Comments on: What ails Loblaws?

By: True Confessions

True Confessions — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 14:28:10 +0000

So I no longer work for the SS…lol…but I do have to say that after all that I have commented on this website, don’t know who u are, but for some reason things at work seemed to have changed. First off, the district store manager took an early retirement, (we heard he was asked to leave), the store manager retired aswell, two positives, however then they replaced the district manager with a Walmart district manager??what the? Do u wanna be walmart? and I usually have great intuition when I meet someone, (years of being abused, u develop great instincts about people)…u can tell he is not an honest judial individual…I know I stated within my other comments that the district manager should be the one to hire the department managers, however, they all work in ass kissing each other still…the DM takes the opinion of the SM and then the DM just gives the SM what he wants…They finally came out with employee surveys, which means now every employee does get to have a say on the performance of the dept.manager, and store manager…finally cutos to u for that Loblaws…Hey like parents, u give compliments where compliments are due. I have no issue with praising when people and businesses do something positive…and don’t get me wrong when I state on here the issues at store level. U have actually taken all of my suggestions and implemented them…so I must have some abilities u like to inquire about.
I have a great suggestion…why not hire me to go into each store as a mole. I know that sounds crazy but I feel the only way to get to the bottom of situations at store level is to plant someone within the store…once the information is collected and provided, u move me onto another store, and so forth. Nobody will know who I am. I will play the role of a p/t person, and I will move about the stores reporting my findings to whom it may concern; who are slackers, and who are keepers, what managers have skills/professionalism, and who do not possess these abilities…then u can filter them out and progress in ensuring that u’r company standards are in tip top shape…I will also inform u of who should be in manager roles, based on their abilities, skills, and personality… nobody would even know that I was a mole.
The only reason employees complain is because there are injustices happening to them. Alot of these individuals love their job, however just like the famous saying…all it takes is one bad weed to spoil it for the others…these good employees become targets after complaining, so usually there is a fear of going to the union with situations, cause employees get labelled as troublemakers. These employees are not troublemakers, they are actually the ones who promote u’r policies and standards effectively. It is the other people who go against them that don’t want things to come out, and try to sweep matters under the carpet cause it is too much for them to deal with. I can even provide u with an incident…u had an HR personnel working for SS, now this person is moved into another position within Loblaws. This person made a horrible comment to a female who was pursuing a complaint against a male co-worker on harrassment…he also filed a complaint… and therefore a so-called investigation occurred…the HR person told this female that she was costing the company a large amount of money by having them investigate…can u believe that! what kind of person says that?? Especially an HR representative…and especially after implementing a so called “no tolerance” to harrassment policy. Long story short, this female is still having to work with this man, and tolerate all of his harrassment daily…but if she complains, she will be labelled a troublemaker, so she refuses to pursue it, scared of losing her job that feeds, and shelters her children! At the time of occurrence, she had been with the company for years, he just started working with the company… she had no history of complaining of harrassment etc…at the least, he should have been removed out of that dept. She had seniority over him to stay in the dept. She does not know I know about this..so don’t go looking to attack her for my writing this about her on this website…but as u can see, problems with personnel can occur way up the ladder, even u’r HR staff…who’s job it is to protect employees…not discourage them from coming forward with problems. I’m glad to see that person left the HR dept. But once again, if u inquire of these things, other staff that worked with this HR person will protect this individual, because HR is more highly respected over a measley P/T employee at store level. Your company is a company that is growing, and hopefully will continue to grow in a positive way…but when humans are prone to human error, we have to remember that not everyone is on board with the positive changes that Loblaws will want to make to stand out among their competitors (Walmart) etc…Build it, and people will come! Set u’r sights higher, and u will prevail!

By: Superstore_Sucks

Superstore_Sucks — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 02:35:25 +0000

All issue are at the stores level and above. The stores don’t provide any customer service and quality products.

Look at onions and potatoes. They stink. Even tomoatoes they are really bad, tasteless and watery…

Sobeys has far better customer support and Complement product. Customers don’t care how they a company is managing their supply chain. Customers are interested in getting the best value for their $ and Extra Food and Super Store is NOT an answer.

Superstore don’t even have or share a copoun policy. Any time I go with a copoun they say “We don’t have policy”, but we will not accept this copoun.

To me you just seems to be on PC’s payroll.

By: Let's be real...

