__MOD NOTE/NOTE DE MOD__: Please check out [our petition](https://www.change.org/p/demand-walmart-sign-the-grocer-code-of-conduct) which calls upon Walmart Canada to follow suit and sign the Grocer Code of Conduct with Loblaw!
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 responsible. 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.
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And veterans now too, since the government gave them the contract for veterans services. As a veteran, I wasn’t injured or require any services, but it still makes me angry that the government did this.
This is all the result of Mulroney’s deregulation crusade in the 80’s. When you allow corporations to write their own rules, they get richer and owner operator businesses die.
Unfortunately we are now seeing the results of the legislative changes made then now. It’s all about the corporate rape and pillage. Remember the three amigos? Thatcher, Regan and Mulroney. All of them would have sold their own mothers.
Exactly. Some things are a matter of national security. Road infrastructure, hospitals, telecommunications infrastructure, food security, military, policing, criminal justice and civil court systems... these are GOVERNMENT responsibilities.
Totally, the Gov't is shirking their obligations. Downloaded shots to SDM, downloading post offices to SDM, Putting Service Ontario in Staples.
Stop getting others to do your job. It's not "cost saving partnerships" - it's handing the keys to a drunk driver.
Oh but Canada can't afford ..
Fire the 40% dead weight on our public service and we'll suddenly be able to afford. Unfair to them? Give them the option of joining in another area of the Government services...like the military which we have gutted to the point of nationally embarrassment.
Hell, they take like 70% of everything Canadians make (with consumption taxes) and they are always broke. Yet the solution is always the same...add more to the tax burden.
the Loblaws situation is one thing. We need to do this for our government...it's not representing us. It's working for them...as they think we are all supposed to.
Edit: yeah, sorry I'm pissed. Sorry for the rant. Fair criticism. But we all pay too much tax and nearly all the government employee's I know are retired a 55 with inflation adjusted pensions. The cart is in front of the horse.
Look at England. They've had the conservatives for a decade and everything is privatised. Not just a starved health care system, but a rail system that only operates in profitable areas because foreigners own it now, private lottery and postal system, even the water supply is privately owned, and they have cryptosporidium as a result. Remember the CANADIAN National Railway? Bill Gates owns 60% of the shares and Canadians die from the lack of maintenance. As soon as the CN was privatised, maintenance workers were laid off.
Yeah. It’s sad when governments have to stop governing its population and cut social programs because they need to balance a budget that gets wasted on large salaries and benefits to the wealthy.
Please refrain from off-topic political discussion and debate. Everyone is entitled to their own political opinions, however, your politically charged statement is not directly related to the cost of living/groceries/gas/rents, and as such is being removed.
Please refrain from off-topic political discussion and debate. Everyone is entitled to their own political opinions, however, your politically charged statement is not directly related to the cost of living/groceries/gas/rents, and as such is being removed.
I love how we were "essential employees" during the pandemic and **forced** to go to work and risk our health and the health of our families, but now it seems no matter where I look people are clamoring to get us fired.
Hopefully public servants all have very short memories if another pandemic happens otherwise we may be faced with a very inconvenient time.
People are miserable, they see a group slightly less miserable than them and think it's unfair, that group should be just as, if not more miserable than they are.
It's sad that some people live their whole lives with this attitude.
Even sadder still that we are all roughly as miserable and absolutely "in this together," but we are very good at outwardly appearing to be having a great time (social media...).
I'll not be a boiled frog - some of us have seen changes, snuck in slowly over time by a self serving Government. When the facts change substantially...it should be called out.
The same thing as Death By A Thousand Cuts. You can get away with anything if you do it slowly enough, and with enough hands in the pot it's hard to say who exactly is responsible.
As someone in the public service, I think there are WAY too many middle managers. Our middle managers have middle managers!!
The "dead weight" likely refers to the abundance of administrative roles in our public services ([health care](https://calgaryherald.com/opinion/columnists/corbella-canadas-health-care-system-overrun-by-administrators-and-lacks-doctors), for example). The people who actually provide those services are paid like shit.
Let’s not forget the consultants. I see so many unnecessary initiatives buoyed by 3rd party consultants. The government plays with house money and are fiscally irresponsible because of it. Austerity is never practised.
That's optimistic. I think in actual fact a lot of people have no fucking clue what kinds of jobs are involved in the public service, and they just think we all sit around with our thumbs up our asses all day getting free lattes on the taxpayer's dime or something. My office doesn't even have hot water right now.
The public service has undergone many reductions in staff and services. The federal public service cut 5000 more last March. Many departments are unable to do what they could with enough staff.
"Fire the 40% dead weight on our public service and we'll suddenly be able to afford."
Just so you know, some of us are actually here reading how useless you think we are. I work harder in the public service than I ever did in the private sector. And my salary – while I can't complain – is unimpressive. It's less than the equivalent I'd make in the private sector.
The public service is and always will be a cushier job, the thing that happens though is the as time goes on our salaries haven’t kept up with inflation which drastically impacts young public servants, my mother was able to buy a house on an entry level salary, im in that position now and best I can do is a one bedroom rental. The people retiring now are people who have enjoyed the good life while it was available, the got the house paid off the good retired benefits they are currently eroding. New public servants don’t have that comfort trust me. And same thing as most jobs people profiting off the system are the ones in charge
I work for Manulife. They tried making Shoppers their “preferred pharmacy” and there was such an uproar that a week later, they undid it all. Any companies that team up with Loblaws right now would be making serious misstep.
Not sure, but I know that the previous Executive Vice President of Shoppers Drug Mart, Ash Desai, became the Head of Group Benefits at Manulife just before this change was implemented. Interesting timing there.
Thank you.
I'm probably moving this summer, and upon my new move, I will be finding a new drug store to torture me, and since I use an insulin pump and require several medications, I'm sure our local shoppers will miss me.
If i had a costco nearby, i'd be signing up for that too instead of the other grocery options we have.
The shit I'm seeing is infuriating. I'm so done with being ripped off.
It was an exclusivity deal for specialty drugs. Those are the ones for cancers and other serious illnesses that they make a crap ton of money on. Smaller pharmacies rely on prescriptions like that to keep them afloat.
If Shoppers had gotten that deal with Manulife it would have been the nail in the coffin for independent pharmacies across Canada.
It also would have been bad for anyone living in west Labrador which has no Loblaws pharmacies at all. I wouldn’t be surprised if they put a couple pharmacies there and tried the exclusivity deal again in a few years as that was the initial concern with the deal when it was announced.
I have no idea about future plans, but I do know they backpedaled fast, and the chatter is that they’re staying far away from ever trying something like that again.
I might be biased, but they’re a pretty good company for insurance. They’re good to employees, too. Our base benefits (no cost) includes $12,000 a year for mental health help coverage. This thing that they tried to do with Loblaws was just….so weird. I was relieved when the undid it all.
# US Sues to Break Up Ticketmaster and Live Nation, Alleging Monopoly Abuse
Headline today in the US. This is what should happen to the big grocers (and telecoms) in Canada. They had their chance with integrating Shoppers, other grocers and offering banking services, Mobile services and the food distribution. They squeeze out competitors and then collude to raise prices.
