tag:theconversation.com,2011:/fr/topics/grocery-industry-42586/articlesGrocery industry – The Conversation2023-05-29T21:26:04Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2063872023-05-29T21:26:04Z2023-05-29T21:26:04ZThe new Grocery Code of Conduct should benefit both Canadians and the food industry<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528659/original/file-20230526-24621-aq8k4m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=16%2C8%2C5590%2C3724&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Canada's first-ever grocery code of conduct is supposed to enhance transparency, predictability and fair dealing within supply chains.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The cost of filling your grocery cart in Canada increased by <a href="https://cdn.dal.ca/content/dam/dalhousie/pdf/sites/agri-food/Canada%27s%20Food%20Price%20Report%202023_Digital.pdf">10.3 per cent in 2022</a> and is projected to increase by an additional <a href="https://www.dal.ca/sites/agri-food/research/canada-s-food-price-report-2023.html">five to seven per cent this year</a>. </p>
<p>What is particularly troubling about the food crisis is that the high prices seem to be impacting <a href="https://cdn.dal.ca/content/dam/dalhousie/pdf/sites/agri-food/Canada%27s%20Food%20Price%20Report%202023_Digital.pdf">all food product categories</a>, suggesting the problem is affecting the entire food supply chain rather than specific items or sub-sectors.</p>
<p>In response to this and other concerns, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food initiated studies on <a href="https://www.ourcommons.ca/Committees/en/AGRI/Work">Food Price Inflation and Global Food Insecurity</a>, which included two separate meetings with the heads of four of the five major Canadian grocery retailers.</p>
<p>A result of the meetings — and a cause for cautious optimism — is the decision to develop a <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/agriculture-agri-food/news/2023/01/joint-statement-on-the-development-of-canadas-first-ever-grocery-code-of-conduct.html">grocery code of conduct</a> to address issues in the food supply chain.</p>
<p>The code is meant to address long-standing issues in the industry, including <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/9590038/grocery-code-of-conduct-draft-canada">grocery retailers imposing large fee increases on suppliers without notice</a>.</p>
<h2>Standing committee meetings</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.ourcommons.ca/DocumentViewer/en/44-1/AGRI/meeting-52/notice">On March 8</a>, the presidents of Loblaw, Metro and Empire (Sobeys) were summoned to Ottawa to <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/grocery-hearings-inflation-1.6770378">testify before the House of Commons agriculture committee</a>. The president of Walmart Canada appeared before the committee <a href="https://www.ourcommons.ca/DocumentViewer/en/44-1/AGRI/meeting-55/notice">on March 23</a>. </p>
<p>In both meetings, the <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/grocery-ceos-deny-accusations-that-food-price-inflation-is-driven-by-profit-mongering-1.6303774">executives indicated that food price inflation</a> was due to problems with global supply chains in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic: commodity price increases, labour shortages, transportation bottlenecks, weather disasters and higher energy costs. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two middle-aged white men wearing glasses and navy suits talk to one another while seated from behind a desk." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528652/original/file-20230526-27-r22ygy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528652/original/file-20230526-27-r22ygy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528652/original/file-20230526-27-r22ygy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528652/original/file-20230526-27-r22ygy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528652/original/file-20230526-27-r22ygy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528652/original/file-20230526-27-r22ygy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528652/original/file-20230526-27-r22ygy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Michael Medline, President and CEO of Empire Company Limited, left, and Galen G. Weston, Chairman and President of Loblaw Companies Limited, wait to appear as witnesses at the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food investigating food price inflation in Ottawa on March 8, 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Spencer Colby</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>To what extent those meetings helped clarify the complex issues affecting grocery supply chains <a href="https://www.thestar.com/business/2023/03/08/top-grocers-testify-in-ottawa-today-canadians-will-finally-get-to-hear-from-the-ceos.html">appears to be still in debate</a>. But the decision to create a grocery code of conduct could make these meetings worth it in the long run. </p>
<p>The code of conduct is currently being drafted by grocers, suppliers and <a href="https://agriculture.canada.ca/en">Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada</a>, a government department focused on the country’s agriculture and agri-food sector.</p>
<h2>What the new code should include</h2>
<p>The grocery code of conduct <a href="https://www.thestar.com/business/2023/05/05/we-have-to-do-better-canadas-first-grocery-code-of-conduct-a-step-closer.html">is still in development</a>. The draft seems to prioritize <a href="https://financialpost.com/news/retail-marketing/canada-proposed-grocery-code-conduct-resolve-disputes-impose-sanctions">resolving disputes</a>, rather than making long-term structural changes to the way the supply chain operates. </p>
<p>But this could change in the future. According to members of the code’s steering committee, it will be possible to amend the code once it’s up for review in 18 months. </p>
<p>As an expert in supply chain management, I have recommendations for future editions of the code to strengthen relationships and performance across the industry. These changes would benefit not only the companies involved, but also Canadian consumers.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A meat counter in a grocery store" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528654/original/file-20230526-19-5fqomy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528654/original/file-20230526-19-5fqomy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528654/original/file-20230526-19-5fqomy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528654/original/file-20230526-19-5fqomy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528654/original/file-20230526-19-5fqomy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528654/original/file-20230526-19-5fqomy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528654/original/file-20230526-19-5fqomy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The grocery code of conduct is being drafted by grocers, suppliers and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>The ultimate target of the new code should be consumers, while also securing prosperity of the supply chain. To do this, the code should accomplish two things: promoting horizontal competition while also fostering vertical co-operation in the industry. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.monash.edu/business/marketing/marketing-dictionary/h/horizontal-competition">Horizontal competition</a> refers to rivalry between organizations operating at the same level to gain customers — like competing retailers, for example.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1520-6297(199605/06)12:3%3C277::AID-AGR7%3E3.0.CO;2-Y">Vertical co-operation</a> aims to strengthen relationships between companies operating at various stages of the supply chain. Its objective is to improve collaboration in areas including production, distribution, information sharing and pricing.</p>
<h2>Supply chain management practices</h2>
<p>Supply chain management practices could be used to foster both horizontal competition and vertical co-operation in the supply chain. </p>
<p>Extensive academic research has documented the successful implementation of these practices across industries <a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/13598540710742527">including, but not limited to, groceries</a>. </p>
<p>There is equally ample evidence highlighting the benefits of these management practices in areas such as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/09537280801916157">supply and logistics costs</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/01443570710720595">delivery reliability</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/SCM-05-2020-0194">sustainability</a>.</p>
<p>The research recommends introducing collaborative practices that go beyond the dispute-resolution measures outlined in the code draft. These practices include:</p>
<ol>
<li><p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPPM-03-2014-0039">Collaborative planning, forecasting and replenishment (CPFR)</a>. This program aims to improve coordination across the supply chain to reduce uncertainty, improve responsiveness, and minimize costs such as bloated inventories and expedited orders. CPFR is highly applicable to the grocery supply chain. In fact, it was initially developed by <a href="https://www.supermarketnews.com/archive/wal-mart-cpfr-pilot-charts-course-stock-growth">Walmart in 1996</a> and is currently used by <a href="https://www.doingbusinesswithlcbo.com/content/dbwl/en/basepage/home/new-supplier-agent/demo/CPFR.html">the LCBO</a> and other consumer goods companies in Canada. The code should encourage the adoption of specific CPFR practices, such as joint forecasting between buyers and suppliers.</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/1097-0053(200011/12)12:1%3C67::AID-JCAF11%3E3.0.CO;2-0">Target costing</a>. Under this approach, buyers and suppliers work together to reduce costs to guarantee a maximum selling price while protecting margins. As authors <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.ca/books/Lean-Thinking/James-P-Womack/9780743249270">James P. Womack and Daniel T. Jones have indicated</a>, this approach requires the “relentless scrutiny of every activity along the value stream.” For this approach to be effective, it must be collaborative and include the fair distribution of responsibility, authority and benefits among supply chain partners.</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2012.06.258">Information sharing</a>. Research indicates that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00207543.2019.1642530">knowledge exchange yields significant benefits</a> to both buyers and supply networks. The grocery code could facilitate the distribution and exploitation of knowledge, technologies and best practices across the supply chain. These processes would enable <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-007-9597-8">joint problem-solving</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/kpm.304">improve optimization</a> and the ability to cope with variations in supply and demand. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>Ultimately, competitive goals should apply to the entire supply chain, rather than to specific stages. It is well-known that squeezing suppliers can, in many instances, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/jbl.12265">quickly erode the supply base</a>. These policies can be severely detrimental not only to the whole industry — including buyers — but also to consumers.</p>
