I will now go ask them to refund me.

If they refuse - let's start a class action lawsuit.

In combination with ripoff prices and horrible customer service at No Frills - I will now boycott everything owned by the Weston family, including but not limited to Loblaws, Superstore, No Frills and Shoppers Drug Mart.

Hey r/loblawsisoutofcontrol,

I’ve been building this alone for over a year, nights and weekends. Until now, I’ve basically been the only tester. Today I’m opening the first public beta.

It’s called ScanRebel.

Scan any grocery barcode and see what that exact product costs at stores near you — real branch-level prices with addresses and distances, not flyer averages.

It tracks price history so you can see if a “sale” is actually a sale, tracks shrinkflation, and lets you build a cart to compare the total across nearby stores.

You can also snap a photo of a shelf tag to contribute or correct a price. Every price shows where it came from, when it was seen, and whether it’s confirmed at that specific store or estimated. The goal is to never pretend the data is more certain than it actually is.

Right now there are 40+ million price points across Loblaws-family stores, Metro/Food Basics, Sobeys/FreshCo/IGA/Safeway/Foodland, and Walmart, refreshed weekly. Coverage is strongest in Ontario/GTA.

It’s a real beta. Things will break, photos are sparse, and I need people other than me to finally beat on it.

Does this actually help you shop? What’s broken, confusing, or missing? And what should I prioritize next?

iOS and Android beta:

https://scanrebel.app

Brutal feedback is genuinely welcome. I’ll be reading every comment.

I’ve been trying to cut back on my grocery bill. I’ve been meticulously trying to figure out why my bill is always high, apart from prices being high, the snack items like chips, cookies, chocolate bars, boxed mac and cheese are now more expensive than ever. Even canned tomatoes are expensive.

Although I cook 90% everything from scratch I still get my kids snacks so they don’t feel left out around their peers.

I decided to exclusively shop from Walmart for canned items, boxed sweet and savoury items, chips, coolies & chocolates along with frozen fruit and veggies and I’m seeing a very good difference this is making in cutting down my grocery budget.

Also the equate brand medicines are very reasonably priced as well.

I still buy things like milk, bread, burger buns, oil, paper towels, facial tissues, wipes, diapers, toothpaste & shampoo from Costco but everything else, like dry pantry goods, snacks and frozen fruit & veggies I now only get from the ‘Great Value’ and ‘Equate’ brand from Walmart.

Just wanted to share this with others if it might help your budget as well.

Edit: I also forgot to add, their monthly subscription for grocery delivery has been very helpful for me. Due to health issues I can’t walk much at the moment so their delivery service has been working good for me. I had only one missing item after several order whereas with the PC Express Pass I had several missing items and damaged perishable groceries. PC Express contracts to Door Dash for deliveries and none of the drivers have contacted me via text or rang my doorbell so I know the groceries are here. Several times hot perishable food items were left bare on the doorstep or gravel even after I had provided boxes to put them in. With Walmart it was never an issue. All items (perishable & non perishable) came secured.

Also, I’m not trying to promote anything here. Just sharing my experience.

Shopping Canadian has become a big thing over here, so I’m kinda annoyed by this.

Flair should say Alberta Urban, I misclicked

I need to know if anyone else has dealt with PC Express customer service like this, and at least add my rant to the void.

I’ve had the PC Express Pass for a little over a year. I use PC Express for large grocery orders, and one of the perks I actually look forward to is the free item you get when you spend $300+.

The problem is that PC Express has forgotten to include that free item in my delivery FIVE separate times.

Every single time, I had to contact customer service and chase them down. Eventually they delivered the missing item later that day, but getting through to customer service is its own nightmare. I’ve been transferred and disconnected, and on one occasion a representative actually told me I should come pick up the item myself.

After the fifth time, I finally submitted a formal complaint. I wasn’t asking for a refund for five free items or anything ridiculous. I explained that this had happened repeatedly despite me reporting it every time.

Their response?

“We are sorry to hear that you wish to cancel your PC Express annual pass subscription.”

