Loblaws goes on social media spree defending the end of its No Name price freeze

The close of January 2023 will mark the end of the infamous prize freeze on No Name products announced by grocery giant Loblaws last October.

And as the hate rolls in from disgruntled customers, the supermarket chain’s social media team is busy defending its controversial business decisions.

Just take a look at the trending topics on Twitter, like ‘No Frills’ or ‘Galen Weston’, and you’ll see many complaints about the price freeze, which capped the prices on more than 1,500 No Name products.

But in a strange turn of events, Loblaws has been directly responding to criticism, attempting to explain its position and place the blame for grocery inflation elsewhere to just about everyone speaking out about the issue on Twitter.

“We can say with confidence, our profits aren’t the reason for food inflation. Our grocery food margins are flat. Supplier’s costs to us continue to climb, pushing prices higher,” reads one response from the grocery brand.

Think it’s wrong that certain No Name products will go back to normal prices? Loblaws also has an answer for that.

“We froze prices when costs continued to climb. We took a stand on the price freeze because we knew that the price of food was a huge concern for many Canadians.”

See the past tense used in that statement? It appears, based on this wording, that the brand assumes Canadians are no longer concerned about the price of food.

“We froze prices to help customers at a time they needed it most and we did something to fight inflation. It meant something to Canadians,” read another response.

See? Canadians are no longer worried about paying nearly $40 for chicken breasts and other sky-high prices thanks to three months of price freezing on just a selection of items. 

“Food inflation continues and some prices may increase but hundreds of no name products will not go up,” is another response, though they do not specify which products may increase.

Perhaps one of the most infuriating stock PR responses is Loblaws’ claim they are not the ones to be blamed for your soaring grocery bills.

“While we may be the face of food inflation but we are certainly not the cause. Food prices are higher in our stores simply because the manufacturers who make the products are charging more for them.”

It’s important to note that Loblaws Companies Ltd. reported an approximate 30 per cent increase in profits over last year.

They continue to say it’s the manufacturers’ fault for higher prices and claim they don’t make as much money as you’d think.

“Food prices are higher in our stores because the manufacturers who make the products are charging more for them. It’s easy to blame grocers for higher grocery prices. But on a $100 grocery bill, we make less than $4 profit,” they said.

The price freeze was definitely counterproductive from a public relations standpoint, seeing as it brought in even more hate for Galen Weston Jr., but Loblaws seems to think it was a move worth celebrating.

Some have responded to this take that the now infamous price freeze was all just a PR stunt, alleging it was a regularly scheduled annual freeze that most grocers do at that time of year, and Loblaws was merely publicizing it as a new policy.

All of these responses have Twitter users jokingly questioning if these PR and social media workers are being held hostage by Loblaws.

Taking into account how many negative responses there are on just Twitter alone, it’s likely going to be a long day at the keyboard for that social media team.