Let's be real... — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 19:59:00 +0000

This issue is far above the level of the stores.
The stores themselves provide excellent customer service and quality products. There is not a single Canadian grocery retailer than can even begin to compete with the quality and unique variety of private label products that Presidents Choice Offers. This creates loyalty in there customers in an otherwise “location Loyal” industry. What other grocery retailer in the country can draw customers in based on their private label brands like no name and PC? Not Metro, Walmart or Sobeys with their basic, blan, control label product.

To anyone with any knowledge of retail operations it is clear that this is a supply chain issue that needs to be rectified. Loblaws has over the past years publicly invested in their supply chain both in elevated man power and system updates. These changes are moves in the right direction but take years to produce results.

Retail businesses like Loblaws depend on proper supply chain processes. Loblaws appears to be placing investment dollars in the appropriate areas.

In my opinion Loblaws customer service is superior to all other canadian retails, combine that with effective supply chain processes to keep shelves stocked they will be an unstoppable force comanding market share.

By: Superstore_Sucks

Superstore_Sucks — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 03:23:58 +0000

Canadian Superstor really sucks. They have worst stuff, if they have anything in stock at all. Take anything, potatoes, onions, straberrys, tomoattoes – all worst quality food. And hey if you think Superstore is bad, check out its sister company Extra Foods.

I stopped shopping at these stores. They have poor quality stuff, and staff is never free to help anyone.

Sobeys & Safeway has much better service. Can’t complain about Wal Mart either. They are getting much better.

By: Shirley

Shirley — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 20:22:46 +0000

At one time Loblaws was thought to be the best of the rest – but not anymore. I can’t believe I still shop there – as they never never have all the items you would normally purchase on a Friday. What is it with this company?
Have they got so immune to customer complaints they don’t care anymore.
I shop at my local Canadian Superstore because it is the closest store and I must admit they do sell Neilsons Trutaste m,ilk which is the nicest tasting milk around these days.
However I am willing to go further for a decent well stocked store irrespective if the price is higher – one can only take so much of the blarney that the store clerks feed you on a weekly basis – even they have to admit that there must be something better out there.
Maybe Wal-mart can fix it?????

By: Jambone

Jambone — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 16:46:57 +0000

Honestly, anyone that shops at Loblaw’s has money to burn or has not taken the time to compare cost and quality of products between retailers. Sobey’s, Metro and there various tier stores offer quality at lower prices and with wide selection of products. As has been previously mentioned all produce that you will find in all retail stores come from the same distribution center. As for manufactured food products for the most part are all the same products with a different label slapped on it like PC, compliments, etc…

Here is another point of interest. Loblaw’s owns in excess of 60% of the retail food market in Canada. Loblaw’s also owns over 50% of the bread market in Canada of which is sold in all Loblaw’s outlets (Weston’s Bakery). Bread is a staple in Canada like milk and is generally in every household and generates hundreds of millions of dollars in internal sales for Loblaw’s annually. As a company it treats it vender’s (those who supply Loblaw’s with product to sell to consumers) disgracefully and without ethics. Then Loblaw’s insults the Canadian consumer by charging the highest possible prices for 90% percent of the product they sell in Loblaw’s retail outlets which are identical to products available at other retailers Wal-Mart, Metro, Sobey’s etc…

Loblaw’s also forces venders to pay a mafia like protection fee which no other retailer in Canada would have the audacity to impose. They call this fee the C.O.G.S. it is a fee that is on top of the cost of manufacturing and agreed upon margins it is simply a service cost to be allowed to have exposure to 60% of the retail market share in Canada. This smacks of a monopoly and is highly uncompetitive practice.

The worst part is that the Canadian consumer never sees the benefit of the cost gauging that Loblaw’s undertakes on its venders, nor can the average consumer get information or see how the Canadian food chain is being manipulated to make Loblaw’s richer and food more unaffordable for some Canadians that can barely afford food to get by. It is simply pocketed.

Buying products from Loblaw’s stores encourages overall higher food prices in Canada. Send a message to Loblaw’s that you know that they are creating a monopoly in Canada and will not accept it. I for one will not be contributing to the uncompetitive business practices of Loblaw’s.

By: Bobber

Bobber — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 16:39:40 +0000

As single person, first condo purchase etc., I show for food almost exclusively at walmart supercentres or no frills.

I have a loblaws nearby, but was astounding at the meat prices. They were twice the price!

Someone said it was better, so I tried it. I cooked a pack of 8 chicken thighs from walmart (cost $5), and then tried a pack of chicken thighs from loblaws…9 of them for $10.51!!!

