Earlier this week, the CEO and President of Loblaws Companies Ltd., Per Bank, announced that some grocery prices would be rising due to the tariff conflict with the United States.
Bank made this announcement via his LinkedIn account, of all places.
“While the tariff situation might be improving between the US and other countries, that’s not yet the case here in Canada. In fact, we’ll be facing a large wave of tariff-related increases in the weeks ahead,” said Bank.
He added that in all Loblaws stores, including Superstore, Shoppers Drug Mart, No Frills among many others, customers may have already noticed a “T” symbol on some shelves to mark which products have been impacted by tariffs.
“So far, we’ve been able to limit the number of T symbols on our shelves to a little over 1,000 items,” Bank continued.
“But our inventory is running out, and in the next week or two, the number of products with a T symbol will surge to over 3,000. Within the next two months, that number could peak at over 6,000.”
Loblaws’ combined product portfolio includes roughly 80,000 items, according to the CEO—so the majority of products will be unaffected, but customers will start to see more impacts soon.
These impacts will be seen in product categories such as natural foods, pantry staples, health and beauty products, and more.
Bank stated in his LinkedIn post that he thinks Prime Minister Mark Carney has done well engaging in dialogue with US officials, but the impacts to customers have started a trend of pivoted shopping habits.
A photo posted by Bank shows customers choosing to buy cheaper Brazil-produced orange juice over the leading US-made brand, Tropicana.
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In light of the situation as it stands, Bank said that Loblaws will be prioritizing Canadian-made products through their vendors over US-produced products where possible, but prices will be going up as the conflict continues.