<p>What we need is a comprehensive code of conduct that ensures the long-term sustainability of the industry, while also protecting consumers in the event of future supply imbalances.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/206387/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Giovani J.C. da Silveira previously received funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).</span></em></p>We need a comprehensive code of conduct that ensures the long-term sustainability of the industry, while also protecting consumers in the event of future supply imbalances.Giovani J.C. da Silveira, Professor, Operations and Supply Chain Management, University of CalgaryLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1868842022-07-27T20:23:54Z2022-07-27T20:23:54ZPreventing obesity starts in the grocery aisle with food packaging<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476372/original/file-20220727-1257-kamjyk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=51%2C102%2C4651%2C3154&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">With so much competition, food marketers need to grab the attention of consumers so they buy their products, not another competitors. This is why product packaging is so important.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 2018, Statistics Canada reported that <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/82-625-x/2019001/article/00005-eng.htm">nearly one in three Canadians were obese</a>. Similar figures have been <a href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/australias-health/overweight-and-obesity">reported in Australia</a>, but more concerning is the United States, where over <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.html">forty percent of the population is obese</a>. </p>
<p>Obesity is not the only diet-related illness to be concerned about — <a href="https://www.diabetes.ca/advocacy---policies/advocacy-reports/national-and-provincial-backgrounders/diabetes-in-canada">diabetes is just as prevalent</a>. When it comes to such diseases, diet and physical activity help reduce the chance of being diagnosed. In fact, when it comes to Type 2 diabetes, diet and physical activity <a href="https://foodpolicyforcanada.info.yorku.ca/backgrounder/problems/poor-diet/">can prevent 50 per cent</a> of it.</p>
<p>Food packaging plays an important role in diet-related illnesses. We live in <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-the-food-industry-conspiring-to-make-you-fat-81537">a food environment that prioritizes marketing</a>, sometimes to the detriment of our health. </p>
<p>Consider the average supermarket, where there can be <a href="https://www.icsid.org/uncategorized/how-many-products-are-in-a-typical-grocery-store/">upwards of 60,000 different products in a store</a>. With so much competition, food marketers need to grab the attention of consumers so they buy their products, not a competitor’s. This is why product packaging is so important. </p>
<p>Food marketing uses a variety of tactics, like using <a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/17473611011026037">bright, bold colours and eye-popping visuals</a>, to try and persuade consumers to buy certain products. They also change the size of food images shown on products — the size of the chip on Dorito’s packaging or the size of the bread on a jar of peanut butter, for example. </p>
<h2>Bigger is better</h2>
<p>Our <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/mar.21644">recent research</a> looked at how something seemingly innocuous, like the size of food images on product packaging, can impact how likely it is that someone buys a product. While the size of this image might appear to be harmless, our research found that it can increase the food’s appeal to consumers: the larger the image, the better tasting consumers believe the food will be, which increases the chance of them purchasing the product.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A row of Pringles cans on the shelf of a grocery store" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475937/original/file-20220725-13-9f3r2h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475937/original/file-20220725-13-9f3r2h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475937/original/file-20220725-13-9f3r2h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475937/original/file-20220725-13-9f3r2h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475937/original/file-20220725-13-9f3r2h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475937/original/file-20220725-13-9f3r2h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475937/original/file-20220725-13-9f3r2h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The colour and size of food packaging can make a produce more or less appealing to consumers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The reason for this is a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2021.102517">concept called mental imagery</a>, which suggests that the way people visualize a product in their minds can make them think a product is better, higher quality or, in our case, tastier. </p>
<p>This has implications when it comes to food choice. When thinking about what foods are most appealing, junk foods, such as chips, popcorn and candy, come to mind. These kinds of products often have large, exaggerated images of food on their packaging. Since the size of the food image on these products are bigger, it makes consumers psychologically salivate more, persuading them into buying and eating these unhealthier foods.</p>
<h2>Colour matters</h2>
<p>Ours isn’t the only research that has been done on health habits and food product packaging. Similar research has also found that <a href="https://aic-color.org/resources/Documents/jaic_v24_02.pdf">the colour of food packaging</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretai.2019.11.001">the location of food images on a product</a> also impacts whether or not consumers are more likely to buy a product. </p>
<p>When it comes to colours, red significantly increases a food’s perceived taste, while green increases the food’s perceived healthiness. Food images that are located higher on the package suggest that the food is “light” and therefore “healthy,” making it more likely for a consumer to purchase the product.</p>
<p>Previous studies have also found that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.publhealth.031308.100304">junk food brand names are easily remembered by children</a>, and parents often listen to their children when making food choices. Also, the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/mar.21601">use of traffic light signals on food labels</a> promotes healthier food choices by allowing people to identify the nutritional content directly on the food package. </p>
<p>Knowing and understanding how appearance impacts food desirability is crucial for marketers and has resulted in a special visual language among consumers and products. This allows, for example, people with diabetes and hypertension to quickly locate foods that are appropriate for their needs in a grocery store. However, it also makes some consumers vulnerable to marketing ploys when they aren’t aware of how advertisers are manipulating them.</p>
<h2>Healthy shopping strategies</h2>
<p>There are some strategies consumers can use when shopping to help maintain healthy habits. Instead of focusing on the images of food on packaging, we recommend that consumers focus more on the nutritional needs and requirements. </p>
<p>Consumers should read the entire nutritional label front and back to try to make the best informed decision possible and try not to be swayed by what the image on a package looks like.</p>
<p>Don’t let the size of the food image tempt you: some Pringles or gummy bears is fine as a little indulgence, but if you’re tempted by these food products every time you step into your local grocery, it can have serious consequences for your heath. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Woman reading the nutritional label of a grocery store product" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475938/original/file-20220725-10610-264lbz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475938/original/file-20220725-10610-264lbz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475938/original/file-20220725-10610-264lbz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475938/original/file-20220725-10610-264lbz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475938/original/file-20220725-10610-264lbz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475938/original/file-20220725-10610-264lbz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475938/original/file-20220725-10610-264lbz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">When shopping for healthy foods, read nutritional labels front and back to try to make the best informed decision you can.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Food product packaging doesn’t just have implications for consumers, but for policymakers as well. Most governments, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1139/apnm-2012-0386">including Canada’s</a>, focus on nutrition labels and how food marketers advertise to consumers of all ages, such as rules <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/headlines/mcmaster-child-obesity-research-1.3665038">limiting junk food ads during Saturday morning cartoons</a>. But regulation should start even more fundamentally with the packaging itself. </p>
<p>While it might seem extreme to regulate the size of a scoop of ice cream on a box of Chapman’s, food image size is especially relevant when it comes to junk food. If we want to reduce the prevalence of diet-related health issues, like obesity and diabetes, regulating the size of images, which is what we see first and foremost in the grocery aisle, on food products might just be what’s needed.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/186884/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The size of food images on product packaging plays a key role in exacerbating diet-related illnesses and obesity.Eugene Y. Chan, Associate Professor of Marketing, Toronto Metropolitan UniversityLiangyan Wang, Professor, Antai College of Economics and Management, Shanghai Jiao Tong UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1842232022-06-13T20:36:17Z2022-06-13T20:36:17ZFood giants reap enormous profits during times of crisis<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467817/original/file-20220608-21-88xxkp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3986%2C2217&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Food and agribusiness billionaires reportedly raised their collective wealth by 42 per cent in the last two years.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A recent report by Oxfam International has found that <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2022/may/23/food-and-energy-billionaires-453bn-richer-oxfam-davos-wealth-tax-soaring-prices">62 new “food billionaires” were created</a> during the pandemic. The report, released ahead of this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, <a href="https://www.oxfam.org/en/research/profiting-pain">highlights the record profits made by industry titans</a>.</p>