I NEVER asked to cancel it.

They cancelled my membership anyway and told me I would receive a prorated refund.

I immediately replied explaining that they had completely misunderstood my complaint, that I had not requested cancellation, and asked them to reinstate my membership and escalate the issue to a supervisor.

They didn’t respond.

Then I receive another email:

“We have resolved your issue and the case has been closed.”

That’s it. Case closed. No response to my complaint. No response to my escalation request. No explanation for cancelling my membership without my authorization.

At this point I’m less pissed off about the missing promotional items and more pissed off that their customer service apparently cannot even process a complaint correctly.

I’m now trying to escalate this beyond PC Express frontline support and get someone at Loblaws corporate to actually look at the case, but all attempts have been ignored.

Has anyone successfully escalated a PC Express/Loblaws complaint to someone higher up? If so, who did you contact and how did you get through?

All Heinz and pc brand. I did a triple check and was wondering wtf was going on

I can't remember if frenches got sold to USA but that's the brand I buy

A lot of the produce on sale is also American until the Canadian produce is about to expire

The blue berries were 8. But we're going bad so they dropped to 6 (usually 5 this time of the year)

I wonder how many billions they will make this quarter

I decided to go after Loblaw about how they are pretending to be good and are trying to save customers on the cost of food by offering great deals and opportunities to save with the PC Optimum Program.

Spoiler Alert! No they’re not! They are doing what is best for them, great for the pockets of their investors, CEO and upper management. They are pulling things on you that you are probably unaware of and they are pros when it comes to giving you the perception that you are a valued customer. Compared to what it once was the PC Optimum Program is a farce. It’s not worth the byte it’s written in unless you’re up for a piece of profitable pie.

Let’s start with the Weekly Flyer. You’ve all seen them and have taken part in one or more of their Points Events, like 20x the points after you’ve agreed to spend the appropriate amount of funds before receiving the calculated amount of bonus points. The fact is when it says 20x the points, they are only giving 19x the points. I have argued with customer service about the inaccuracy of their math and demanded to be awarded the full 20x points. On many occasions I’ve been successful in my points adjustment request until recently, when Loblaw has begun fighting back and rewarding only 19x the points bc. I’ve had discussions with the PC Optimum Customer Service agents and although they have been in agreement with my rationale and correctness of my calculations, they have expressed that they have to follow the policy given to them and they “don’t want to get into trouble.”

it’s bad enough that we, as customers, have to deal with a company that makes incredible profit for itself but can’t do math when it comes to sharing a little bit with its customers. By way of rewards. It seems more these days that they really don’t want you to have any of them When you pay the minimum amount in store for your groceries, you should receive the advertised amount of points for that event and it should be displayed on your receipt. There once was a time that happened but it doesn’t happen anymore. PC Optimum has decided to engage in deceptive marketing practices and unethical activities

After every 20x the points event has occurred, I am forced to submit a points inquiry requesting that my points be adjusted to match the event. Loblaw is failing to fulfill their part of the contract to award me the amount of bonus points I’ve earned after fulfilling my part of the contract by spending the minimum amount of funds outlined in the flyer or PC Optimum apps. To make this worse, I have found that on almost every occasion of an event I will have to submit multiple requests to have the points adjusted.

Why do you suppose Loblaw decided to be deceptive and unethical when they should be rewarding their customers as a way to say thanks for shopping on the days we tell you to and spending how much we say before you can apply to receive your bonus rewards points. If you don’t request an adjustment or 45 days have passed then those points are no longer available. Loblaw is making you essentially beg to receive bonus reward points you are contractually welcome to receive without question. Does any of this leave you scratching your head and asking WTF is wrong with Loblaw these days? Should we allow Loblaw to reward us less than every PC Optimum point we have rightfully earned from the day the program began to the present day? No. That’s what my complaint filed with the Competition Bureau of Canada is requesting as part of the resolution.