Sorry found not taste difference.

I understand that loblaws is usually higher quality, but twice the price? I don’t think so!

By: Nikki

Nikki — Thu, 20 May 2010 16:50:50 +0000

OK, I understand your frustrations with the whole ordeal, but in reality who reading this really cares? I’m one of those mindless teenagers that only work at our Superstore for the money. True Confessions, go screw yourself, I happen to love my job as a cashier. Everyone in the store I work at is nice, polite, and very interested in listening to the customer(s). There are the occasional customers who are rude, ignorant, and just plain jacka**es but there are those people everywhere. As for being over worked, I get one to maybe five shifts a week, they are VERY accommodating to the time I need off for my community involvements. (I’m a volunteer firefighter as well as a member of our local Search & Rescue). one thing I don’t understand is how you people just go off at the younger staff, just because we’re in school DOESN’T mean we don’t know what we’re doing, I work very hard to ensure that I give my customers that come through my lane the best service I can, I often get compliments on my bubbly personality and how nice I am, as do most of the TEENAGERS I work with.

Being a smaller store in a rural area, we often times are the test store for some of the newer things they want to try and put in effect in the bigger stores, we RARELY run out of necessities, we do, however, sometimes run out of items we have on sale, but what store doesn’t? Our store is always well kept and clean. We take pride in the appearance of our store.

Loblaws as a company is the BIGGEST food supplier in Canada, the helped reduce the plastic bag usage by 70%, and support a Children’s charity. In all honesty have any other large corporations done anything that impressive? We allow local groups fund raise within our stores, and also try and support the local food bank. You can hate Loblaws as much as you want, it’s your opinion.

Our management works really hard to ensure that certain customers that are whiny, ignorant, and self absorbed have a good place to shop. Don’t yell at the cashiers for prices, or for us not having hand baskets, or for needing to wait in line. If you don’t like lines shop on Sunday or Monday evenings, often those nights are slow. All of the non employees on here ranting and raving about stupid stuff should really try and put yourself in our shoes, we need to remain fast, efficient, polite, understanding, and chatty. All the while ensuring we pack your groceries, keep a steady pace, and be polite even to the most rude people. Do you people actually talk to our management if you have issues? Or do you just rant to people on the internet?

This is just my opinion and has nothing to do with Loblaws its self. But I love my job, and I will shop at Loblaws long after I stop working there to move on to university. But hey, that’s just my opinion.

By: Robert

Robert — Tue, 18 May 2010 16:16:20 +0000

I’ve never had a problem with freshness at Loblaws, and always a nice store and people…BUT the prices are just crazy in some ares. I completely avoid the meats like chicken etc., as they are usually double that of no frills or walmart.

Now I know the difference in “stores” but I’m talking serious price differences. Often 100% more.

Eight chicken thighs at Walmart (ongoing price not special) $5.

Nine chicken thighs at my local Loblaws $10.51!

And they were very comparable in weight.

I laughed the other day when I bought some margartia mix (prices about same in all stores)…I walked by the meat counter to check out the shocking prices…if just to laugh at the sheer “balls” to charge that, and ran into a women saying the same thing under her breath.

We both walked away.

Chicken is the cheapest meat in the world, and should never be that expensive.

By: Beth

Beth — Mon, 03 May 2010 02:39:17 +0000

I can’t stand Loblaws…. In my area we have Superstore and Zehrs. They are by far the worst (besides Walmart) I stopped shopping at Zehrs because they’re expensive and the service sucks! I’m tired of always having expired milk or Milk that isn’t expired but gone bad and the Meat at Zehrs and Superstore is the pits! I’ve been a employee with Zehrs for about 8 years now and can’t wait for the day I give my 2 weeks notice!!!

I really hope Metro or Sobeys buys Loblaws chain of stores and drives them right into the ground. And one thing I hate is that we have to ask ALL customers if they have a PC MasterCard or Debit Card. Then we have to circle the reciept telling them How many points they’ve could’ve earned with a PC MasterCard or Debit card. The customers don’t care and they get mad when we tell them. Loblaws should not make this policy and should take the message on the receipt off that says “You could’ve earned __ PC Points with President’s Choice Financial MasterCard…..etc. And only print the message for PC Customers PC Points balance. The Non-PC Customers don’t care and if they did they’d pick up a brochure. Don’t ask us. Go to the PC Pavillion talk to them!

And the IPM’s suck too…. Keeping track of the ringtimes is also a waste of time too!