<p>Food and agribusiness billionaires reportedly raised their collective wealth by 42 per cent in the past two years, all while global food prices soared by 33.6 per cent in 2021, and are expected to rise by another 23 per cent in 2022. </p>
<p>Cargill, the food company giant, is <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2022/apr/17/soaring-food-prices-push-more-cargill-family-members-on-to-world-richest-500-list">expected to report record profits this year</a>, surpassing even last year’s record-breaking US$5 billion. Indeed, three members of the Cargill family joined the <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/billionaires/">Bloomberg Billionaires list</a> in mid-April.</p>
<p>Canadian food corporations are also posting strong growth. Loblaws <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/business/canadian-shoppers-shift-to-discount-stores-no-name-brand-amid-high-inflation-loblaw-1.5887911">reported that its first-quarter earnings</a> rose almost 40 per cent compared to last year.</p>
<h2>Sky-rocketing food inflation</h2>
<p>While inflation is caused by several factors, one of the more pernicious can be traced back to the extreme levels of corporate concentration along the food supply chain. </p>
<p>The pandemic initially <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/08/opinion/coronavirus-global-food-supply.html">exposed cracks</a> in our supposedly efficient industrialized food system through <a href="https://www.fao.org/datalab/website/web/covid19">supply chain breakdowns</a>, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/nearly-90-big-us-meat-plants-had-covid-19-cases-pandemics-first-year-data-2022-01-14/">worker shortages</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-020-00211-7">trade restrictions</a>. Now, we can add high food prices and growing inequality to the list.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Fresh vegetables on a rack in a grocery store aisle" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468086/original/file-20220609-8276-2wzhz7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468086/original/file-20220609-8276-2wzhz7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468086/original/file-20220609-8276-2wzhz7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468086/original/file-20220609-8276-2wzhz7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468086/original/file-20220609-8276-2wzhz7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468086/original/file-20220609-8276-2wzhz7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468086/original/file-20220609-8276-2wzhz7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Food prices in Canada continue to rise in the face of labour shortages, the rising cost of goods and supply chain disruptions.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Food price inflation has grown much faster than general inflation for decades. Canada’s <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/220316/dq220316a-eng.htm">general inflation rate is at its highest since 1991</a>, and the food inflation rate in the country <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-delicate-balance-between-grocery-store-profit-and-food-security-180013">has reached 7.4 per cent</a>.</p>
<p>According to this year’s <a href="https://cdn.dal.ca/content/dam/dalhousie/pdf/sites/agri-food/Food%20Price%20Report%20-%20EN%202022.pdf">Canada Food Price report</a>, the average grocery bill increased by a whopping 70 per cent between 2000 and 2020, and median incomes have not kept pace. </p>
<p>In the midst of this, companies have experienced record profits. This indicates that they have the market power to insulate themselves from these shocks by <a href="https://www.openmarketsinstitute.org/publications/time-magazine-us-food-prices-are-up-are-the-food-corporations-to-blame-for-taking-advantage">passing the risk along to the consumer</a>.</p>
<h2>Concentrated food supply</h2>
<p>Canada is <a href="https://foodpolicyforcanada.info.yorku.ca/backgrounder/problems/corporate-concentration/">home to one of the most concentrated food systems in the world</a>: Cargill and JBS Foods slaughter 95 per cent of Canadian cattle, while Weston Bakeries and Canada Bread account for 80 per cent of the bread market. Loblaws, Sobeys, Metro, Walmart and Costco all hold roughly 80 per cent of grocery market sales.</p>
<p>Consumers are not the only ones suffering the consequences. Retailers have continued to raise food prices, while <a href="https://www.nfu.ca/grocery-prices-are-rising-and-farmers-share-declining-as-corporate-processors-and-retailers-take-more-and-more">farmer profits have remained stagnant or declined</a> for decades.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Cargill logo visible on the outside of a factory building" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467816/original/file-20220608-24-rj41b0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467816/original/file-20220608-24-rj41b0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467816/original/file-20220608-24-rj41b0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467816/original/file-20220608-24-rj41b0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467816/original/file-20220608-24-rj41b0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467816/original/file-20220608-24-rj41b0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467816/original/file-20220608-24-rj41b0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cargill foods is one of two companies responsible for the slaughter of 95 per cent of Canadian cattle.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mike Mareen / Shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Corporate concentration is intimately linked to the industrialization of food systems. <a href="https://www.foodsystemprimer.org/food-production/industrialization-of-agriculture/">Agricultural industrialization favours mechanization and specialization</a>, both aimed at increasing efficiency. </p>
<p>Economies of scale — gains that are realized as a result of increased scale — and government policies aimed at increasing production have resulted in a <a href="https://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/pub-details/?pubid=43824">drastic decline in the number of farms</a> in Canada and the U.S. between the mid-20th century and today. </p>
<p>This shift has led to a concentration in business competition and along supply chains, facilitated by lax government oversight. Companies were also motivated to merge with and acquire others as a strategy to deliver shareholder value.</p>
<h2>‘Greedflation’</h2>
<p>While many recognize the negative results of our industrialized food systems – high greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity loss and the promotion of highly processed foods, to name a few – they are <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/industrial-agriculture">often positioned as providing plentiful, affordable food</a> for growing populations.</p>
<p>However, the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2021/jul/14/food-monopoly-meals-profits-data-investigation">recent flurry</a> <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-its-not-just-inflation-food-prices-are-rising-because-too-few-players/">of articles</a> showing that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001242">Big Food</a> might be contributing to food price hikes questions the validity of this claim.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/03/business/economy/price-gouging-inflation.html">recent <em>New York Times</em> article</a> on “greedflation” explores the connection between corporate concentration more generally and higher prices. Greedflation occurs when large corporations jack up their prices during times of extreme strife — like during a worldwide pandemic.</p>
<p>The article notes that, although corporate concentration has existed for decades without corresponding inflation, the unique set of circumstances borne out of the pandemic has changed things.</p>
<p>Supply shortages, combined with increased worker bargaining power, have driven corporations to switch from squeezing suppliers to squeezing consumers. Both approaches demonstrate the perils of concentrated corporate power. </p>
<h2>More diverse food production</h2>
<p>Higher food prices, partly as a result of corporate concentration, have furthered the case for supporting more diverse, local food production, processing and markets. With any luck, this mounting evidence will translate to investments in alternative food systems. </p>
<p>During the pandemic, these <a href="https://croataninstitute.org/2020/08/01/regenerative-agriculture-and-covid-19-capital-needs/">alternative food systems demonstrated their ability</a> to adapt to crisis in a way that the longer, more distant and concentrated supply chains of industrialized markets could not. </p>
<p>Community-supported agriculture programs, food hubs and online direct distribution platforms between farmers and consumers <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/3/1325">remained nimble during unpredictable times</a>. </p>
<p>If market concentration facilitates the ability for companies to raise prices for their benefit, it logically follows that smaller-scale, decentralized markets are simply not structured to not enable such tactics. In other words, these smaller markets won’t be able to profit off of crisis the way the industrialized markets have been.</p>
<p>To prevent large corporations from exploiting crises like the pandemic, Ukraine war and climate change for their own benefit, we need our governments to invest in smaller-scale alternatives.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/184223/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Phoebe Stephens receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and is a former employee of Oxfam International. </span></em></p>High food prices are exposing yet another risk of our hyper-concentrated global food system and strengthening the case for more diversified and decentralized alternatives.Phoebe Stephens, Postdoctoral Fellow, Global Development Studies, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1624862021-07-18T12:28:09Z2021-07-18T12:28:09ZWhat Canada can learn from Sweden about creating middle-class retail jobs<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410924/original/file-20210713-27-1q9sri0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C206%2C3212%2C1759&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Canadian grocery-store workers earn low wages compared to their counterparts in Sweden. Why?