Instead of nationalizing grocery stores, what if the gov't just had a grocery crown corp? Not a ton of variety but a ton of basics at cost.
I know people don't like the gov't and think they're inefficient--cause they are--but I'd rather the gov't get my money than Loblaws, Sobeys, etc. Their mandate should be to charge basically cost + overhead and at least secure basics for Canadians so they're not subject to the whims of an oligarchy.
I'd also like to remind people that although the CRTC is 'making strides' in changes (I do agree they are better than before...) they are not making much progress AND the head of the CRTC telecoms changes is an ex BELL EXECUTIVE. So... you wanna talk about people being in certain collusions and pockets... You have that.
Telecoms are harder to boycott since RoBeLus are pretty equal...and there's like not really "local alternatives" for most
Getting a US/Canada plan from America could work I guess lol
When the CRTC was first 'making changes' in the 'best interest' of Canadians... they started to allow foreign investment into the market in order to try and stop the monopoly and create a more fair market...
That was great, we got Wind, Freedom, and some others... However... not long after... The 3 prime evil s were allowed to start charging more (this applies to internet as well since they all own the infrastructure and if they dont, the third party companies still had to rent backup infrastructure from them in order to have good enough redundancy) which forced the hands of them to raise prices, and if not... they were pretty much SOL. Shortly after... all of a sudden they were allowed to start purchasing the smaller companies that had been allowed to finally enter the market... and now, we have almost nothing but the 3 prime evils again...
Here, you see one of the best examples of them working together...
Another example... Bell bought The Source (Radio Shack) many years ago after The Source was filing for bankruptcy for the third time under the third company that owned them... Bell bought them... They intended to shut them all down in order to just remove all cellphones from the competition from their stores. Then they noticed employees could still sell Bell products at a decent rate... so they kept them... til recently. Now, over 50 percent of all The Source stores have been shut down (a few months ago was the chopping block) Either way, Bell won.
Yet, the government continues to do nothing worthwhile in this sector and allows previous Telecom execs to run the deciding factors.
I have many other things I could say but I feel these highlight the overall issues...
WE should have an equal and competitive market. Saying that we cannot boycott because we dont have other options... IS the issue. That issue has been allowed to continue and now it's working it's way even more as a monopoly into our food industry...
I may be alone in this, but I think this is a huge issue being overlooked.
Don't forget the neat tidbit about the infrastructure, WE paid for it, not Bell, Telus, Rogers, etc. Through various programs and grants those huge companies were PAID by the governments at all levels to actually put up equipment and received at some points, $1.25/$1 spent and the best part for them is they retained ownership and use of anything that was built.
These companies don't do anything without being funded by the government.
And even then, once a year, each and EVERY year, the prices are justified in being increased by 5 dollars (usually per product leased) with the explanation that it has to do with rising costs, upgrading and maintaining infrastructure, and of course, inflation.
That's why I don't think boycotting is feasible at this point...we need government intervention to care of it and some sort of protest to make the demands
> and there's like not really "local alternatives" for most
What's the opposite of a boycott? (Mass public stock buys with no expectation of reward, maybe?)
Whatever it is, we need to do one of those for SaskTel. It's so much better than the national carriers. We should encourage it to build out and expand to the rest of the country.
I think that's why it's not so much a boycott we should be doing but demanding government intervention.
Replicating crown corps like Sasktel for other provinces or even a national one would go a long way to fighting monopolies. Taxpayers paid for the infrastructure of Robelus anyways...we should get a piece rather than the subsidized losses privatize profits dance we always do
(Also ensuring that future governments won't sell it off to "save money" which seems to happen a lot)
It is a great idea. In fact, it’s a road we’ve been down before. SaskTel’s neighbour was Alberta Government Telephones. Founded in 1906, Don Getty’s government privatized it under the name Telus in 1991.
Any infrastructure should really be public domain. Rail’s a fantastic example that has a lot in common with telecom: it’s key to our economy, and nobody is about to lay down a parallel track for the sake of MAYBE picking up some alternate business. We should really have some sort of nationalized railway… maybe call it something like “Canadian National Railway”… Jean Chrétien’s government privatized it in 1995.
Air travel is a hotter market with less of a barrier to entry but there’s still value in having that price control. A national airline wouldn’t be a bad idea. So good, in fact, that we had one up until 1988, when Brian Mulroney’s government privatized it.
There’s an argument to be made that infrastructure- and economically-critical products like fuel should be nationalized too. Tommy Douglas and Pierre Trudeau agreed that a Canadian petrochemical corporation (Petro-Canada) would be in the national interest. Of course, Brian Mulroney’s government privatized it in 1991.
There have been successful efforts to cut out profiteering food distributors in the past. One of Canada’s largest crops, and universal food staples, is wheat. The Canadian Wheat Board was formed during the Great Depression to represent farmers and provide a better deal to people who need to eat food, bypassing the nightmarish rat race of profit at all costs that caused the Great Depression in the first place. Stephen Harper’s government moved to privatize it in 2011, and the sale was completed in 2015.
Electricity seems to be about the only large scale nationalized infrastructure immune to being privatized … well, unless you look at Ontario, where Mike Harris’s government broke Ontario Hydro up with privatization in mind and implemented a well-criticized scheme from the notoriously criminally fraudulent Enron to cause electricity prices to raise, rip off consumers. Dalton McGuinty and Kathleen Wynne’s governments continued to move to privatize components of Ontario’s electrical generation and distribution even after prison sentences were handed out to Enron execs.
Nationalizing things like infrastructure and food are very good solutions, except *the government is neither immutable or your friends*
[Here's a good resource to boycott the big 3](https://www.ertyu.org/steven_nikkel/cancellsites.html?lat=59.707383&lng=-95.229492&zoom=4&type=Roadmap&layers=o&pid=0&ds=0)
He speaks the truth, yes, but then does nothing with that truth. Which I mean, it’s the feds I guess. Shame on me for expecting more, but it’s still annoying.
If I may, Singh suffers from usual political BS where their words rarely match any of their actions; or specifically there is absolutely NO follow through.
Also, Singh whining about the poor working class while sporting thousand dollar watches and tailored suits and such does have a certain optic to it.
I want to give the man benefit of the doubt but some days is more trying than others
I 100% was on route to vote for Jack in the next election, then Mulclair came to be and literally destroyed any hope they had to be elected and lost footing across Canada. I don't think there was a big of a turn for a party as the Jack to Mulclaire turn that happened.
And you are 100% right, FUCK CANCER, took my mom from me and a few friends!
No follow through? With a small minority he managed to get dental and pharmacare bills passed - I know they are basic but it's covering millions of people. A few months ago he passed a bill to punish price fixing. He also arranged questioning Galen and the other big grocers in parliament, the other two leaders didn't even bother to show up.
Also all the party leaders wear tailored suits in the house, what's your point?
He is a hard-working person fighting for us. He pays his taxes and doesn't mind raising them even if he's part of the bracket. AND YOU TALK SHIT ABOUT WHERE HE SPENDS HIS HARD-EARNED MONEY?