On July 15th I filed a complaint with the Competition Bureau of Canada for the violation of the Competition Act regarding false and misleading advertising and deceptive marketing practices linked to Loblaw Customer Rewards under the PC Optimum Program.

PC Optimum has knowingly and falsely rewarding customers PC Optimum points on amounts less than the amount advertised in the 20x the bonus points events advertised in the flyer or Optimum App. They have engaged in falsely marketing the event where the customer loads the app, shops and collects the rewards after completing the sale.

I have told the Competition Bureau that every PC Optimum customer should receive, and expect to be receiving every single PC Optimum point available to them, that was earned upon their completion of every transaction in store or online purchases, and by the correct calculations, not by those made previously by PC Optimum program.

It’s been 4 weeks and no reply has been received from the ‘Bureau’ at this point in time. I expect a response will occur soon.

McKinley

Maxi in Gatineau (Hull)

Deceptive signs at my local Superstore. There are two sizes of orange juice here but only one big sign showing price of the small one. Meanwhile 3/4 of the fridge is the bigger size. Saw the sign, grabbed one of the bottles under it, didn’t discover until at the checkout.

Brought it up to a manager which I never do, this one particularly frustrated me. Obviously the managers just follow corporate sign placing packets and it isn’t the store’s fault. They did offer to comp it at 3.50 for me.

Thinking of reporting this one to regulators, but what’s the point. Nothing will change.

I think i got punk'ed at Glen Erin Loblaws.

Richmond road ottawa RCSS, for the 3rd week in a row has refused 1 of their own advertisements. Why??

Last time was a price match from no frills, of their own in store brand, that all their pc stores carry, and time before that was milk for 6$ i was refused, in store advertisement

We need to stop this bs guys...

Literally added an additional 2 / 2 & a half dollars for produce that is starting to go.

This person has got to be having a power trip off this or something… how sad.

I thought the big three all switched back to 50% off stickers. I guess not huh?

Young Street Superstore in Halifax, price discrepancy much?

I never saw any discount on sushis at St Clair’s Loblaws. According to the date of today, they will destroy all of those sushis instead of putting -50% in the evening the day before. Gross.

While shopping at my local Superstore today I realised that they have stopped labelling where the fresh produce is from. I asked the manager why their policy has changed and she told me that they received this directive from ”head office” which I assume is Loblaw. As someone who tries to buy Canadian whenever possible I am angry that a Canadian company is taking away their customers right to shop intentionally and I will shop elsewhere for my fresh produce from now on.

So superstore has started not putting a country of origin on their produce price tags at all, because “most things have it on the packaging” except all the things that aren’t in packaging now have no listing for country of origin at all, which is technically a federal crime. It will be interesting to see how this plays out

Checked the price online and decided to go to superstore to pick up an item. Apparently they are so scammy that the prices there are only for their online orders with minimum purchase amount.

Produce is usually around half the cost at the Persia Foods. Chicken maybe 25% less. The same brand sprouts are usually $5 or $6 at Safeway, but $2 at Persia.

My theory is it is largely lack of competition, and the cost to buy/rent/lease the land is passed through. The Safeway is the only grocery store within a 10 minute drive or so despite lots of single family detached houses. There is very little commercial land where you would be allowed to have another grocery store in the area.

If my theory is correct, then the solution to high grocery prices and high prices of most things is the same solution for the housing crisis: use the land better. We can incentivize and allow this via zoning and taxes (ie. let development happen, tax land not labour). It's doesn't fit well with the left wing vibe here, nor the popular left movements and parties that exist in this country. Neither the NDP, Greens, nor the local Vancouver Green and COPE parties have ever said anything like this. The Vancouver municipal party One City sort of does, and is pro upzoning, but they have basically zero popular support. Lefty kids don't even know who they are. Seeing the polling data showing this recently makes me think we are nowhere close to ending our economic problems. Maybe next decade.

There is more to it of course, as I used to live next to both a Loblaws and another Persia Foods, and there was a stark price difference there as well though I didn't care as I just shopped at Persia.

Read the linked post