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jacques Boissinot </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Grocery-store cashiers and other frontline retail workers have helped get us through the pandemic, but do we value them? Why are retail jobs middle-class in Sweden, but low-wage work in Canada?</p>
<p>These were some of the questions I tried to answer over several years of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/bjir.12596">published research</a> on grocery-store workers in different countries.</p>
<p>My research has shown that in the late 1970s, Canadian grocery-store jobs were middle-class union jobs. Full-time hours were common, and Canada’s grocery store-workers were well paid by global standards for the industry.</p>
<p>Major grocery chains held oligopolies in their respective provinces and had considerable discretion in setting prices, focused more on quality, and could use these aspects of their business strategy to justify high wages in the industry.</p>
<p>The opening of discount chains like Super Carnaval in Québec in 1982 and megastores like the Real Canadian Superstore in 1979 forced traditional grocers to rethink their human resources strategies. In addition to making profit margins narrow, many of these new discounters — like Walmart <a href="https://www.walmartcanada.ca/about-us/history">which entered Canada in 1994</a> — were non-union.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man walks to The Real Canadian Superstore in Coquitlam, B.C." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410926/original/file-20210713-21-1pfmuvm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410926/original/file-20210713-21-1pfmuvm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410926/original/file-20210713-21-1pfmuvm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410926/original/file-20210713-21-1pfmuvm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410926/original/file-20210713-21-1pfmuvm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=560&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410926/original/file-20210713-21-1pfmuvm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=560&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410926/original/file-20210713-21-1pfmuvm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=560&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A man walks to The Real Canadian Superstore in Coquitlam, B.C. in 2005.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(CP PHOTO/Chuck Stoody)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Wages were reduced</h2>
<p>The chains demanded that the unions work with them to lower labour costs and prevent them from losing money. Fearing what would happen to their members’ jobs if the chains went bankrupt (and some did), most of the unions worked with major grocers to cut wages and erode other key conditions set in collective agreements.</p>
<p>The result was a drastic reduction in the real wages of unionized workers from 1980 to 2016. Today, <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2021/06/16/pay-premiums-for-grocery-store-workers-have-ended-did-their-essential-status-change-labour-rights-advocates-say-no.html">unionized retailers start at the minimum wage, or just above it</a>. </p>
<p>In Sweden, the wages of grocery-store workers in 1980 were good, but workers in some Canadian chains were better off. Like Canada, the Swedish grocery market was dominated by an oligopoly of players (until the early 2000s, when discounters like Netto and Lidl entered the market).</p>
<p>But unlike in Canada, working conditions did not erode with the rise of discount retailers in Sweden. In key areas, they improved.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/bjir.12484">Swedish wages grew by over 50 per cent</a>. Today, <a href="https://handels.se/pa-jobbet/lagstaloner/butiksanstalld/privata-och-kooperativa-butiker/">the starting salary in Sweden is just over CA$20 an hour</a>. But most workers earn more than this. The collective agreement ensures that they earn more than $31 an hour on evenings, and over $40 an hour on weekends. They also receive pay in addition to what’s stipulated in the collective agreement.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="People shop on a sunny Stockholm street." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410928/original/file-20210713-19-1yj7bcl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410928/original/file-20210713-19-1yj7bcl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410928/original/file-20210713-19-1yj7bcl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410928/original/file-20210713-19-1yj7bcl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410928/original/file-20210713-19-1yj7bcl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410928/original/file-20210713-19-1yj7bcl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410928/original/file-20210713-19-1yj7bcl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People shop in Stockholm, Sweden.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Tomas Williams/Unsplash</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>What’s more, Swedish workers have substantial scheduling protections, including one month’s notice for schedules, strong rights to limit work performed on weekends and the right to be consulted on working hours. <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.13140/2.1.3612.5767">Swedish retail workers are also remarkably satisfied with their work</a>. </p>
<p>In Canada, the most employees get is usually the right to a few days’ notice on their scheduled hours.</p>
<h2>Sectoral bargaining is key</h2>
<p>So why do Swedish retail workers have remarkably superior working conditions? In a nutshell, their labour laws strongly support what’s called <a href="https://www.americanprogressaction.org/issues/economy/news/2020/03/02/176857/what-is-sectoral-bargaining/">sectoral bargaining.</a></p>
<p>Sectoral bargaining ensures every worker who works for a major retail chain in Sweden is covered by what’s called a sectoral bargaining agreement. This is a common agreement that stipulates working conditions for retail employees, and it applies across the entire sector.</p>
<p>Sectoral bargaining takes wages and other working conditions out of competition. In Canada, retail unions are always nervous that asking for high wages and significant improvements to other working conditions will hurt the profitability of their stores, which could lead to job loss. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/labors-rank-and-file-still-believe-in-collective-bargainings-power-to-bolster-middle-class-49160">Labor's rank and file still believe in collective bargaining's power to bolster middle class</a>
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<p>Since working conditions differ across stores, even across unionized outlets, unions are forced to accept wage concessions to help their employers compete for low prices.</p>
<p>In Sweden, the opposite is true. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/bjir.12484">Their retailers are not competing with each other by lowering labour costs</a>. Grocers want all their competitors to offer the same working conditions. That’s because sectoral bargaining prevents a non-union market entrant from gaining an unfair price advantage by operating with lower labour costs.</p>
<h2>All-encompassing agreements</h2>
<p>Employers want the union to organize workers and ensure that collective agreements are all-encompassing. <a href="https://portal.research.lu.se/portal/files/94935911/Unions_in_social_dialogue_Kjellberg_Workplace_Innovation.pdf">Approximately 70 per cent of the Swedish workforce is unionized</a>, more than double that of Canada.</p>
<p>Why is sectoral bargaining uncommon in Canada, and absent in retail? Basically, our labour laws don’t support it.</p>
<p>Swedish unions work in solidarity to force firms to sign collective agreements. For example, when <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2015/03/18/sweden-retail-unions_n_6888328.html">Toys “R” Us refused to sign a collective agreement in the mid-1990s</a>, unionized workers in other industries blocked the company from operating in Sweden. </p>
<p>Transit unions instructed their workers to stop delivering goods to the company. Bank unions told their workers to stop processing financial transactions for the company.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Shoppers in a Toys 'R' Us." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411104/original/file-20210713-25-6gcyxb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411104/original/file-20210713-25-6gcyxb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411104/original/file-20210713-25-6gcyxb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411104/original/file-20210713-25-6gcyxb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411104/original/file-20210713-25-6gcyxb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411104/original/file-20210713-25-6gcyxb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411104/original/file-20210713-25-6gcyxb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Toys ‘R’ Us faced an unfriendly reception when it entered the Swedish market.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Alan Diaz</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the end, the company had no choice but to sign the collective agreement. In fact, they turned these stores into a franchise operated by Scandinavians, since the American managers discovered that they did not understand how to operate in countries like Sweden.</p>
<p>Conflicts like this have set the stage for retailers wishing to operate in the country. For example, Lidl, a German discount food retailer known for its anti-union stance throughout Europe, signed the collective agreement when entering the Swedish market in 2002. </p>
<p><a href="https://handelsnytt.se/2021/02/22/vi-later-inte-amazon-komma-undan-utan-schyssta-villkor/">Amazon has entered the Swedish market but has yet to open its own warehouses in the country</a>. If it does, there’s little doubt the union will be successful in getting the company to sign a collective agreement. </p>
<h2>Patchwork unionization</h2>
<p>In Canada, the law encourages collective bargaining by store or chain. Sympathy actions aren’t part of the system. Among stores that are unionized, it’s not always by the same union.</p>
