’t shop there. The Weston family does much more for their community. (For Weston’s it just happens to be Canada as well) then the Walton’s. I have had headaches at Loblaws but I will stick with them. The same goes for Sobey’s.
Shop with a soul.
32 TonyR // Nov 29, 2007 at 12:21 pm
That too depends on where you live. Here, the least charitable company is L/RCSS while Walmart supports about 3 local charities per store. Safeway (my prefered grocer despite the prices) supports the local food banks and Christmas hamper charities plus a unique charity per store. (I also shop at Rona instead of HD because they’re very active locally and nationally)
Playing the devli’s advocate, there’s also the argument the Walmart’s tactics do good because it drives down the cost of basics which helps everyone, especially the poorest members of society. No company is pure good or pure bad.
Good works 2000+ km away doesn’t make up for dirty, unstocked stores with bad service.
33 nobleea // Nov 29, 2007 at 12:58 pm
Walmart does drive down the cost of basics which helps everyone. Particularly those whose jobs have been offshored to china in an effort to get those prices down. Not so much an issue in Canada, but disastrous in many parts of the states. Walmart accounts for 10% of China’s GDP!!
For a balanced read, check out the book The Walmart Effect by Charles Fishman
34 Leading Edge Boomer // Nov 30, 2007 at 2:25 pm
I am in the east end of Ottawa. Still not impressed with Loblaws or it,s Canadian superstore. My favourite supermarket is Price Choppers in Orleans. Good variety of product in most categories and overall, the best prices around. The Walmart on Innes road is expanding in size and will compete with the other supermarkets. It will have a bakery, deli, and fresh meat and produce departments. It should be open soon , but I expect I will stick with Price Choppers as my main grocery store.
Amazing how many people say Walmart is “evil’ . Yet, so many people shop there and keep Walmart a very profitable business.
35 Dave from GP // Nov 30, 2007 at 2:47 pm
I bought shares in Loblaw’s when their troubles began at around $57.00. I had read about stocks that were going to carry you through all types of economies, whether the times were good or bad people would always have to buy groceries right? Superstore would therefore seem even more attractive. The stocks eventually dropped to $47, but I hung on, I even bought a few more on the way down. Things were not getting any better. When Sobey’s went private and Loblaw shares shot up in “sympathy / hope” to about $51.00 I bailed. I guess I’m glad I did because they are now in the 30’s. My wife used to shop at Superstore but the line ups here in Alberta are atrocious. There is no such thing as an express lane anymore. Half the registers are closed. They do not seem to have anything you want and their produce is terrible. We stopped going to Superstore and now go to Safeway. I still keep my eye on them however, I’m sure they will come back but their forecast is another 2-5 years for improvements. I like the idea of owning stocks in a company where you can go in and keep an eye on things. One trip into a Superstore here tells you things are not good. There are other things to buy in that meantime.
36 Alex // Dec 4, 2007 at 6:46 pm
I have noticed two things. Prices have dropped at Zehrs which is part of loblaws and they are better stocked than they used to be.
They have these handy green tags on the shelf now that tell the customer if the product is out of stock. Handy.
37 John // Dec 5, 2007 at 6:56 am
I think the real sick puppy is Wal-mart. There is such an undercurent of hate towards that company that they [Wal-mart] must keep pumping out these pr commercials about how responsible or good they are. There is something wrong with them.
38 Jamie // Dec 8, 2007 at 10:39 pm
Was in a Walmart grocery store and was not impressed. They were out of so many things that I just walked out and went to Sobeys.
39 Dee // Dec 10, 2007 at 10:48 pm
Our fav name for Superstore is Stuporstore - and in the hot economy of Alberta you need to shop on a week day or early in the morning because of stocking issues. And we call is Crappy Tire too. Must be a canuck thing or something.
40 Mikey // Dec 15, 2007 at 6:19 pm
My favourite name is Junk-Mart [for Walmart]. If you want crap from China, and you want to kill Canadian/American jobs, your Junk-Mart is the place to go.
Junk-Mart, Always Low Prices, Always.
