Hello, I would love it if The Coast did a story on the Save Easy on Wyse Road. They are owned by the Superstore but they charge more for the same product. Examples PC granola bars are $1.99 at a Superstore but $2.19 at the Save Easy, PC Chicago Deep Dish Pizza is $7.99 at the Superstore but almost $9 at Save Easy.
The Save Easy is in a low income neighborhood and the people living here don’t have cars so they can go to the Superstore on Braemar Drive and I suspect that is the reason for the price hike.
This article appears in Sep 18-24, 2008.
Yeah, I would like to read that story too or hear an explanation. Sounds like exploitation to me. I like the SuperStore more than Sobey’s, but this brings them done a notch.
I didn’t even care when I read the bitch, i could imaging suffering through a full length * cough couch* expose on this.19 cents higher for granola bars? how may people have to suffer before the government steps in regulate the price of cheap junk food!! quick, someone get the pitch forks and touches!
I didn’t even care when I read the bitch, i could imaging suffering through a full length * cough couch* expose on this.19 cents higher for granola bars? how may people have to suffer before the government steps in regulate the price of cheap junk food!! quick, someone get the pitch forks and torches!
lovinglife, the inflated costs are not limited to the items mentioned in the original post.How would people feel if Sobeys sold items at a higher price, in it’s smaller stores? Atlantic Wholesalers is basically doing the same thing, under the guise of using two different store names.
oh I am sure the OP was just using those as representative examples of a larger problem.and how would people feel? well that happens now….its called NEEDS convenience stores. A wholly owned subsidiary of Sobeys that sells the same items at a marked up price. there is no river of blood in the street last time i checked so I think people are ok with it.
I believe you are paying more at a Needs for the convenience of a location. Given where they are located I would guess a Needs has a higher per square footage cost then a Sobeys would. Although a higher price at a Needs made much more sense when grocery stores closed, so part of what you paid at Needs supported them being open at later/slower hours and Sundays. The Save-Easy on the other hand is a full grocery store. I don’t think anyone suggested goverment intervention. However, exposure of the stores practices (If they are indeed taking advantage of the low income situation) may force some community responsibility on the Save Easy’s part.
the bad guy – to clarify, it was me who suggested government intervention but I was being VERY facetious when I did. OP – the price increase is minimal, 2.19 vs 1.99 is not exactly a social welfare emergency. and does not require an American style expose on this.
I must have been blind.The problem I think is not on the indivdual item, but more so when you purchase a full load of groceries and every item has gone up a little bit.I know that I have been able to notice the affect of gas prices on my grocery bills. Sure each item has only gone up abour 20 cents, but $20-$50 more on a total grocery bill can be a lot. Also why is there no cent sign on the keyboard? The dollar sign got a ctrl+4!
Lovinglife, you’re wrong. For a person on a fixed income, a price difference of twenty cents can mean the difference between buying that item and doing without it. Do you know what a single disabled person gets to live on from social services? $800 per month. Every penny literally counts. On another note, I was told by an aquaintance who works for Loblaws (owner of Superstore) that the store in question has higher than normal losses due to shoplifting, and that’s how they justify the higher prices. Not saying it’s right or even true. Just sayin’.
That’s an interesting point Miranda, however begs the question, chicken or the egg?
It kind of bugs me when people use the term “fixed income” when really they mean “low income”. Technically, anyone who isn’t commission based is on a fixed income. My pay cheque is the same month after month after month, or “fixed”.
I’d say a low income earner is on a broken income instead. Also whats the deal with pants?
No idea, Bad Guy. Are prices higher because people are shoplifting? Are people shoplifting because they can’t afford the stuff? Or is the Evil Corporation making up fake excuses so they can justify gouging the poor?
I hate pants.
Pants???
I guess, Jennie, that a fixed income is one that somebody else “fixes”. My income is “fixed” in the sense that my salary is the same every week. But it is within my power to change that. I can work more hours, work for a promotion, get a better job, or a second job. A person on a truly fixed income doesn’t have those options.