<p>The result is a fragmented system where working conditions diverge considerably. When unionized stores are operating under different collective agreements, their unions face immense pressure to compete with each other to lower labour costs and hence maintain poor working conditions. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A customer and a little girl look at the seafood counter at a Metro store in Ste-Therese, Que" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410933/original/file-20210713-13-1ng7rz9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410933/original/file-20210713-13-1ng7rz9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410933/original/file-20210713-13-1ng7rz9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410933/original/file-20210713-13-1ng7rz9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410933/original/file-20210713-13-1ng7rz9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=551&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410933/original/file-20210713-13-1ng7rz9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=551&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410933/original/file-20210713-13-1ng7rz9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=551&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A customer looks at the seafood counter at a Metro store in Ste-Therese, Que.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz</span></span>
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<p>The existence of non-union operators like Walmart and Dollarama makes matters even worse. Many union officials argue that preserving modest privileges through collective bargaining is better than letting non-union chains dominate the industry, which would be considerably worse for workers. </p>
<p>Without providing Canada’s unions with legal supports to effectively extend workplace standards across all major chains, including Walmart and Dollarama, these workers will never win the conditions they deserve. </p>
<p>There are many benefits to supporting unionization in the grocery industry, including a wage scale, employee benefits and access to a voice for employees.</p>
<p>But if Canada wants to expand its middle class by substantially improving working conditions in sectors like retail, it must fundamentally reform its labour laws.</p>
<p>Sectoral bargaining is probably our best bet. In fact, <a href="https://cepr.net/documents/publications/low-wage-2012-01.pdf">we have long known that low-wage work is much rarer in countries where sectoral bargaining is encouraged and widespread</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://digitalcommons.osgoode.yorku.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1331&context=all_papers">We’ve had opportunities for such a reform in the past</a>. We need to create new opportunities and show our front-line workers that we truly value them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/162486/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sean O'Brady receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), and has received funding from the Fonds de recherche du Québec en Société et culture (FRQSC).</span></em></p>If Canada wants to expand its middle class by substantially improving working conditions in sectors like retail, it must fundamentally reform its labour laws to be similar to Sweden’s.Sean O'Brady, Assistant Professor, Labour Relations, McMaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1372292020-05-11T19:48:24Z2020-05-11T19:48:24ZWhat Canada knows about food crises can help prevent shortages and protect workers during coronavirus<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/331852/original/file-20200430-42942-fqt5n7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=112%2C479%2C3779%2C2482&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Food is a measure of how countries respond to crises from access to pricing to shortages.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(nrd/Unsplash)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>As news of the pandemic began circulating, Canadians hurried to grocery stores, laying in supplies for the upcoming crisis. By mid-March, experts had begun warning <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/6688655/coroanvirus-canadians-food-shortages/">against hoarding</a>. There is plenty of food in our supply chain, they said; do not “panic buy” lest we create shortages — and very real hardships — for vulnerable members of our communities. </p>
<p>As an historian of Canadian food, I am alarmed to see how pressures for productivity <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/6856544/bc-coronavirus-outbreak-poultry-plant/">have endangered</a> — and in some cases <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/cargill-alberta-covid-19-deena-hinshaw-1.5537377">tragically taken</a> — the lives of food workers. These tragedies are preventable and untenable. And there is historical precedent for strong government intervention in our food marketplace.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/332557/original/file-20200504-83745-1ivecse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/332557/original/file-20200504-83745-1ivecse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332557/original/file-20200504-83745-1ivecse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332557/original/file-20200504-83745-1ivecse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332557/original/file-20200504-83745-1ivecse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332557/original/file-20200504-83745-1ivecse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332557/original/file-20200504-83745-1ivecse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Food stability and security are influenced by histories of colonialism and a history of governments exerting control over foodways.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
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</figure>
<h2>They brought their foods</h2>
<p>The greatest crisis affecting Canadian food history started about 400 years ago: the <a href="https://doi.org/10.7202/019373ar">colonization of Indigenous food</a>. Since time immemorial, Indigenous peoples have <a href="https://www.fnha.ca/Documents/Traditional_Food_Fact_Sheets.pdf">practised sustainable food production, distribution and consumption</a>. </p>
<p>When Europeans arrived, however, they brought their foods with them. By Confederation, <a href="https://utorontopress.com/ca/edible-histories-cultural-politics-4">English</a> and <a href="https://www.septentrion.qc.ca/catalogue/a-table-en-nouvelle-france">French</a> Canadians were transposing their preferences for beef, pork, sugar and wheat upon the northern American landscape. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/canadas-unequal-health-system-may-make-remote-indigenous-communities-more-vulnerable-to-the-coronavirus-134963">Canada's unequal health system may make remote Indigenous communities more vulnerable to the coronavirus</a>
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<p>As settlement increased, a battery of measures meant that Indigenous peoples faced <a href="https://doi.org/10.7202/1033506ar">increased barriers</a> to their own food. <a href="https://doi.org/10.7202/1033506ar">Reserves</a>, the <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/pass-system-in-canada">pass system</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1139/B07-020">residential schools</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03404373">forced resettlement</a>, <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/ca/academic/subjects/history/american-history-general-interest/pemmican-empire-food-trade-and-last-bison-hunts-north-american-plains-17801882?format=HB&isbn=9781107044906">species extinction</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-013-9591-y">habitat loss</a> have been especially harmful. </p>
<p>On the plains, for example, the extinction of wild bison in the 1870s dealt a severe blow to individual and <a href="https://utorontopress.com/ca/medicine-that-walks-3">community health</a>. Simultaneously, Prime Minister John A. MacDonald’s determination to push a railway through to the Pacific Ocean, together with his plan to fill the plains with European wheat farmers, spurred his government to enforce settlement on reserves, including through <a href="https://uofrpress.ca/Books/C/Clearing-the-Plains2">forcible removals</a>. Such actions were heinous. They also barred access to traditional animal and plant food.</p>
<p>Well into the 20th century, the food available to Indigenous peoples through rations and residential schools was carbohydrate-heavy and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/01459740.2013.828722">devoid of most nutrients</a>. It was often also rancid. To this day, Indigenous people are three times more likely than non-Indigenous people to face <a href="https://anishinabeknews.ca/2020/01/09/new-study-finds-first-nations-in-canada-face-serious-problems-with-food-supply/">food insecurity</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/334160/original/file-20200511-49584-omqfw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/334160/original/file-20200511-49584-omqfw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334160/original/file-20200511-49584-omqfw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334160/original/file-20200511-49584-omqfw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334160/original/file-20200511-49584-omqfw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334160/original/file-20200511-49584-omqfw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334160/original/file-20200511-49584-omqfw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Indigenous food remains a sustainable and viable way fo producing food as documented by authors Dolly and Annie Watts of the Liliget Feast House.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.annielwatts.com/wpf.htm">Annie Watts/Arsenal Pulp Press</a></span>
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<h2>State control of Canadian food</h2>
<p>The effects of colonization show how state oppression has created and maintained food insecurity. It is, in fact, instructive to compare the difference between how the Canadian state has treated Indigenous people’s access to food, on the one hand, and British and Euro-Canadians’ access, on the other. </p>
<p>During the First and Second World Wars, the Canadian government moved to protect the food supply. During the First World War, Britain called upon its empire to increase shipments of beef, pork, butter, sugar and flour to the mother country. </p>
<p>In response, (and as <a href="https://utorontopress.com/ca/purchasing-power-2">I demonstrate in my recent book</a>) — Canada stepped up production of these goods. It also introduced 28 orders-in-council that regulated meat, dairy, sugar and wheat consumption. At no time did Canada introduce rationing during this war; instead it urged compliance through propaganda, fines and jail sentences. </p>
<p>Things were different the next war. Having witnessed skyrocketing inflation between 1917 and 1921, the federal government created <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/wartime-prices-and-trade-board">the Wartime Prices and Trade Board (WPTB)</a> in 1939. </p>
<p>Designed to curb inflation, reduce shortages and secure supplies for overseas, the WPTB was an unprecedented intervention. In 1941, the WPTB introduced “<a href="https://www.ubcpress.ca/food-will-win-the-war">comprehensive price, rent, and wage controls</a>.” The next year, it introduced rationing. To purchase meat, sugar, butter, preserves, tea and coffee, Canadians had to use ration coupons. </p>