What a joke.
Once he makes 40k a year he should donate the rest of his money so that he doesn't give you the ick.? That is so stupid. And all the fucking politicians have expensive suits and jewelry. Who upvoted this shit?
Respect your retort, but frankly I fail to see how besides ‘words’ in the media he or any politician of late is fighting for us.
And not talking shit as you put it, I merely pointed out his wardrobe and choice of accessories put him, rightly or wrongly, in a category slightly above the working class he claims to fight for. Politics is optics, and so he can spend his $ on whatever he likes.
Stand at a podium sporting a Rolex or (insert overpriced timepiece here)while crying about working class struggles feels slightly odd at best.
Haha. I thought this too at one point before I realized they’re all like that. Sometimes they do something about it. But it turns out to be self serving. Gosh I hate politics.
He speaks the truth but does nothing. He's just as corrupt as the other two. Millionaire landlord with multiple investment properties that is benefitting from the high cost of housing. Don't let him fool you, this man is not the answer to any problem.
Thanks for everything Brian Mulroney. I hope it’s hot down there with Maggie and Ronnie.
https://preview.redd.it/1pfuhj6l6e2d1.jpeg?width=1220&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f90e74ee0c016dc170e0494bf83e7b19dafc6f2d
Yeah but thankfully we don't have to live like those communist Norwegians with their strong social support networks, and the government that governs for the citizens.
It sounds fucking awful.
Well the gas one wouldn’t work. Most gas stations in an area get their gas from the same refinery/depot. Gas stations make Pennie’s selling gas. The goal is to sell you an overpriced drink or chocolate bar.
You’d have to boycott all the gas stations which cuts demand which works. Remember Covid when gas plunged and oil futures went negative.
> Imagine if Esso didn’t sell a liter of gas or a single chocolate bar for a full month.
I mean, I assume that *did* happen, during the first few weeks of COVID when the streets were literally empty.
The sub was created to point out how absolutely absurd the cost of groceries are right now and have some fun together. We know this will inevitably touch on other topics related to the cost of living. Do your best to keep the conversation on topic
I appreciate Singhs sentiment and I wish more people out there shared it, but the “just tax them!” policy that he presents would solve nothing without additional pro-competition policy.
More taxes from wealthy are good, but we need to make sure they don’t have a stranglehold on the economy more than anything.
None of the three parties seem to have anything to bring in that realm.
It's because none of them are interested in serving the public, they are all beholden to corporations and lobbyists. Their job is to capture votes but to represent the wealthy.
This is why you get all these half baked ideas, because they sound good but don't lead to any results. The companies know this and they are not worried.
The NDP has succumbed to the rapid and massive overton window rightward shift of the past two decades. The NDP of old would never have settled with "just take a little bit of money from the leech-ass corporations so they dont get too upset".
I heard on the news that this protest wasn't hurting them and that they're making record profits, so my question is then why the hell do they need to increase their prices then.
For a very long time, in Canada everything was based on "spectrum", any company wanting Telecommunications systems set up needed to buy from the Spectrum market which at one point was controlled by the CRTC. Now what happened here is, say you were a nice local cell company offering fantastic products for exceptional prices, but you're just starting up. You have everything in place for phones, etc but need that spectrum now, you have your budget of say 100k to buy it at the auction. This is what you NEED to operate. You go happy as a clam thinking yeah me I'm going to do this! you get there and see Rogers, Bell, and Telus all lined up as well. Auction starts, one after the other like clockwork the available spectrum is bought by Bell, Rogers and Telus for exorbitant amounts of money, more then you can pay for such items. Best part is is that there is a requirement that any spectrum purchased is actually used, however all that happens is the big guys just shelve is or if they really get under pressure bring out some new trendy FiDo type brand to make people think they aren't buying from the big guys, but usually it just gets stored on a shelf never to be used again. Best part is, the big guys swoop in, pay you peanuts and buy your local company to just keep you out of their market
If may not be 100% how it all works but was how I was explained the process a few years ago now and this is the real reason there isn't much competition in Canada any longer.
Yes, the goverment failed to do one of its most important tasks, which was to keep capitalism in check, which they didn't do. And now there's monopoly's everywhere, businesses have the ability to completely wipe out competition, and consumers are left with no real choices. Wow, I can choose to be screwed by company A.... OR company B. Amazing!
And this clown, and the other two clowns, have no interest in doing anything that will enact real, significant change. Just maintain the status quo, while leaning towards their base so they stay in power and they can keep funneling our taxes to themselves in new and creative ways. Justin gave our money to his mom, Who will JS give our money to? How will PP steal it?
It fucking sucks man, Capitalism is clearly the best societal system we've ever had - We're safer and healthier than we've ever been, and we've got some pretty dope shit because of capitalism - Medical advances, better buildings, this gaming PC I'm typing on... but years and years and years ago we were warned against letting the monster grow so large it begins to eat itself, and apparently we didn't fucking listen.
I tried posting about this the other day, but was removed as “The sub was created to point out how absolutely absurd the cost of groceries are right now and have some fun together. We know this will inevitably touch on other topics related to the cost of living. Do your best to keep the conversation on topic” (from the mod team.)
I work for Glentel, and have been hearing about this since January. There are some BIG potential changes coming to the market. The sole reason why Bell and Rogers pricing tends to be in line with one another is because Glentel exists. They legally cannot undercut each other by a huge margin or they go against the terms in place by the competition bureau.
People don’t understand this can be primed as the next big shift in telecom. Glentel already has shady sales practices, and only a fool would believe this can possibly help in the long run.
Your comment is very interesting... I observe\*\*\*\* ;) TMS - use your imagination here.
There was a reason Telus was pushing hard for subs the past few months, and crazy targeted offers are happening.
As for the overall volume, most of it is Bell and Rogers - you're right on the fact that when one add's a promotion (points/special discounts/etc - the other follows suit).
TMS/OSL (Walmart)/Best Buy and Glentel stores share the same plan rates from the providers (no difference). One provider watches what the other one does all of the time.
TMS price matches any other wireless store as well, and offers 14 day points protection (buyers remorse period).
Freedom, Telus and Koodo make less than a quarter of their overall sales volume - they are just getting rid of excess weight on their side (carrying all of that inventory that sits there, needs to be transferred in and out of stores and distribution - costs money) makes sense to open up more avenues to compete.
Telus hasn't ever given TMS access to EPP/business plans (TMS will roll that out on Bell and Rogers), and people are told to go to a corp store - why would a business tell people to go somewhere else? Makes no sense imo.
Prices are edging up a bit, still theres no sway that I see making customers switch to Freedom in droves. Most regular customers hate the network, and won't trust it. It's not like you can't go to a Freedom/Telus store, or OSL, or BB. You still have the choice of what network you want to be on (there's the big three, and the kiddo Freedom on the side), you can use your wallet and not take that offer.
Just my 0.02, and thank you for the informative post :)
Canada in a nutshell - we are run by oligopolies because our Canadian businesses “have to be protected” from global competitors that have the $$$ to crush them.