41 Ghost rider // Jan 8, 2008 at 12:39 pm
They are building a Wal-Mart superstore across from Loblaws at Heartland Town centre, in Mississuaga.
I hope Loblaws get their ducks in a row as I would rather shop at Loblaws heartland.
I think Loblaws ran into trouble when they moved their distrubtion centre from Mississauga, to the east end of the GTA. They lost a bunch of experienced employees. They still have a smaller DC in Mississauga on Freemont street.
There ads are to safe ” the hamburger add” the lack of the word “christmas” during the season et all. Then lop in clothing and furniture. trying to be all things to all people.
That usually doesnt work. Oh and how long before Walmart begins shipping milk, eggs, bread, etc from China..using UPS overnight….Yikes that thought scares me! Loblwas needs to look at every area of the business from marketing to stocking shelves, pick it apart,build on what they are strong at the breakdown and rebuild what they are not so good at….right now that is distribution.
42 Joan // Jan 8, 2008 at 7:59 pm
Walmart sucks. They are dirty discusting boxes of crap.
43 Rob on the rock // Jan 23, 2008 at 10:09 pm
I work at a Dominion (owned by Loblaws) in St. John’s.here are some points I like to make.
1. Our stores have the same problem with out of stocks,but
not with basic items like milk/juice. Our problem is that it takes longer for us to get our trucks from T.O. or Halifax and between trucks we are not aloud to have alot of over stock
in the back shop so we run out.
2. Like it or not the non-food side of the store is not going anywhere. The Kid-Kloz/Joe Fresh line has a very high
gross profit as high as 60%.Also the GM dept has a nice markup some items as much as40%.
3.As far as Line-ups at the cash go.The next time you are in a line up with more than 3 people, go to customer service and as them ( Is your policy more than 3 in a line up you will open another cash?) because this is a company policy coast to coast.But in saying that we are having a hard time keeping cashiers. Maybe it has something to do with the 8 dollars per hour they are paying. All the best from Newfoundland.
44 mongo carnivore // Jan 24, 2008 at 1:18 am
In December you can find Santa everywhere except Walmart. They have Satan.
45 Ghost rider // Feb 12, 2008 at 10:22 am
Loblaws is still have logistics issues, Maybe they should move back to the Erin mills DC and hire as many as the old staff back as possible. However when the items are in stock, Loblaws is a plesant place to shop. One thing shocked me thou, I was looking at some of the frozen fish at Loblaws on the weekend …..guess what is was from China, I almost ***t myself. Come on Loblaws don’t do what
Crap-mart does, you are better than that.
If plastic bags are such an issue …Loblaws to should go back to paper bags that biodegrade.
46 N. Lewis // Feb 20, 2008 at 8:49 pm
I know this is bit late for the topic, but was searching for another article I read earlier this evening and can’t find!
Am a Loblaws shareholder too , do have the cheapest dispensing fee in their pharmacy at least.
About a month ago, for couple of weekends they had Sat. only specials. Can’t remember what, bacon I think one week.
Was in about 1pm, none, all gone. Don’t know if there was a limit, didn’t concern me - 2 would have been fine, but gather from courtesy counter, people were buying 12 at a time.
If there was a limit no one was enforcing it, tho nothing to stop you going back and thru different cashier of course.
Their stock apparently had been limited and all more reason to enforce limits.
Was pretty ticked off! Don’t buy much else there except occasionally if a special is very good, as is closest supermarket. Great pharmacy people tho. Bank there as well, but never went in the store beyond the bank today. Maybe they should put it at the back! like some other necessities, then people would spend their way thru to the bank! Hope they don’t read that!
Thanks
N Lewis Bowmanville
47 daphne bishop // Mar 9, 2008 at 1:09 pm
I would like to know what is going on with Dominion stores in Bay Roberts, NL.,lately I go to get specials and the day of the onset they are not there or the reason is truck is not in yet. I wait and sometimes they do not arrive until the next week ,I also find lately that the shlves are almost bare in some sections. I always like to shop at Dominion ,but if this keeps up I guess I will have to find somewhere that the shelves are always properly stocked .I have shopped at Dominion for a long while and I really feel sorry if I have to go elsewhere
48 Eddie Godoresky // Mar 31, 2008 at 9:17 pm
I have a love-hate relationship with Loblaws and its spinoffs.