<p>The last restrictions weren’t lifted until 1947. Even then, <a href="https://doi.org/10.3138/CHR.83.4.483">shoppers protested</a>. As soon as restrictions were removed, <a href="https://utorontopress.com/us/radical-housewives-2">prices rose</a>. </p>
<h2>What we can learn from the past</h2>
<p>Today’s problems differ from those of other times. Especially pressing are dangers affecting <a href="https://lfpress.com/news/local-news/covid-19-southwestern-ontario-outbreak-puts-migrant-farm-workers-in-spotlight/">agricultural</a>, <a href="https://thetyee.ca/News/2020/04/24/Alberta-Meat-Packers-COVID-Outbreak/">butchery</a> <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/essential-workers-talk-about-how-covid-19-affects-them-1.4883241">and grocery</a> workers. There are also important difficulties that food distributors encounter when retooling wholesale products <a href="https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/saputo-inc-sees-demand-shift-from-food-service-to-retail-amid-covid-19-pandemic-1.4869609">for retail</a>.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, other problems are familiar. Now more than ever, it is important to address how disruptions affect food insecurity. Some First Nations are already taking action against <a href="https://thenarwhal.ca/adapting-to-coronavirus-how-b-c-first-nations-balance-food-security-and-conservation/">possible shortages</a>. Intermittent shortages in the retail sector — caused by supply disruption, increased consumer demand and decreased wholesale demand — also affect shoppers who cannot buy in bulk. Empty grocery shelves further affect those who shop infrequently in efforts to socially distance.</p>
<p>As Canadians experienced during the First World War, shortages often precipitate <a href="https://utorontopress.com/ca/purchasing-power-2">price hikes</a>. Already, Atlantic grocery distributors are <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/atlantic-grocery-distributors-prices-rise-1.5534470">reporting changes to prices</a>. In the North, further inflation would be unconscionable, given that northerners already struggle with <a href="https://theconversation.com/canadas-unequal-health-system-may-make-remote-indigenous-communities-more-vulnerable-to-the-coronavirus-134963">outrageous prices</a>. </p>
<p>In the past, much finger-pointing accompanied price markups, with some arguing that profiteers deliberately raised prices and others suggesting that inflation was the inevitable <a href="https://www.ubcpress.ca/buying-happiness">result of disequilibrium</a>. </p>
<p>Whatever the causes of food instability, however, there are demonstrable viable solutions, in both the past and present. To this day, Indigenous food systems <a href="https://foodsecurecanada.org/resources-news/newsletters/1-indigenous-food-sovereignty">are equitable</a> and <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/indigenous-food-1.4294388">sustainable</a>. </p>
<p>During the Second World War, William Lyon Mackenzie King’s Liberal government’s interventions protected both producers and consumers. Its main instrument, the WPTB, also — and completely unintentionally — improved many <a href="https://wartimecanada.ca/essay/eating/food-home-front-during-second-world-war">people’s diets</a>. Restrictions kept prices affordable while rationing ensured greater availability. </p>
<p>It is time now to revisit how Canadians produce and distribute food. The twin spectres of food insecurity and fatal illness demand such consideration.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/137229/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Donica Belisle receives funding from SSHRC. </span></em></p>Food is essential to survival. It is also essential to identity. During times of national crisis like the coronavirus pandemic and in the historical landscape, food issues become prominent.Donica Belisle, Associate Professor of History, University of ReginaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1151892019-04-11T21:26:35Z2019-04-11T21:26:35ZHey Siri! Why are food retailers so slow to embrace technology?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268428/original/file-20190409-2909-pb1g5k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Voice-enabled searches are becoming increasingly popular when it comes to web browsing, and that's a problem for the food industry.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Your own voice will likely become the most significant focus for food retailers and restaurants over the next little while. Voice searches are increasingly becoming the norm. A recent study suggests that more than <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelfertik/2018/07/13/mind-your-data-and-voice-activated-search-could-bolster-your-brand/#68e685a87bd2">50 per cent of all online searches will be voice-activated by 2020.</a> </p>
<p>To a lesser extent, grocery shopping is also done through voice activation. Since Siri, Cortana, Alexa and Google Assistant have entered our world, voice searching has become a game-changer for the food industry.</p>
<p>The main reason is convenience. Short of having our own personal robot, this is the new frontier of affordable personalized assistance. These virtual assistants will offer us advice as well as perform tasks for consumers. They are, of course, the “voices” of Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and Google. These companies have been connecting with us for years through many devices, including phones, tablets and even video game consoles.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/hsp/jbs/2018/00000007/00000001/art00003">Consumers now use voice search</a> as they conduct other activities, like driving. Search results generally result in purchases, so for businesses, coming up as a top result of a voice search can be highly profitable. </p>
<p>The same rule applies <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-11395-7_20">for the food industry</a>. Voice search assistance will zero in on our awareness of brands, our perceptions, biases and many other things we are subconsciously influenced by. And so the food industry needs to start marketing through apps and websites that are easily readable by virtual assistants.</p>
<h2>Cutting through the marketing noise</h2>
<p>Voice recognition is really about data and algorithms. It is about connecting with the market in a way few grocers or restaurants have done. After all, we’re still receiving grocery flyers every week to sell us food in our mailboxes or newspapers — that is if you still subscribe to one.</p>
<p>Voice assistance allows all of us to cut through all the marketing noise and find what we really want. </p>
<p>The average Canadian consumer is exposed to more than 5,000 advertisements per day, many of them food-related. Food service and retail options are <a href="https://stopad.io/blog/ads-seen-daily">often overlooked by consumers for a variety of biased reasons and perceived flaws</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268584/original/file-20190410-2909-1e3otbo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268584/original/file-20190410-2909-1e3otbo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268584/original/file-20190410-2909-1e3otbo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268584/original/file-20190410-2909-1e3otbo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268584/original/file-20190410-2909-1e3otbo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268584/original/file-20190410-2909-1e3otbo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268584/original/file-20190410-2909-1e3otbo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268584/original/file-20190410-2909-1e3otbo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Canadians are inundated with food advertising every day.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Thomas Tucker/Unsplash</span></span>
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<p>Algorithms and data will cut straight through preconceived notions about food choices and will open a world of possibilities for many companies. A recent survey shows that <a href="https://www.fastcasual.com/blogs/how-restaurants-can-attract-diners-by-preparing-for-voice-search-the-intelligent-future/">68 per cent of consumers search by a cuisine or food item</a> rather than by restaurant or franchise name. In other words, voice searches foster and enable curiosity.</p>
<p>What is making most players in the food industry lose sleep is the fact that Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Apple are tech-savvy and data-centric organizations, more so than companies in the agri-food sector. </p>
<p>Voice assistance is purely an extension of what these tech giants have been offering for years, just without the typing. In fact, research suggests that many consumers would rather talk than type. According to a U.S.-based survey, <a href="https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/gartner-predicts-a-virtual-world-of-exponential-change/">30 per cent of web browsing sessions will be done without a screen by the year 2020</a>. This trend can only add to the pressure on grocers and restaurants to comply with a changing marketplace.</p>
<p>Google has been <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/02/google-launches-assistant-investments-program.html">investing heavily</a> in voice-activated searches since 2016. Amazon, Microsoft and Apple are too.</p>
<h2>Forget the flyers</h2>
<p>This is a field the food industry will need to embrace quickly. </p>
<p>With the rise of voice-enabled assistance, people don’t need to view a screen to get an answer, as all the data is captured from websites and web-based data. Mobile-friendly, responsive websites are going to be key. </p>
<p>Since consumers rely on voice assistance and smartphones for most of their voice searches, a fully functional website for a food retailer will be more critical than most of the marketing dollars being spent on antiquated flyers, posters and ads. Instead of thumbing through flyers, <a href="https://www.tdcommons.org/dpubs_series/577/">many of us could potentially browse through weekly bargains</a> with the help of voice-activated searches. </p>
<p>It’s so much more civilized. And even small, local businesses can generate more business if adapting these strategies.</p>
<p>In the end, these changes are all about data, and how we manage and exchange data. Embracing this new reality for the food industry won’t be easy, but the cost of doing nothing will be significant.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/115189/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sylvain Charlebois does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>According to a recent report, 30 per cent of web-browsing sessions will soon be done without a screen. Voice-enabled searches are becoming the norm, and that’s a problem for the food industry.Sylvain Charlebois, Director, Agri-Food Analytics Lab, Professor in Food Distribution and Policy, Dalhousie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1045082018-10-17T22:55:57Z2018-10-17T22:55:57ZGrocers: Get ready to join the blockchain party<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/240689/original/file-20181015-165905-pbcwzh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Five people died and more than 200 got sick during a 2018 E. coli outbreak, the largest in more than a decade. The bacteria was traced to contaminated romaine lettuce.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the wake of this year’s large E. coli outbreak, Walmart notified its leafy green suppliers that <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/lettuce-blockchain-walmart-s-push-lends-legitimacy-much-hyped-technology-n916406">they must be using blockchain technology to trace their products before the end of 2019</a>. </p>