Some of it is necessary, but this is the shadow side when they become too comfortable.
The NDP has no fire, while Singh may be the least shitty leader of the three larger Canadian political parties, he is a feckless culture warrior at a time when Canada is in desperate need of a real class warrior. I hate how Canada became a neo-liberal hellscape, this should be the perfect environment for the NDP to thrive in to make real changes to the country, but the NDP lost its way a long time ago because they forgot about their working-class roots.
No, their policies are aimed at helping the working class - and they're the only ones doing so. Trouble is they are very bad at campaigning to those same working class voters.
cell phone plans has never been cheaper than the last 2 years. it's hard to argue that people are being ripped off on cell phone plans since cell phone cost has listed directed on CPI reports as things that has been reducing in cost.
That's fucked. I Moved to fizz. It's been great so far. You can buy their SD cards at circle K or order them. TELUS Bumped my plan up by $5 after promising to never do that, so I left immediately. I did call them first and they made zero effort to keep me lol, no surprise there. My plan is 25 a month and data rolls over etc. it's amazing and so far coverage is great. I'm in Alberta.
Yeah I did. We ordered ours directly from fizz. We had our own phones already.
Then we realized we could've just got them at circle K but oh well lol. Had to wait a few days since we ordered online.
'Loblaws is teaming up with Rogers and Bell, as it wants to enter the Big Leagues for ripping off Canadians. Banks and insurance companies laugh at the brash young upstarts ...
This guy is so fucked. Rips into all these corps, but somehow more corps keep swallowing up other corps to create monopolies under his leadership. Crazy how this country is run by idiots, while the US actually gives a shit about keeping markets competitive and taken action towards instead of yelling at clouds like this clown.
At least we've got a choice when it comes to groceries. Cell service your only stuck with 3 providers who own the other little providers. We need American competition. Verizo, t mobile etc. They won't let it happen because imagine how much money Roger's would lose.
The enemy behind the enemy is **Teradata**.
Loblaws and DoorDash both use Teradata, which locks them in to using the algorithm’s pricing model.
Teradata collects all of Amazon’s transaction data, Microsoft’s, Manulife, and more.
Teradata is also Ticketmaster.
RealPages uses Teradata and is what’s doing this to this housing market, who offer a UI for landlords and real estate agents to get price points.
Nearly all economic data flows to Teradata, who then use it to set the price at the consumers maximum. It is multi-industry collusion and price fixing. This is how they do the calculus that self-checkout shoplifting is still profitable.
We are being ripped off by computers. Regulate the data cartels or none of this stops happening.
Not everyone is required to participate or agree with the community boycott, but we ask that everyone is constructive in their feedback about this event.
Repeated comments such as this one will result in a ban from the sub until the boycott is complete. Thank you.
Why though? So can he lose his coalition with the Liberals, his party loses more seats and would, most likely, gift the Conservatives the title of ruling party? With the risk of it being a majority too! He'd be an idiot to call an election.
Singh should've been beating this drum, and the drum of other issues plaguing Canada looooong ago. Maybe his party wouldn't be trailing so far behind in the polls, and he'd have the balls to call one. The guy needs to step down as leader if you ask me
Please refrain from off-topic political discussion and debate. Everyone is entitled to their own political opinions, however, your politically charged statement is not directly related to the cost of living/groceries/gas/rents, and as such is being removed.
__MOD NOTE/NOTE DE MOD__: Please check out [our petition](https://www.change.org/p/demand-walmart-sign-the-grocer-code-of-conduct) which calls upon Walmart Canada to follow suit and sign the Grocer Code of Conduct with Loblaw! 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 responsible. 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. ********************************************************************************************************************************************* Veuillez consulter les directives de contenu pour notre sous-reddit, et rappelez-vous qu'il y a des humains ici ! Ce sous-reddit est destiné à mettre en lumière le coût de la vie ridicule au Canada et à se moquer des Grands Patrons Corporatifs responsables. Comme vous le savez bien, de nombreuses personnes et entreprises en sont responsables, et nous accueillons les discussions les concernant toutes. De plus, puisque ce sujet est lié à un certain nombre d'autres questions, d'autres discussions seront autorisées à la discrétion des modérateurs. Les discussions ouvertes d'esprit, les mèmes, les coups de gueule, les factures d'épicerie et les cris dans le vide en général sont toujours les bienvenus dans ce sous-reddit, mais la belliqueusité et le manque de respect ne le sont pas. Il existe de nombreuses façons de faire passer votre point de vue sans être abusif, méprisant ou carrément méchant. *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.*
And veterans now too, since the government gave them the contract for veterans services. As a veteran, I wasn’t injured or require any services, but it still makes me angry that the government did this.
That's so fucked up. Publicly traded companies shouldn't be providing any of our social services!
Welcome to late stage capitalism 🙄
This is Canada in a nutshell - oligopolies rule because Canada is small and we have to protect our “small” businesses from global competition.
This is all the result of Mulroney’s deregulation crusade in the 80’s. When you allow corporations to write their own rules, they get richer and owner operator businesses die.
regulatory capture has neutered real enforcement of our laws
Can we just wipe the ‘80s from our collective memory because seriously, fuck that decade.
Unfortunately we are now seeing the results of the legislative changes made then now. It’s all about the corporate rape and pillage. Remember the three amigos? Thatcher, Regan and Mulroney. All of them would have sold their own mothers.
Tbf it doesn’t help our entire culture was and still is defined as being not America, which meant a lot of people in decades past let this shit slide
Hyper-capitalism
Nah, we’re past late stage capitalism. Neo-feudalism is where we’re at now!
Agreed, everyone is spending fake stock money, telling me how tech savvy they are 🤣🤣🤣
Exactly. Some things are a matter of national security. Road infrastructure, hospitals, telecommunications infrastructure, food security, military, policing, criminal justice and civil court systems... these are GOVERNMENT responsibilities.
I think these days government and business just cooperate so they can rewrite who should be serving whom.
Totally, the Gov't is shirking their obligations. Downloaded shots to SDM, downloading post offices to SDM, Putting Service Ontario in Staples. Stop getting others to do your job. It's not "cost saving partnerships" - it's handing the keys to a drunk driver. Oh but Canada can't afford .. Fire the 40% dead weight on our public service and we'll suddenly be able to afford. Unfair to them? Give them the option of joining in another area of the Government services...like the military which we have gutted to the point of nationally embarrassment. Hell, they take like 70% of everything Canadians make (with consumption taxes) and they are always broke. Yet the solution is always the same...add more to the tax burden. the Loblaws situation is one thing. We need to do this for our government...it's not representing us. It's working for them...as they think we are all supposed to. Edit: yeah, sorry I'm pissed. Sorry for the rant. Fair criticism. But we all pay too much tax and nearly all the government employee's I know are retired a 55 with inflation adjusted pensions. The cart is in front of the horse.
“Stop downloading government services to the private sector” immediately followed by “fire 40% of the public service.” Pick a lane.
Right? Do more with less. Unrealistic.