Like - President’s Choice - quality generics
Like - PC Financial - no charge banking
Dislike - understaffed checkouts
Despise- Having to go through furnishings and bedding to get to milk & bread
If I have a choice, I shop at smaller grocers that don’t trap me in there for an hour.
Back to investing. I keep looking at Loblaws bonds with 7.5% yields. They couldn’t really default on those could they?
49 Jenn // Apr 21, 2008 at 2:11 pm
In Milton (Ont) our Superstore is extremely good. Clean, *usually* well stocked, although they were out of ketchup last week, which I thought was a tad weird. The produce is generally very good, and I have never once had a problem with any meat purchased there.
I really don’t like the UGLY Joe Fresh clothing - it’s truly ugly. No idea who does their buying, but they have no taste or fashion sense whatsoever. Some of their home decor items are nice, but not all of it. I find the store very sterile looking also. All white with bits of brown and cream. Blech.
An interesting point here is that the Food Basics also in Milton is NOT cheaper than super store - I’ve done very careful comparisons and find that you’re better off shopping at RCSS over FB. Better quality, best prices. The A&P in Milton is a joke. The only reason to ever shop at A&P is if you’re short on AirMiles. Their prices are ludicrous - fully 10% more (and sometimes a LOT more) expensive.
I love the cloth shopping bags and green bins from RCSS. Not only are they extremely tough and long lasting, but they’re wonderful for a myriad of other uses. I would like to see them introduce different options in meat packaging (get rid of the styrofoam, go back to butcher paper) and produce packaging. For produce, perhaps resilient plastic tubs or mesh bags that could be washed and reused. In the absence of these things, maybe even mesh wash bags that you can pick up at the dollar store. I’d like to see people putting their apples and other loose fruit and veggies directly into the black shopping bags rather than grabbing the plastic bags provided for that use.
I noticed a comment earlier about putting the new greenbin recycling into plastic bags - that isn’t what they suggest at all. They don’t allow plastic in those bins, and it’s very clearly stated on the info provided with the new bins. They suggest, rather, that biodegradable bags be purchased, or you can line your bins with newspaper or paper toweling.
Sorry my 2¢ is long winded!
50 Jenn // Apr 21, 2008 at 2:24 pm
I forgot to add that the Walmart here is in the process of expanding into the full/fresh grocery market. Considering the current food offerings and prices - they’re no better than RCSS unless they are having a special. They appear to be banking on the fact that they’re a one-stop shop, and people don’t check their prices. The staples (bread, milk, eggs, margarine) are often more expensive at Walmart than at RCSS. While I will still shop at Walmart in a pinch due to it’s location, for full grocery orders I’m still going the extra 2 minutes to the RCSS.
It will be very interesting indeed to see what happens when they launch the full grocery store at Walmart. They will be very hard-pressed to entice me to shop there over RCSS, and I really don’t have any strong loyalties one way or the other.
Like someone else mentioned above - no store is 100% good or 100% evil.
51 Gordon // Apr 27, 2008 at 9:00 pm
I have to admit that my Zehrs store has really improved when it comes to having things I want. I find very few items missing on the shelves now. I like my Zehrs and I want to stay with it. The produce and meat are great.
52 Bob Black // May 6, 2008 at 11:10 pm
I think everyone should take a closer look - are employees happy working at Loblaws?
Loblaws has been putting the screws to it’s employees for many years now by reducing benifits and in the near future lowering wages.
There is three tiers to the wages. Senior staff are earning $20.89 per hour and new hires are hovering around $16.54 per hour.
Loblaws wants to flatline the wages across the board so that the employee making 20.89 / hour will be lowered to 16.54 and working more hours in doing so.
Currently Loblaws employees typically work a 37 hour week but the new contract bumps up the hours to 40 per week AND working on Sundays is mandatory. RCSS employees are already working under this new contract.
I can tell you this that you more than likely that when you shop at Loblaws you will get a lot of attitude from the employees because they just do not care anymore, they are just waiting for there buy outs to leave.
