Well, here I am again at the grocery store and once again they're screwing with our heads. This week they've increased the prices on almost everything in the store by 15-20%, but they've done so in such as way as to make it look like the prices have gone down. The franchise owner is getting the following letter from me on this one:
[address redacted]
John Crnogorac, Franchisee
Fortinos South Oakville
173 Lakeshore Rd. W
Oakville, Ontario [L6K 1E9]
July 14, 2009
Dear John Crnogorac,
I’ve been a customer of your store since it re-opened after the renovation (and it’s conversion from a Loblaws) and I have had mixed feelings about many things there. Sunday, July 12th however was a rather distressing experience.
As I went through the aisles I was surprised to see that nearly everything was marked as having being reduced in price. While the stickers were all advertising reduced prices, the actual prices did not seem to be all that much lower. By the time I made it to aisle five I saw what was actually going on. Prices had not been reduced at all on a majority of items but had actually been raised!
One of your employees was in the process of replacing all of the price stickers in the aisle with new ones. Specifically, when I arrived she was removing a sticker that said a product was $2.99 and replacing it with a sticker saying that the product had previously been $3.49 and had now been reduced to $2.99 for a savings $0.50.
This is highly misleading. The product in question had never been, to my knowledge, offered for sale at your store for the higher price, in fact I’m fairly certain that it had been priced at $2.99 since the product’s introduction.
Now I understand that prices do need to be raised from time to time. It’s just the nature of a post gold-standard fiat currency. My objection and concern is not that prices are going up. It’s about the sneaky way it’s being done. The item in question may now be listed as having a regular price of $3.49 in your computers, but if you never sold one for $3.49 then, in my opinion, you cannot in good conscience say that the price has been reduced to $2.99. It’s not a reduction or a sale, it’s an imminent increase. I’m especially offended that it seems you hold the public in such low esteem that they will not see what is really happening.
I also realize that frequently in large chains these decisions are not made at the store level. If that is the case and you are as concerned as I am I urge you to follow your conscience and contact the proper individuals within the corporation. Loblaw Companies Limited claims to operate with transparency and integrity. In this instance it is my opinion that they have failed in their mandate.
I wish to continue to shop with the Loblaw family of stores and the South Oakville Fortinos in particular. Your response to this will have an impact on this decision.
Sincerely and without malice aforethought, vexation or frivolity,
CC: Galen Weston
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