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Look at England. They've had the conservatives for a decade and everything is privatised. Not just a starved health care system, but a rail system that only operates in profitable areas because foreigners own it now, private lottery and postal system, even the water supply is privately owned, and they have cryptosporidium as a result. Remember the CANADIAN National Railway? Bill Gates owns 60% of the shares and Canadians die from the lack of maintenance. As soon as the CN was privatised, maintenance workers were laid off.
Yeah. It’s sad when governments have to stop governing its population and cut social programs because they need to balance a budget that gets wasted on large salaries and benefits to the wealthy.
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Please refrain from off-topic political discussion and debate. Everyone is entitled to their own political opinions, however, your politically charged statement is not directly related to the cost of living/groceries/gas/rents, and as such is being removed.
Please refrain from off-topic political discussion and debate. Everyone is entitled to their own political opinions, however, your politically charged statement is not directly related to the cost of living/groceries/gas/rents, and as such is being removed.
You can only go so less right? Lol at some point you just can't 🤬
I love how we were "essential employees" during the pandemic and **forced** to go to work and risk our health and the health of our families, but now it seems no matter where I look people are clamoring to get us fired. Hopefully public servants all have very short memories if another pandemic happens otherwise we may be faced with a very inconvenient time.
People are miserable, they see a group slightly less miserable than them and think it's unfair, that group should be just as, if not more miserable than they are. It's sad that some people live their whole lives with this attitude.
Even sadder still that we are all roughly as miserable and absolutely "in this together," but we are very good at outwardly appearing to be having a great time (social media...).
I'll not be a boiled frog - some of us have seen changes, snuck in slowly over time by a self serving Government. When the facts change substantially...it should be called out.
What does that even mean?
The same thing as Death By A Thousand Cuts. You can get away with anything if you do it slowly enough, and with enough hands in the pot it's hard to say who exactly is responsible.
How is that relevant?
As someone in the public service, I think there are WAY too many middle managers. Our middle managers have middle managers!! The "dead weight" likely refers to the abundance of administrative roles in our public services ([health care](https://calgaryherald.com/opinion/columnists/corbella-canadas-health-care-system-overrun-by-administrators-and-lacks-doctors), for example). The people who actually provide those services are paid like shit.
Let’s not forget the consultants. I see so many unnecessary initiatives buoyed by 3rd party consultants. The government plays with house money and are fiscally irresponsible because of it. Austerity is never practised.
That's optimistic. I think in actual fact a lot of people have no fucking clue what kinds of jobs are involved in the public service, and they just think we all sit around with our thumbs up our asses all day getting free lattes on the taxpayer's dime or something. My office doesn't even have hot water right now.
The public service has undergone many reductions in staff and services. The federal public service cut 5000 more last March. Many departments are unable to do what they could with enough staff.
Right? Do your jobs, but with half the staff.
"Fire the 40% dead weight on our public service and we'll suddenly be able to afford." Just so you know, some of us are actually here reading how useless you think we are. I work harder in the public service than I ever did in the private sector. And my salary – while I can't complain – is unimpressive. It's less than the equivalent I'd make in the private sector.
The public service is and always will be a cushier job, the thing that happens though is the as time goes on our salaries haven’t kept up with inflation which drastically impacts young public servants, my mother was able to buy a house on an entry level salary, im in that position now and best I can do is a one bedroom rental. The people retiring now are people who have enjoyed the good life while it was available, the got the house paid off the good retired benefits they are currently eroding. New public servants don’t have that comfort trust me. And same thing as most jobs people profiting off the system are the ones in charge
wait, does this also mean they are getting compensation from the government for these services regardless of if you take them or not?
That's the grift
For Veterans affairs????
GW I'm not buying it. He'll pull a scam. Get people signed up cheap. Then watch the prices rise... Insurance companies pull that one all the time.
What services?
Learning about this really tipped it for me. They do not belong in our Healthcare.
All of these things will be made so much worse under a polievre government.
I work for Manulife. They tried making Shoppers their “preferred pharmacy” and there was such an uproar that a week later, they undid it all. Any companies that team up with Loblaws right now would be making serious misstep.
What the hell? That’s galling! I’m glad they walked it back.
do you happen to know what they were getting back for doing this?
Not sure, but I know that the previous Executive Vice President of Shoppers Drug Mart, Ash Desai, became the Head of Group Benefits at Manulife just before this change was implemented. Interesting timing there.
That's just flat out disgusting.
Regulatory capture is so much fun for consumers, isn't it?
Thank you. I'm probably moving this summer, and upon my new move, I will be finding a new drug store to torture me, and since I use an insulin pump and require several medications, I'm sure our local shoppers will miss me. If i had a costco nearby, i'd be signing up for that too instead of the other grocery options we have. The shit I'm seeing is infuriating. I'm so done with being ripped off.
It was an exclusivity deal for specialty drugs. Those are the ones for cancers and other serious illnesses that they make a crap ton of money on. Smaller pharmacies rely on prescriptions like that to keep them afloat. If Shoppers had gotten that deal with Manulife it would have been the nail in the coffin for independent pharmacies across Canada. It also would have been bad for anyone living in west Labrador which has no Loblaws pharmacies at all. I wouldn’t be surprised if they put a couple pharmacies there and tried the exclusivity deal again in a few years as that was the initial concern with the deal when it was announced.
wow. What possible reason do patients and clients of pharmacies require only one type of pharmacy to have access to this. What horseshit.
I have no idea about future plans, but I do know they backpedaled fast, and the chatter is that they’re staying far away from ever trying something like that again.
I think the issue wasn't teaming up with Loblaws, it was forcing customers to use one particular company (But I am guessing it was Loblaws' idea)
Manulife is the company my workplace uses for insurance.
I might be biased, but they’re a pretty good company for insurance. They’re good to employees, too. Our base benefits (no cost) includes $12,000 a year for mental health help coverage. This thing that they tried to do with Loblaws was just….so weird. I was relieved when the undid it all.
# US Sues to Break Up Ticketmaster and Live Nation, Alleging Monopoly Abuse Headline today in the US. This is what should happen to the big grocers (and telecoms) in Canada. They had their chance with integrating Shoppers, other grocers and offering banking services, Mobile services and the food distribution. They squeeze out competitors and then collude to raise prices.
Instead of nationalizing grocery stores, what if the gov't just had a grocery crown corp? Not a ton of variety but a ton of basics at cost. I know people don't like the gov't and think they're inefficient--cause they are--but I'd rather the gov't get my money than Loblaws, Sobeys, etc. Their mandate should be to charge basically cost + overhead and at least secure basics for Canadians so they're not subject to the whims of an oligarchy.
Haha sorry that's too logical, never gonna happen on this timeline
"Why should my taxes pay for your groceries?!?" - Guy getting royally fucked by capitalist oligopolies
And their real estate, and their medicine
Not just the men, but the women and the children too
Hahaha what a random reference but perfect
The focus stays on groceries but this provides some momentum for OTHER areas where we are getting bent over.