Loblaws thinks that if everyone leaves it will in the end be better and less expensive for them. However they fail to see that with the mass exodus, they are losing years of experience and loyalty which almost non existent today.
Also those experienced ex Loblaws guys and gals are going to Sobeys! Thanks Loblaws!!
Customer Service is what makes or breaks a company that is front and center with the customer every day. Take notice next time you’re in a store how many people are available to answer your questions and if you happen to be lucky to find someone, if they actually speak English!
It will be a VERY BLACK DAY FOR LOBLAWS WHEN ALL THE LOBLAWS EMPLOYEES SAY GOOD BYE
Oh and recently there was something written in the Globe & Mail about the company and why it was in such dire straits…it claimed that it was because employees were stealing. The reality is they’re in dire straights because they are offering their loyal employees 4 weeks for every year of service to leave the company capping the buyout at $75,000 or 3 weeks per year to convert to another banner such as RCSS Great Food Store but for less money and more hours. To convert to No Frills the offer was 2 weeks per year.
Not a bad deal eh?
53 Jennifer // May 6, 2008 at 11:12 pm
Definitely not worth switching for in my opinion
54 Jeff Gordon // May 13, 2008 at 8:39 pm
I just got done reading what Bob Black wrote. Here is a bit of it
:
Loblaws has been putting the screws to it’s employees for many years now by reducing benifits and in the near future lowering wages.
There is three tiers to the wages. Senior staff are earning $20.89 per hour and new hires are hovering around $16.54 per hour.
Loblaws wants to flatline the wages across the board so that the employee making 20.89 / hour will be lowered to 16.54 and working more hours in doing so.
Currently Loblaws employees typically work a 37 hour week but the new contract bumps up the hours to 40 per week AND working on Sundays is mandatory.
May I suggest to you that few people care about the woes of the employee’s in companies. If they did then the worst employers like Walmart would have gone broke back in the 1980’s.
Most Walmart rank and file make 9 or 10 dollars an hour.
A department head makes 14 and change. Full time is considered over 27 hours a week. Benefits are weak and hours suck.
I know people who work there [Walmart] and they don’t give a dam. They are not paid enough to care.
In conclusion may I suggest that the reason Loblaws workers are going backwards is because people care about themselves and only themselves. They could not care less if Loblaws workers are happy or if Walmart workers are able to feed their families. It is the reality even though it is not right.
55 Lob Blows // May 21, 2008 at 12:45 am
I would imagine that Loblaw has the same problem that killed Eatons which was essentially a lack of interest at the very top and influential but incompetent rival factions below them ready to sabotage any hired outsider initiatives that were supposedly going to save the company.
While shopping I have seen the most elementary marketing display mistakes remain in place for weeks at a time. How about a stack of bargain priced small televisions in cartons with a display sample TV sitting on top blocking them? How do you impulse buy something that you can’t even pick up and put in your shopping cart?
If Loblaw sold unpopular breeds of dogs in store and displayed them in cardboard dog houses and sales were slow, their idea of merchandising would be to build mahogany dog houses for the dogs to get “better customer perception and enhance value”.
56 Brad // Jul 2, 2008 at 9:31 am
I have read most of the comments on this page and find a lot of them to be quite ridiculous!!!
I have and still do shop at all three companies (Loblaws,Wallmart and Sobey’s depending what I need). Sobey’s and Lablaws/Zehrs/… I will shop at for “FOOD” depending what is on sale and Walmart I go to for “Electronics and other c*ap”.
I have also worked for both Loblaws and Sobey’s, while Wallmart, on the other hand… I walked out of the place before the person came to interview me after reading all of the propaganda posted in the back office. I guess they like employees with no brains and who will conform to their will and work as one. (kind of reminds me of the Borg from Star Trek!!) I also heard a lot of unpleasant things from previous employees who worked there.
So now that I have established that I am not a “Fanboy” of either company and have seen first hand how the company’s work from the inside (With the exemption of Walmart…..the 5 minuets in the waiting room was too painful for a rational, objective, humanist “such as myself” who loves to have “Fun” and “Work -With” his fellow employees while keeping his individualality.)
