A boycott of Loblaws, if it happens in May, might provide a feeling of accomplishment for the participants, but will it really make a difference?

CP24 reports, “A boycott targeting Loblaw is gaining momentum online, with what could be thousands of shoppers taking their money elsewhere in May.”

The page for the boycott on Reddit r/loblawsisoutofcontrol reads, “A sub devoted to highlighting the ridiculous cost of living in Canada right now. We’d like to thank our corporate overlord Galen Weston Jr. of Loblaws (and CEOs like him) for continually raising grocery prices so he can get a big fat bonus cheque every year while the rest of Canadians struggle to make ends meet.”

Grocery prices are high and for multiple reasons, but not just at Loblaws and all of the companies under that flag.

It is easy for activists and politicians like NDP leader Jagmeet Singh to use Galen Weston as the whipping boy as Weston made himself well known to the Canadian public with his folky ads on television.

Grocery operations in Canada did not do their public relations any good when they were found to be involved in bread price fixing.

Grocery stores, once a noncontroversial part of our daily lives, are now seen by many as a necessary evil.

Regardless of your opinion of any one of them, apart from your price preferences and which stores you prefer to shop in, what difference does it make if you go to Loblaws, Metro or Sobeys?

If you already think one of them is best, shop there.

If one of them is so much cheaper than Loblaws why are the threatening boycotters not already shopping there?

From CP24, “We don’t want to struggle anymore,” said Emily Johnson, a mental health and addictions worker in Milton, Ont., and one of the boycott’s organizers.”

No one does. We all get the sentiment.

“The primary aim is to have a financial impact on Loblaw, Johnson said, the biggest of the Canadian grocers. But she also hopes the boycott educates people and gets the attention of government.”

If activists want to get the attention of government they could ask what Trudeau will do to reduce the size of government. The federal government has grown in employment by 40% since Trudeau was elected and that is one of the causes of inflation.

The supply management system put in place to supposedly protect our agriculture sector causes artificially high prices on dairy and poultry products.

No party – I have lobbied the Conservatives on this – will commit to fixing that price fixing mechanism.

The Americans prop up agriculture through taxes, making the more well to do pay for it.

We prop them up at the grocery store, disproportionately hitting poor people. How is that better?

But all we can really do is price shop and give our business to the place that meets our needs in terms of price, location and ambiance based on our own personal preferences.

Canada suffers in a number of areas in our economy from a lack of competition, but at least there is some competition in groceries, so pick one.

If everyone picks some place other than Loblaws, or Metro, the one losing business will do what they can to get us back.

But they can only do so much.