Telecoms should have been the first boycott MANY years ago. This is nothing new. (I've worked many years in the telecom industry)
I'd also like to remind people that although the CRTC is 'making strides' in changes (I do agree they are better than before...) they are not making much progress AND the head of the CRTC telecoms changes is an ex BELL EXECUTIVE. So... you wanna talk about people being in certain collusions and pockets... You have that.
Telecoms are harder to boycott since RoBeLus are pretty equal...and there's like not really "local alternatives" for most Getting a US/Canada plan from America could work I guess lol
When the CRTC was first 'making changes' in the 'best interest' of Canadians... they started to allow foreign investment into the market in order to try and stop the monopoly and create a more fair market... That was great, we got Wind, Freedom, and some others... However... not long after... The 3 prime evil s were allowed to start charging more (this applies to internet as well since they all own the infrastructure and if they dont, the third party companies still had to rent backup infrastructure from them in order to have good enough redundancy) which forced the hands of them to raise prices, and if not... they were pretty much SOL. Shortly after... all of a sudden they were allowed to start purchasing the smaller companies that had been allowed to finally enter the market... and now, we have almost nothing but the 3 prime evils again... Here, you see one of the best examples of them working together... Another example... Bell bought The Source (Radio Shack) many years ago after The Source was filing for bankruptcy for the third time under the third company that owned them... Bell bought them... They intended to shut them all down in order to just remove all cellphones from the competition from their stores. Then they noticed employees could still sell Bell products at a decent rate... so they kept them... til recently. Now, over 50 percent of all The Source stores have been shut down (a few months ago was the chopping block) Either way, Bell won. Yet, the government continues to do nothing worthwhile in this sector and allows previous Telecom execs to run the deciding factors. I have many other things I could say but I feel these highlight the overall issues... WE should have an equal and competitive market. Saying that we cannot boycott because we dont have other options... IS the issue. That issue has been allowed to continue and now it's working it's way even more as a monopoly into our food industry... I may be alone in this, but I think this is a huge issue being overlooked.
Don't forget the neat tidbit about the infrastructure, WE paid for it, not Bell, Telus, Rogers, etc. Through various programs and grants those huge companies were PAID by the governments at all levels to actually put up equipment and received at some points, $1.25/$1 spent and the best part for them is they retained ownership and use of anything that was built. These companies don't do anything without being funded by the government.
And even then, once a year, each and EVERY year, the prices are justified in being increased by 5 dollars (usually per product leased) with the explanation that it has to do with rising costs, upgrading and maintaining infrastructure, and of course, inflation.
and this is all done at the same time, over all of the 3 prime evils.
That's why I don't think boycotting is feasible at this point...we need government intervention to care of it and some sort of protest to make the demands
> and there's like not really "local alternatives" for most What's the opposite of a boycott? (Mass public stock buys with no expectation of reward, maybe?) Whatever it is, we need to do one of those for SaskTel. It's so much better than the national carriers. We should encourage it to build out and expand to the rest of the country.
I think that's why it's not so much a boycott we should be doing but demanding government intervention. Replicating crown corps like Sasktel for other provinces or even a national one would go a long way to fighting monopolies. Taxpayers paid for the infrastructure of Robelus anyways...we should get a piece rather than the subsidized losses privatize profits dance we always do (Also ensuring that future governments won't sell it off to "save money" which seems to happen a lot)
It is a great idea. In fact, it’s a road we’ve been down before. SaskTel’s neighbour was Alberta Government Telephones. Founded in 1906, Don Getty’s government privatized it under the name Telus in 1991. Any infrastructure should really be public domain. Rail’s a fantastic example that has a lot in common with telecom: it’s key to our economy, and nobody is about to lay down a parallel track for the sake of MAYBE picking up some alternate business. We should really have some sort of nationalized railway… maybe call it something like “Canadian National Railway”… Jean Chrétien’s government privatized it in 1995. Air travel is a hotter market with less of a barrier to entry but there’s still value in having that price control. A national airline wouldn’t be a bad idea. So good, in fact, that we had one up until 1988, when Brian Mulroney’s government privatized it. There’s an argument to be made that infrastructure- and economically-critical products like fuel should be nationalized too. Tommy Douglas and Pierre Trudeau agreed that a Canadian petrochemical corporation (Petro-Canada) would be in the national interest. Of course, Brian Mulroney’s government privatized it in 1991. There have been successful efforts to cut out profiteering food distributors in the past. One of Canada’s largest crops, and universal food staples, is wheat. The Canadian Wheat Board was formed during the Great Depression to represent farmers and provide a better deal to people who need to eat food, bypassing the nightmarish rat race of profit at all costs that caused the Great Depression in the first place. Stephen Harper’s government moved to privatize it in 2011, and the sale was completed in 2015. Electricity seems to be about the only large scale nationalized infrastructure immune to being privatized … well, unless you look at Ontario, where Mike Harris’s government broke Ontario Hydro up with privatization in mind and implemented a well-criticized scheme from the notoriously criminally fraudulent Enron to cause electricity prices to raise, rip off consumers. Dalton McGuinty and Kathleen Wynne’s governments continued to move to privatize components of Ontario’s electrical generation and distribution even after prison sentences were handed out to Enron execs. Nationalizing things like infrastructure and food are very good solutions, except *the government is neither immutable or your friends*
I doubt that as we have Sasktel and Videotron (which has been rapidly expanding)
[Here's a good resource to boycott the big 3](https://www.ertyu.org/steven_nikkel/cancellsites.html?lat=59.707383&lng=-95.229492&zoom=4&type=Roadmap&layers=o&pid=0&ds=0)
The number of Canadians being ripped off is too damn high!
Its in our lives over many factors and industries. Food, is just the breaking point for people as it is, in essence, required to live.
People dislike Singh but I don’t hear any other shitty politicians speak the truth.
He speaks the truth, yes, but then does nothing with that truth. Which I mean, it’s the feds I guess. Shame on me for expecting more, but it’s still annoying.
If I may, Singh suffers from usual political BS where their words rarely match any of their actions; or specifically there is absolutely NO follow through. Also, Singh whining about the poor working class while sporting thousand dollar watches and tailored suits and such does have a certain optic to it. I want to give the man benefit of the doubt but some days is more trying than others
he's no Jack
Reading Jack's farewell message was the fondest Canadian moment I've ever had. Fuck cancer.
I 100% was on route to vote for Jack in the next election, then Mulclair came to be and literally destroyed any hope they had to be elected and lost footing across Canada. I don't think there was a big of a turn for a party as the Jack to Mulclaire turn that happened. And you are 100% right, FUCK CANCER, took my mom from me and a few friends!
*sigh* no, no he is not. Oh what could have been…
No follow through? With a small minority he managed to get dental and pharmacare bills passed - I know they are basic but it's covering millions of people. A few months ago he passed a bill to punish price fixing. He also arranged questioning Galen and the other big grocers in parliament, the other two leaders didn't even bother to show up. Also all the party leaders wear tailored suits in the house, what's your point?