This is what “I” have to say…
Every single company in the world has it’s faults.
Every single company has its “good time’s” and bad.
For all the different company’s and products that exist in the world, there is one thing that has been and always will be the same.
“YOU”!!!!
The customer.
We have the voice and the will to let these company’s know how we feel about their lack of service and miss-management.
Stores always have and always will run out of product or have spoiled food, stores will close while new ones will open and company’s change ownership.
B**ching to ourselves will accomplish nothing!
Here are a few quick simple solutions that are idiot proof.
Sick of spoiled or old food ?
Tell the department manager about it, and while you are at it, ask him when they get their deliveries so you can buy fresh!!!
Don’t like the clothes they carry?
Don’t buy clothes from a grocery store!!!
Tired of waiting in long lines at the cashier?
Move to a smaller town!!! The population is not going to get smaller anytime soon!
Tired of “Out of Stock” signs?
Tough s**t “You can’t always get what you want…..but if you try real hard… you might get what you need”. Mick Jager
And last but not least…
Tired of low wages or pay cuts ?
GO BACK TO SCHOOL AND GET A BETTER JOB!
57 Brad // Jul 2, 2008 at 9:59 am
My apologies for the improper Mick Jager quote, here are the actual lyrics.
“You can’t always get what you want
And if you try sometime you find
You get what you need”. Mick Jager
58 True Confessions // Jul 10, 2008 at 2:17 pm
I am currently a Superstore employee, I know all too well how the store runs. Issues I have noticed as of to date are:
1. Customer Service: Many employees are students still in school. These employees are just there for money. They do not care about the job, pleasing customers, and/or contributing to the work load of the departments in a team effort environment. It is only a job, that passes time on their way to their future career. These employees are more about socializing than actually contributing to their departments. These are ones that continually have to be babysat, told to do work on something , instead of taking initiative themselves. A real thorn in your side.
2.Overworked Staff: These are part-time employees who have to pick up the slack for the first employees stated above. They are required to perform as a 3 person or more employee. So many expectations are placed on these responsible employees, that they get frustrated to the point where they show to customers that they are frustrated with their job. It is even hard to keep a smile when they are the ox pulling the wagon with all the other staff aboard. These are ones who have great work ethics and want to please the customers but on many occasions cannot offer such assistance because of picking up the slack for the other bad employees. These ones are MANAGEMENT MATERIAL! If you can, please stand back and take notice of this person amongst the rest within the department and please instead of making a negative remark to them, make a kind jesture, and you will see that this person just needed a positive thing like that to happen within their very busy day, to change their attitude toward customers. They usually receive so many negative attitudes or remarks from customers, along with the lack of team effort, that they usually quit. And yet, they were the department. They held the department together. Loblaws/Superstores need more mature workers who take pride in everything they do.
3.Management: I have worked with serveral department managers and have wonder how some of them received their jobs! These stores have such a high turn over and I feel that it is due to the lack of professional managers. Many lack the skills, maturity, and professionalism needed to deal with workers when disciplining and/or just on a regular basis in the department. They put up with way too much from some employees, with no show/no calls for their shifts, and yet the excellent workers, who give a 110% get *hit on for minor issues. Alot of the problems stem from favortism, or the *ss kissers syndrome. You will get everywhere when you are an *sskisser. But if you are a loyal, trustworthy, hardworking employee, you will get nowhere. I have witnessed first hand the effects of favortism. I have seen employees with less years/some just months of experience with the company receive management and assistant management roles. They were not competant enough to be placed in these positions and yet because they knew someone high up, they received the job. Loblaws/Superstores are FAILING due to this main issue. I have seen managers with over 5 years experience unable to place proper inventory orders, supply orders, employee weekly scheduling problems, ability to make new signage for price changes etc. , struggle on a weekly basis. How can this be? They have been in their position over 5 years and yet don’t have their *hit together!! Know wonder the departments struggle, let alone the company! If the leader is incapable, then what are we to expect from the little workers!