<p>Walmart, one of the world’s largest retailers, has been <a href="https://www.ibm.com/blockchain/solutions/food-trust/get-started">piloting blockchain projects with IBM for the past 18 months</a>. It is banking on this relationship to put pressure on the entire sector to give consumers what they want from the food industry: more transparency. </p>
<p>In Europe, Carrefour also recently began using blockchain to track food products on <a href="http://www.carrefour.com/current-news/carrefour-launches-europes-first-food-blockchain">several of its product lines</a>. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/everything-you-need-to-know-about-fresh-produce-and-e-coli-90230">Everything you need to know about fresh produce and E. coli</a>
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<p>The whole idea is to better manage food recalls, farm to fork and back, and also to tackle <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/rob-commentary/canadian-food-fraud-presents-fresh-challenge-for-officials/article35712072/">the intricate issue of food fraud</a>, which is receiving an increasing amount of attention.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, many others are wondering if the investment is worth it. Consumers tend to want many things from the food industry without paying for them. </p>
<h2>The power of blockchain</h2>
<p>Blockchain is about data, but it is mostly about accountability through enhanced digitalized transparency. With blockchain everyone knows what’s happening all at once. </p>
<p>To use a simple analogy, think of blockchain as a hockey rink. All the data is on the ice, protected by the boards so that it can’t be altered. Everyone participating in a blockchain is in the stands. The activity on the ice lets everyone else know who is buying from whom, when, at what price and volumes.</p>
<p>As a result, a recalled product can be traced back in seconds instead of taking days. It took investigators days to trace the source of an <a href="https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2018/6/29/17517906/romaine-lettuce-e-coli-outbreak-over">E. coli outbreak to contaminated romaine lettuce</a>. They had to look through documents to find the source and the potential causes, all the way up the food chain. It would have been managed quite differently with blockchain. </p>
<p>Food safety is an obvious driver for blockchain, but food fraud appears to be what is moving the blockchain agenda much faster these days.</p>
<h2>Why pay extra?</h2>
<p>Blockchain technologies have been used in other sectors, but they have only recently entered the food sector. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/240671/original/file-20181015-165888-19rbsdp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/240671/original/file-20181015-165888-19rbsdp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/240671/original/file-20181015-165888-19rbsdp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/240671/original/file-20181015-165888-19rbsdp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/240671/original/file-20181015-165888-19rbsdp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1133&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/240671/original/file-20181015-165888-19rbsdp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1133&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/240671/original/file-20181015-165888-19rbsdp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1133&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In this June 7, 2011 photo, an employee throws away tomatoes in Werder, Germany, during an E. coli outbreak. Authorities had trouble identifying the source of the outbreak, causing major losses for farmers in the European Union.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/dapd/ Klaus-Dietmar Gabbert, File)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Food safety was never going to be enough for consumers to embrace blockchain. Consumers expect safety and don’t want to pay more for it. Why pay extra for a safety belt when buying a car? Food safety may have never had market currency, but food authenticity does. </p>
<p>Fraudulent products can compromise brands and the viability of a company in a heartbeat. We have seen many cases already around the world.</p>
<p>Food fraud is difficult to measure, but <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2014/04/12/rising-prices-aid-15b-food-fraud-problem.html">it has arguably kept food prices lower</a>, allowing some companies to cut costs and offer lower price points. </p>
<p>Economically motivated adulteration is a growth killer, something Walmart and Carrefour both know. To increase sales, companies must eliminate fraudulent food products from their shelves, and blockchain technologies can provide the perfect antidote.</p>
<h2>Jumping on the blockchain bandwagon</h2>
<p>How better to deal with food fraud than by making the whole system more transparent? </p>
<p>Transparency in the context of blockchain, however, is neither absolute nor unconditional. Each solution will offer <a href="https://www.newfoodmagazine.com/article/36978/blockchain-can-save-food/">a different level of transparency depending on how the system is set up</a>. This is likely why grocers are jumping on the blockchain bandwagon, to exercise their power with the supply chain and generate their own rules of engagement. </p>
<p>It is also likely making everyone else less comfortable, <a href="https://www.newfoodmagazine.com/article/34815/block-chain-food-fraud/">including processors and producers</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-technology-will-help-fight-food-fraud-85783">How technology will help fight food fraud</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>If food fraud is properly addressed, growth in the food sector can be expanded. Over the next decade or so, we should not be surprised to see the disruptive nature of blockchain technologies generate tensions among grocers, processors and producers as they try to cope with grocers’ impositions.</p>
<p>Other sectors made traceability a priority decades ago. <a href="https://www.pharmaceutical-technology.com/digital-disruption/blockchain/blockchain-pharma-opportunities-supply-chain/">Drugs, car parts, minerals and so on can be tracked to their sources in seconds</a>. Consumers know the technology exists and are putting the pressure on grocers. It’s time for the food industry to catch up.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/104508/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sylvain Charlebois does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>With Walmart bringing blockchain technology to its grocery stores, other retailers will soon have to get on board.Sylvain Charlebois, Professor in Food Distribution and Policy, Dalhousie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/988752018-06-26T21:58:26Z2018-06-26T21:58:26ZCanadians are going Trump-free – until it becomes too expensive<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/224956/original/file-20180626-112644-16lv994.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">U.S. President Donald Trump left the recent G7 summit in a fury about Justin Trudeau and vowing an escalated trade war. Canadians are responding by going Trump-free at the grocery stores -- but it will likely be short-lived.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Evan Vucci)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In a nutshell, here is what happened <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/09/politics/trump-justin-trudeau-g7-communique/index.html">at the G7 summit</a>: Justin Trudeau played nice with Donald Trump, Trump tore Trudeau apart on social media, Trudeau played nice again. While Trudeau showed very Canadian diplomacy, poise and resilience, the Canadian public seems to be taking another approach.</p>
<p>Everywhere on social media, Canadians <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/business/angry-canadians-are-shopping-trump-free-after-attacks-on-trudeau-1.3971632">are encouraging one another to go “Trump-free”</a> — that is, to shop for groceries without buying a single American product. </p>
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<p>Even <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/business/que-restaurant-boycotting-american-goods-in-trade-dispute-1.3974980">restaurants are jumping on the bandwagon</a> by serving “Trump-free” dishes. These are interesting reactions in the face of Washington’s somewhat contradictory foreign trade policies.</p>
<p>The “Buy Canadian” campaign targeting food products is nothing new. We have shown our solidarity in the grocery store before. Canadians tend to rally to support specific sectors when they’re faced with adversity.</p>
<p>In 2003, <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/1830438/timeline-canadas-2003-mad-cow-disease-crisis/">during the mad cow disease crisis</a> in which the cattle industry took a $7 billion hit, Canadians showed their love for Canadian beef, so much so that Canada became the first country in the world <a href="https://lop.parl.ca/Content/LOP/ResearchPublications/tips/tip116-e.htm">to see its domestic demand for beef go up</a> after its first native mad cow case. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/224962/original/file-20180626-112598-7hlu8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/224962/original/file-20180626-112598-7hlu8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224962/original/file-20180626-112598-7hlu8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224962/original/file-20180626-112598-7hlu8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224962/original/file-20180626-112598-7hlu8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=521&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224962/original/file-20180626-112598-7hlu8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=521&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224962/original/file-20180626-112598-7hlu8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=521&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Dairy cows are seen in 2003 at the Sunny Dene Ranch in Washington state where authorities had to determine which animals came from Canada amid its mad-cow crisis. Hundreds of the cows were later killed.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/E.B. McGovern)</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>But this support was short-lived compared to the crisis itself, which lasted for more than two years. In this case, retail sales for beef in Canada remained high for about the first nine months, and then decreased steadily afterwards.</p>
