The Enshittification of Loblaws

The enshittification of Loblaws, easily the largest supermarket chain in Canada, is well into the “squeezing with both fists” portion of our program.

We all owe Cory Doctorow a debt of gratitude for his development of the concept of enshittification. Amazon is, of course, the poster child for this business model of attracting users until they are locked in, holding the users gently in one hand while attracting vendors with the other hand until they are locked in, then squeezing every last nickel out to give to the shareholders and not stopping until the wheels come off.

In the eighties, Loblaws started selling a discount house brand (No Name), mid-range house brand (President’s Choice), and a premium house brand (PC Black Label Collection) of common grocery items, everything from mustard to the well-loved PC Chocolate Chip Cookies, as well as a baked goods and produce brand (Farmer’s Market). The quality was always uniformly decent and the price was uniformly a bit below the comparable branded item. The idea was that manufacturers could hand the marketing off to Loblaws who, with their massive reach, could place products better than some small sausage maker, and having their sausages put front and center by Loblaws could make a company. Companies would audition their products to Loblaws to be accepted as a house brand. Loblaws could afford to be very selective, so most of their house brand items were of good quality and good price. Loblaws became a monster in the grocery retail space in Canada, mostly due to these house brands.

So far, so hoopy. But then Loblaws started squeezing their suppliers. There were stories of products being turned down for house branding because the manufacturer could not cut their costs enough. There was even the big Frito-Lay war, when Loblaws stopped carrying Frito-Lay products for months because Frito-Lay wanted to raise their prices and Loblaws refused.

Now, roughly one third of any Loblaws shelf is populated with house branded product. Some products with strong brand recognition are still there, placed conspicuously beside the cheaper house brand.

Even worse, Loblaws stores are being redone to become mazes of one-way gates and self-checkout areas that make the customer feel like they are the product being shunted along an assembly line, where they fall off the end of the conveyor belt with just enough food to get them and their family through the week but with no money left for anything else. Customers have also yeeted all their personal information into the cloud for some “loyalty” points that can eventually be redeemed if they shop here a lot more times.

The three closest grocery stores to my home are two Provigo stores (what Loblaws is called in Quebec) and a wonderful giant Chinese grocery called T&T. The T&T company was recently bought by Loblaws, so I guess I had better enjoy shopping there while I can. There’s always the Middle Eastern market—their produce prices are great.