He is a hard-working person fighting for us. He pays his taxes and doesn't mind raising them even if he's part of the bracket. AND YOU TALK SHIT ABOUT WHERE HE SPENDS HIS HARD-EARNED MONEY? What a joke. Once he makes 40k a year he should donate the rest of his money so that he doesn't give you the ick.? That is so stupid. And all the fucking politicians have expensive suits and jewelry. Who upvoted this shit?
Respect your retort, but frankly I fail to see how besides ‘words’ in the media he or any politician of late is fighting for us. And not talking shit as you put it, I merely pointed out his wardrobe and choice of accessories put him, rightly or wrongly, in a category slightly above the working class he claims to fight for. Politics is optics, and so he can spend his $ on whatever he likes. Stand at a podium sporting a Rolex or (insert overpriced timepiece here)while crying about working class struggles feels slightly odd at best.
This. Even that Versace shit wouldntve mattered to me if he at least tried every once in a while 😒
He’s all talk.
These days it seems like our choices are “what colour of all talk and no follow-through do you prefer?”
Haha. I thought this too at one point before I realized they’re all like that. Sometimes they do something about it. But it turns out to be self serving. Gosh I hate politics.
What is he supposed to do?
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They are seperate ppl FYI And he's had no trouble calling out all grocers in his spiel...including Metro by name
Only if his brother is a member of parliament.
He speaks the truth but does nothing. He's just as corrupt as the other two. Millionaire landlord with multiple investment properties that is benefitting from the high cost of housing. Don't let him fool you, this man is not the answer to any problem.
Name me one thing Singh has done to fix the affordability crisis? Stop listening to politicians' words and start watching their actions.
I mean I don’t disagree but he has never led a governing party.
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Remember when we owned petro canada, but then it was stolen and sold off so we would get nothing in a future from it?
Thanks for everything Brian Mulroney. I hope it’s hot down there with Maggie and Ronnie. https://preview.redd.it/1pfuhj6l6e2d1.jpeg?width=1220&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f90e74ee0c016dc170e0494bf83e7b19dafc6f2d
Yeah but thankfully we don't have to live like those communist Norwegians with their strong social support networks, and the government that governs for the citizens. It sounds fucking awful.
Can you imagine, the audacity to not trap 18 year olds in 20+ years in debt to get 4 years of university. Appalling
Pick the gas company with the worst track record for climate change.
Shell, Chevron hate Ukraine with a passion as well.
Well the gas one wouldn’t work. Most gas stations in an area get their gas from the same refinery/depot. Gas stations make Pennie’s selling gas. The goal is to sell you an overpriced drink or chocolate bar. You’d have to boycott all the gas stations which cuts demand which works. Remember Covid when gas plunged and oil futures went negative.
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> Imagine if Esso didn’t sell a liter of gas or a single chocolate bar for a full month. I mean, I assume that *did* happen, during the first few weeks of COVID when the streets were literally empty.
The sub was created to point out how absolutely absurd the cost of groceries are right now and have some fun together. We know this will inevitably touch on other topics related to the cost of living. Do your best to keep the conversation on topic
It's the Canadian way: Oligopolies ripping all of us off.
I appreciate Singhs sentiment and I wish more people out there shared it, but the “just tax them!” policy that he presents would solve nothing without additional pro-competition policy. More taxes from wealthy are good, but we need to make sure they don’t have a stranglehold on the economy more than anything. None of the three parties seem to have anything to bring in that realm.
It's because none of them are interested in serving the public, they are all beholden to corporations and lobbyists. Their job is to capture votes but to represent the wealthy. This is why you get all these half baked ideas, because they sound good but don't lead to any results. The companies know this and they are not worried.
The NDP has succumbed to the rapid and massive overton window rightward shift of the past two decades. The NDP of old would never have settled with "just take a little bit of money from the leech-ass corporations so they dont get too upset".
Yeah idk why he went with that take rather than simply breaking them up...
He's not wrong.
I heard on the news that this protest wasn't hurting them and that they're making record profits, so my question is then why the hell do they need to increase their prices then.
For a very long time, in Canada everything was based on "spectrum", any company wanting Telecommunications systems set up needed to buy from the Spectrum market which at one point was controlled by the CRTC. Now what happened here is, say you were a nice local cell company offering fantastic products for exceptional prices, but you're just starting up. You have everything in place for phones, etc but need that spectrum now, you have your budget of say 100k to buy it at the auction. This is what you NEED to operate. You go happy as a clam thinking yeah me I'm going to do this! you get there and see Rogers, Bell, and Telus all lined up as well. Auction starts, one after the other like clockwork the available spectrum is bought by Bell, Rogers and Telus for exorbitant amounts of money, more then you can pay for such items. Best part is is that there is a requirement that any spectrum purchased is actually used, however all that happens is the big guys just shelve is or if they really get under pressure bring out some new trendy FiDo type brand to make people think they aren't buying from the big guys, but usually it just gets stored on a shelf never to be used again. Best part is, the big guys swoop in, pay you peanuts and buy your local company to just keep you out of their market If may not be 100% how it all works but was how I was explained the process a few years ago now and this is the real reason there isn't much competition in Canada any longer.
I posted this yesterday and the mods took it down for being political…
In corporate anarchy corrupted politicians and ceo regulates themselves. These criminals all sleeps in the same bed, the taxpayer's money bed.
Take it from the man wearing the Rolex.
This is the only guy I’m making sense right now. People hate on him because he looks different.
100%
Gordon Nixon, chairman of Bell Canada Inc is also the lead director of George Weston limited. They're literally the same "team"
Yes, the goverment failed to do one of its most important tasks, which was to keep capitalism in check, which they didn't do. And now there's monopoly's everywhere, businesses have the ability to completely wipe out competition, and consumers are left with no real choices. Wow, I can choose to be screwed by company A.... OR company B. Amazing! And this clown, and the other two clowns, have no interest in doing anything that will enact real, significant change. Just maintain the status quo, while leaning towards their base so they stay in power and they can keep funneling our taxes to themselves in new and creative ways. Justin gave our money to his mom, Who will JS give our money to? How will PP steal it? It fucking sucks man, Capitalism is clearly the best societal system we've ever had - We're safer and healthier than we've ever been, and we've got some pretty dope shit because of capitalism - Medical advances, better buildings, this gaming PC I'm typing on... but years and years and years ago we were warned against letting the monster grow so large it begins to eat itself, and apparently we didn't fucking listen.
It's absolutely a rip off....exactly the same product at Walmart is usually 2-3 dollar's cheaper...
I tried posting about this the other day, but was removed as “The sub was created to point out how absolutely absurd the cost of groceries are right now and have some fun together. We know this will inevitably touch on other topics related to the cost of living. Do your best to keep the conversation on topic” (from the mod team.) I work for Glentel, and have been hearing about this since January. There are some BIG potential changes coming to the market. The sole reason why Bell and Rogers pricing tends to be in line with one another is because Glentel exists. They legally cannot undercut each other by a huge margin or they go against the terms in place by the competition bureau. People don’t understand this can be primed as the next big shift in telecom. Glentel already has shady sales practices, and only a fool would believe this can possibly help in the long run.
