Loblaw Companies reported $13.58 billion in first-quarter revenue — a 4.5 per cent increase from a year earlier — on Wednesday morning, the same day that a group of frustrated shoppers said they would begin a month-long boycott of the grocery retailer.
The company said that its retail segment sales rose 4.4 per cent to $13.29 billion. Food retail sales were up by 3.4 per cent, while its drug retail sales under the Shoppers Drug Mart banner increased by four per cent.
Its earnings per share were $1.72 on an adjusted basis, an increase of 11 per cent, the company said.
A group of shoppers who say they are fed up with the company’s grocery prices said that as of Wednesday they would start boycotting the retailer and its offshoot brands, including No Frills, Provigo and City Market.
The group on Reddit, which has a subreddit forum called “Loblaws is out of control,” currently has 62,000 members. It is not known how many people will participate in the boycott.
The company is “acutely aware” that it has to win its customers’ business each day, a spokesperson wrote in a statement provided to CBC News on Tuesday evening.
“The last few years have been tough for Canadians, and we continue to do what we can to combat inflation at our stores,” the spokesperson said.
The statement referenced the online boycott, writing that “customers are noticing, with more visits in our stores and many commenting in the same Reddit groups that they’re getting real value at our stores, often the best across the industry.”