4. Full-Timers: These are few and far between, maybe one per department, and if your lucky you may have two. From my experience, once these employees go from part-time status to full-time status they feel they don’t need to work as hard. The union protects these employees, even if the manager finds that the employee is incapable, after several months of training, to competantly perform their duties. The union will still back up the employee and extend their probationary period. When is enough-enough!!These people are obstacles for the true employees who want an actual career with Loblaws! I know from experience these ones are slackers. Put it to the test, stand back and watch who is working in the department, once you notice , go up and ask to speak to the full-time person of the department. Chances are high that the person at the back during a rush period is the full-timer. That’s if they are even in the department at all, and not on a unscheduled (smoke) break, or socializing with other employees from another department, or upstairs placing orders for over an hour and a half?? Leaving the department to fend for itself. Just ask the other part-time employees if these ones are a great worker. They have nothing to lose, remembering that most are there for the summer holidays until school starts up again.
5. Stocking issues: I totally agree! I can say again, it’s probably due to the manager of the department. On some occasions it is out of our hands and is the fault of the warehouse. Speaking with night crew, they feel that they need to hire more staff for night’s so that the store will be fully stocked for the next day. These people are definitely overworked!
6. Store Managers: This person is the one who picks his favorite person for Manager and Assistant Manager roles within his store. First mistake! This should be taken care of by the District Manager, he/she is bias to all that occurs in the store and therefore will see all applicants as EQUAL. In turn, he/she will choose the right person for the position, instead of the usual of favortism, and/or *ss kissing. You may once in a bluemoon see the right person get the job. But that is few and far between. I feel Loblaws needs to fill upper management roles with WOMAN. There is hardly any woman in store management roles and even less in Assistant Store Manager , and Store Manager roles. What is up with that??
59 The Reality of it... // Jul 10, 2008 at 8:05 pm
I have worked for Loblaws for over three years now in the warehouse and I am a frequent customer at their Zehrs store.
I see everything that has gone on and I believe that the problem exists with management more than it does with the employees, yes the employees are idiot kids, but, it is the management that hires these employees and allows for their behavior to continue.
I have never been much of a union person and I do believe they only add more to the problem by protecting people who deserve to be fired! And with that said the union can only protect them for so long, if management did their job properly these kids and other employees would be gone.
Another VERY LARGE PROBLEM IS THE DRUG ABUSE AT WORK. I work in the Maplegrove warehouse and half the employees there are either drinking, smoking weed or snorting coke. They do it in the parking lot on break or smoke it in the washrooms, one employee was even dumb enough to smoke a joint on the floor in the warehouse. Did he get fired? Nooooo, he still has his job and the worst part of it all is he operates a counter balance reach truck that weighs over 1500 lbs with a full load on it!!! He never even lost his fork license, all that happened was a several day suspension.
What kind of company allows for these things to happen?
Especially when people can be severely injured or even killed.
I use to be a trainer that trained all the new hires and have dropped the position because of changes made to the training program. New hires now have 2 days of training squeezed into 1 day which does not allow for the proper time needed for training on the machinery. Also, the company is hiring high school drop out morons. Several time I had told management certain individuals should not be hired they cannot due the work, or they had bad attitudes. Instead they are given the benefit of doubt and after three weeks the either quit or are fired. Talk about a waste of time and resources.
Even management fights amongst themselves. I have held management positions for other companies and you couldn’t pay me enough to go into management for loblaws.
Loblaws needs to stop worrying about “Walmart” and other compitition and start concerning themselves about their serious internal problems with management and employees.
I firmly believe that 75% of their problems are internally caused by improper management and their lack of understanding what a quality employee really is.
Why is it with all of theses company and warehouse closures I do not see people who want to work hard to provide for their family being hired? why is it all the high school drug addict drop outs?
60 Fed Up In Central B.C // Aug 16, 2008 at 2:24 pm
As an employee of Superstore for 13 years I must say that ‘True Confessions’ has nailed it!I have experienced everything that was mentioned and more,it was like this person works at the same location!I am accepting a buyout the next ratification if I can and will never look back.Next time you are at Superstore and you see that employee with that miserable look on their face remember what you read here.
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