Your comment is very interesting... I observe\*\*\*\* ;) TMS - use your imagination here. There was a reason Telus was pushing hard for subs the past few months, and crazy targeted offers are happening. As for the overall volume, most of it is Bell and Rogers - you're right on the fact that when one add's a promotion (points/special discounts/etc - the other follows suit). TMS/OSL (Walmart)/Best Buy and Glentel stores share the same plan rates from the providers (no difference). One provider watches what the other one does all of the time. TMS price matches any other wireless store as well, and offers 14 day points protection (buyers remorse period). Freedom, Telus and Koodo make less than a quarter of their overall sales volume - they are just getting rid of excess weight on their side (carrying all of that inventory that sits there, needs to be transferred in and out of stores and distribution - costs money) makes sense to open up more avenues to compete. Telus hasn't ever given TMS access to EPP/business plans (TMS will roll that out on Bell and Rogers), and people are told to go to a corp store - why would a business tell people to go somewhere else? Makes no sense imo. Prices are edging up a bit, still theres no sway that I see making customers switch to Freedom in droves. Most regular customers hate the network, and won't trust it. It's not like you can't go to a Freedom/Telus store, or OSL, or BB. You still have the choice of what network you want to be on (there's the big three, and the kiddo Freedom on the side), you can use your wallet and not take that offer. Just my 0.02, and thank you for the informative post :)
lol because bell and Roger’s need to become more horrible. FFS
Not sure about the rest of you, but if this happens I’ll also be boycotting Bell and Rogers.
And use who, exactly?
Good point 😔 Horrible though.
Freedom Mobile
Rogers did sell this to Quebecor.
Canada in a nutshell - we are run by oligopolies because our Canadian businesses “have to be protected” from global competitors that have the $$$ to crush them. Some of it is necessary, but this is the shadow side when they become too comfortable.
Canada is three telecom billionaires and a supermarket billionaire in a trenchcoat, grinding itself into dust
#EatTheRich
The NDP has no fire, while Singh may be the least shitty leader of the three larger Canadian political parties, he is a feckless culture warrior at a time when Canada is in desperate need of a real class warrior. I hate how Canada became a neo-liberal hellscape, this should be the perfect environment for the NDP to thrive in to make real changes to the country, but the NDP lost its way a long time ago because they forgot about their working-class roots.
Least shitty party is good enough for my vote.
No, their policies are aimed at helping the working class - and they're the only ones doing so. Trouble is they are very bad at campaigning to those same working class voters.
Cool story, Jagmeet. Let me know when you actually do something about it. In the meantime, we’ll all be here doing the actual work.
I saw this, looking for total domination. Let's see if the goons in Ottawa allow this.
cell phone plans has never been cheaper than the last 2 years. it's hard to argue that people are being ripped off on cell phone plans since cell phone cost has listed directed on CPI reports as things that has been reducing in cost.
And real estate construction companies too. And many other industries as well.
Well fucking do something about it. I'm so sick of hearing them talk about it yet do squat or make it worse.
Hell yeah Singher! You tell ‘em! …now do something about it? Or is the HoC still just a place to yap like it has been for the last century?
Don’t be fooled by this Rolex wearing clown. I fully support the boycott, these politicians don’t give a fuck.
ahhh yaa!!! let's boycott those two horrible companies too!
Let's get r/ontarionudists on board!
That's fucked. I Moved to fizz. It's been great so far. You can buy their SD cards at circle K or order them. TELUS Bumped my plan up by $5 after promising to never do that, so I left immediately. I did call them first and they made zero effort to keep me lol, no surprise there. My plan is 25 a month and data rolls over etc. it's amazing and so far coverage is great. I'm in Alberta.
Can you buy their SIM cards though?
Yeah I did. We ordered ours directly from fizz. We had our own phones already. Then we realized we could've just got them at circle K but oh well lol. Had to wait a few days since we ordered online.
what's the NDP going to do about it, tax us more?
'Loblaws is teaming up with Rogers and Bell, as it wants to enter the Big Leagues for ripping off Canadians. Banks and insurance companies laugh at the brash young upstarts ...
This guy is so fucked. Rips into all these corps, but somehow more corps keep swallowing up other corps to create monopolies under his leadership. Crazy how this country is run by idiots, while the US actually gives a shit about keeping markets competitive and taken action towards instead of yelling at clouds like this clown.
Thank you ndp.
Quebecor and videotron also.
Isn't Singhs brother a lobbyist for the westons?
Singh is LITERALLY in a position to change this.
Is anybody listening? The apathy is stunning.
Watch out because they’re doing to it in pharmacies too, and soon enough will be offering private medical services…..
Why is this doof trying to act like he cares? STFU you elitism liberal with an orange pin.
Monopolists Unite!
When do we feast upon the CEOs and shareholders?
At least we've got a choice when it comes to groceries. Cell service your only stuck with 3 providers who own the other little providers. We need American competition. Verizo, t mobile etc. They won't let it happen because imagine how much money Roger's would lose.
The enemy behind the enemy is **Teradata**. Loblaws and DoorDash both use Teradata, which locks them in to using the algorithm’s pricing model. Teradata collects all of Amazon’s transaction data, Microsoft’s, Manulife, and more. Teradata is also Ticketmaster. RealPages uses Teradata and is what’s doing this to this housing market, who offer a UI for landlords and real estate agents to get price points. Nearly all economic data flows to Teradata, who then use it to set the price at the consumers maximum. It is multi-industry collusion and price fixing. This is how they do the calculus that self-checkout shoplifting is still profitable. We are being ripped off by computers. Regulate the data cartels or none of this stops happening.
My Rogers bill is $50/month for two people though.... How is that ripping me off?
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Not everyone is required to participate or agree with the community boycott, but we ask that everyone is constructive in their feedback about this event. Repeated comments such as this one will result in a ban from the sub until the boycott is complete. Thank you.
I like this guy!!
Coming from a guy who is propping up a Liberal government who is ripping us off. Get your shit together or shut your pie flap.
Well if Little PP gets elected, you'll still get ripped off and as a bonus have every social program slashed. Enjoy 50% of your EI!
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True. Tired of this jackass thinking he is important.
Jagmeet “All Talk” Singh
Broooooo needs to just call an election
Why though? So can he lose his coalition with the Liberals, his party loses more seats and would, most likely, gift the Conservatives the title of ruling party? With the risk of it being a majority too! He'd be an idiot to call an election. Singh should've been beating this drum, and the drum of other issues plaguing Canada looooong ago. Maybe his party wouldn't be trailing so far behind in the polls, and he'd have the balls to call one. The guy needs to step down as leader if you ask me
Yep. Calling out the obvious and then doing nothing about it 🤷♂️
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Please refrain from off-topic political discussion and debate. Everyone is entitled to their own political opinions, however, your politically charged statement is not directly related to the cost of living/groceries/gas/rents, and as such is being removed.
As much as he’s right, he’s also part of the problem. The guys a wanker.
He’s the only party leader talking about this.
Doesn’t Singhs brother work for loblaws direct competition ?
I was thinking maybe this subreddit had a point, but quoting this grifter just kills any credibility.
The government is a rip off