I sort of see your point, although I still think “low income” is the more accurate term. I don’t have the opportunity to work overtime, etc. for more pay, so unless I switch jobs, my income is definitely “fixed”. And you could argue that some (obviously not all) people who are on some type of assistance have the opportunity to change their circumstances, say by entering the working world.God I hope that didn’t sound too Frannie-ish!
The question is “Do the other SaveEasy stores charge the same amount as the Wyse Road SaveEasy for non-sale items?”The answer to that question will say alot.My bet is that they do.And hows does shoplifting affect the prices so much? I can see why a store would adjust prices to recoup losses, but why is the regular price of items always higher (compared to superstore)? How does someone stealing the occasional candy bar or batteries or any other item drive the price up that much? If the prices are inflated to recoup loss due to shoplifting, shouldn’t we see a shift to a lower price when the losses are recouped?
Isn’t it normal for different stores, even those owner by the same parent corporations, to charge different prices for the same items? If this were an unusual or illegal practice I can see making a fuss over it. But it’s not.
Since the superstore would have higher total sales, they would need a lower margin on each item in order to return a profit. Saveeasy with a smaller market area, needs to charge more per item to make the store worthwhile financially.
Also Superstore and Sobeys are the big competitors for each other around here. Saveeasy on Wyse road’s competitor would be the IGA, so there is not as great a need to keep the prices down.
Floyd, IGA is not a competitor for SaveEasy. When the parent company of IGA went under, the store in Atlantic Canada were sold to Loblaws; The remainder were sold to Sobeys.Loblaws shutdown most of the IGA stores that it owned; The remainder (over time) were converted to other store names that Loblaws owns. In fact, the SaveEasy in question used to be an IGA.I believe that there are few IGA’s left in New Brunswick, but since they are owned by Loblaws, they cannot be considered competition for SaveEasy.You may have a point about the price margins. It just seems odd that the prices jumped when Loblaws took it over. The store itself existed for at least 20 years prior to Loblaws taking over (first as Dominion, then as IGA). In those times, when the store was not owned by Loblaws, the prices were always comparable to Sobeys, Superstore, and the Capitol store. So why is it that there is such a price difference now?
Good catch Bob… I thought the WyseRoad SaveEasy was in addition to, not a replacement of the IGA, near the bridge plaza…In that case, with no nearby direct competition, save easy would be all the less inclined to keep prices down…
Save Easy is a FRANCHISE store ~meaning the owner/manager buys the right to the Save easy name and supply system (product ordering) from Loblaws. That owner takes economic risk in smaller communties that a company like loblaws does not want to assume. The main company (Loblaws) may help them out with putting out flyers and a recognizable product line, but when it comes down to it, the owner is responsible for different costs, overhead and issues than a giant company like Loblaws.Anymore questions? Google “Franchise” before you assume some big conspiracy.
This is one of those times when the free market will dictate whether people will travel to any of the 3 Sobeys stores (Primrose, Woodside, North & Windsor) within a 15 minute bus ride from Wyse Rd. or not. Leave it be, there are bigger corrupt fish to fry in this world.
Oh, and for the record, I also hate pants.
if only I could figure out how to make my BMW run on low income families I’d be all set…
CC is correct regarding how the franchise process works re: right to display name and participate in buying from the supply system. What should be noted, however, is that the franchiser (Loblaws in this instance) dictates purchasing prices on a per-store basis.Thus the franchiser does the demographic and purchasing trend homework for each store and dictates the franchisee buying prices for each item. It’s all a big set of spreadsheets and formulas. What consumers get is then the retail mark-up. Smaller stores, typically, have less profit margin than the larger stores, and the same often holds true based on neighbourhood. I asked a store owner (rural area 100km from Halifax) a few months ago when I noted the price of cheese was $2 per brick higher than the same one in Halifax. Got the entire low-down.
Too funny, not too long ago I had to stop in to that grocery store for something and was going to send in a ‘bitch’ about how ghetto it looked and how it kinda looked like it was owned by super-sobeys but they couldn’t be bothered to bring it up to the same standard as their flagship stores because of their client base. Thanks for the info.