<p>That’s because consumers have busy lives, fixed habits and, most importantly, specific budgets. Once the media had moved onto the next crisis, most people had already forgotten there had ever been a mad cow crisis in the first place. </p>
<h2>Mad cow did lasting damage</h2>
<p>Many Canadian farmers <a href="http://www.calgaryherald.com/business/years+later+crisis+changed+industry+province+with+videos/8405721/story.html">ended up losing their farms</a> because of mad cow. But the public tends to react to things that are front of mind, and that affect them directly.</p>
<p>Trade disputes are notorious for their capacity to damage economies, affecting everyone involved. We trade for a reason. Some nations can produce certain goods at a lower price than others. </p>
<p>A nation’s competitive advantage can both develop its own economy and serve other economies in need of innovative products they can’t produce themselves for one reason or another. </p>
<p>With food, however, innovation is not nearly as big an issue as food security. Food systems operate with the premise of serving a budget-stretched consumer. Studies have shown <a href="http://www.foodincanada.com/food-in-canada/canadian-food-shopping-trends-129870/">we are bargain-hunters</a>, whether we realize it or not.</p>
<p>Food is temporary, and as such, cannot really help consumers impress a certain social class, perceptually speaking. Unlike durable products, consumers cannot show off their new jam, strawberries or freshly purchased chicken. </p>
<p>This is the nature of “cupboard economics.” People can visit a beautiful home but never see what’s kept inside the cupboards. At the restaurant, though, it’s different. Here, the “Buy Canadian” campaign is more fitting.</p>
<h2>Buy Canadian as Canada Day approaches?</h2>
<p>Patriotism ranks second to price. This is the ideal time of year to use patriotism to justify some of our retail purchases. As Canada Day approaches, more consumers will feel the urge to buy Canadian, and why not? </p>
<p>But here again, consumers are fickle and will opt for the product that offers the best quality for the lowest price. In other words, they will most often choose the lowest-priced item, regardless of country of origin.</p>
<p>But here’s another reality while consumers are on their quest to find Canadian products. The highly integrated nature of the U.S. and Canadian economies plays out on our grocery store shelves. </p>
<p>Many American food products have at least one Canadian ingredient, and vice versa. Defining what a Canadian product is can be tricky. </p>
<h2>It’s hard to go Trump-free with processed foods</h2>
<p>In the produce section, for example, it’s easy to choose Canadian items over American ones, since fruits and vegetables are clearly labelled as to country-of-origin. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/224960/original/file-20180626-112598-1afkwf7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/224960/original/file-20180626-112598-1afkwf7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224960/original/file-20180626-112598-1afkwf7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224960/original/file-20180626-112598-1afkwf7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224960/original/file-20180626-112598-1afkwf7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224960/original/file-20180626-112598-1afkwf7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224960/original/file-20180626-112598-1afkwf7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Can you really be sure that made-in-Canada frozen pizza doesn’t contain American pepperoni?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>It’s much less obvious with processed goods. Finding a maple leaf on the package is only half the battle. Many ingredients in packaged foods come from elsewhere, since current regulations only require Canadian manufactured food products to undergo the last stage of processing in Canada.</p>
<p>In short, if we want to be assured of buying Canadian, we should go out to eat Canadian more often, or buy fresh products in the grocery store.</p>
<p>Kudos to those for Canadians willing to do so. However, if our trade war with the U.S. escalates, not only will we not have a choice in buying Canadian, it will also cost us a lot more to feed ourselves.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/98875/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sylvain Charlebois does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Every now and then, Canadians will take a stand against the U.S. by choosing Canadian items over American ones at the grocery store. Unless they cost more – and most often, they do.Sylvain Charlebois, Professor in Food Distribution and Policy, Dalhousie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/962042018-06-13T20:35:51Z2018-06-13T20:35:51ZWe must ensure new food retail technologies are pathways – not barriers – to better health<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/222922/original/file-20180613-153668-1k1r7bs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An unhealthy diet is now the leading preventable risk factor for disease globally.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mavis Wong/The Conversation NY-BD-CC</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Imagine a world where <a href="https://www.ibm.com/blogs/bluemix/2016/03/iot-inventory-monitor-part1/">smart pantries</a> sense when you are running out of your favourite food and order more of it, without you lifting a finger. Where intelligent <a href="https://www.softbankrobotics.com/emea/en/robots/pepper">robots roam</a> your grocery store, ever at your service. Where <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jun/04/surge-pricing-comes-to-the-supermarket-dynamic-personal-data">dynamic food pricing</a> changes minute-to-minute depending on the weather outside, or what the store down the road is offering. </p>
<p>It may sound like a seismic shift in our food retail world, but these technological frontiers are real and the food sector is gearing up in a big way. </p>
<p>What is less certain is what impact such changes will have on our health. Just as entrepreneurs must capitalise on future trends when building a business, health professionals must delve into the future of retail technology to identify barriers and opportunities for the achievement of good health.</p>
<h2>The retail technology frontier is already here</h2>
<p>Amazon is one company leading the way with its nascent attempts to revolutionise convenient shopping. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/b?node=16008589011">AmazonGo</a> is a walk-in-walk-out convenience store where the same types of sensor, vision and deep learning technologies as those used in driverless cars enable shoppers to purchase products without checking out. The concept is currently being trialled in Seattle, USA.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Amazon-Prime-Air/b?node=8037720011">Amazon Prime Air</a> is a conceptual drone delivery system developed to autonomously fly packages to customers in thirty minutes or less. The company made its first drone delivery in 2016 to a shopper in Cambridge, England. A date for large-scale implementation is yet to be confirmed.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/46lvylJ-KF8?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Amazon makes its first drone delivery.</span></figcaption>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/restaurants-not-only-feed-us-they-shape-our-food-preferences-97225">Restaurants not only feed us, they shape our food preferences</a>
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<p>British food delivery company, Deliveroo, also has an insatiable appetite for food convenience. The company has a <a href="https://london.eater.com/2018/3/29/17175482/deliveroo-future-plans-robots-profits-investors">vision</a> where eating at restaurants will be a “special occasion” and home cooking will merely be viewed as “a hobby”. They plan to use AI and robotics to serve a generation of young diners who know home delivery as being the only way to eat.</p>
<h2>Profits often prevail over health</h2>
<p>In a world driven by corporate profits and solid <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(12)62089-3/abstract">stakeholder returns</a>, it is easy to see how the technological frontier may be used to drive up profits and drive down health. </p>
<p>An unhealthy diet is now the leading preventable risk factor for the <a href="http://www.healthdata.org/gbd/data">global disease burden</a>. More than 35% of Australian’s energy intake comes from foods and drinks that are <a href="https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/guidelines-publications/n55">not considered part of a healthy diet</a>.</p>
<p>Yet, not surprisingly, our major junk-food manufacturers and retailers are joining the tech revolution to persuade consumers to indulge in more.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/westfields-history-tracks-the-rise-of-the-australian-shopping-centre-and-shows-whats-to-come-89073">Westfield's history tracks the rise of the Australian shopping centre and shows what's to come</a>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/222927/original/file-20180613-153668-an1qmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/222927/original/file-20180613-153668-an1qmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/222927/original/file-20180613-153668-an1qmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222927/original/file-20180613-153668-an1qmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222927/original/file-20180613-153668-an1qmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222927/original/file-20180613-153668-an1qmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222927/original/file-20180613-153668-an1qmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222927/original/file-20180613-153668-an1qmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mavis Wong/The Conversation NY-BD-CC</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<p>Coca-Cola is putting technological solutions to the test. By <a href="https://www.coca-colajourney.co.nz/stories/smart-vending-ai-powered-innovation">combining vending machines with artificial intelligence</a>, Coke intends to bring more <a href="https://www.adweek.com/digital/coca-cola-is-embracing-ai-and-chatbots-in-preparation-for-a-digital-first-future/">joy</a> to the purchase of a sugary drink. Vending machines will be able to chat in a two-way conversation, building emotional connections between Coke and consumers.</p>
<p>Confectionary giant, Mars, is using “emotional intelligence” – an application of computer vision and machine learning – to gauge facial reactions to product marketing after finding that positive face expressions could predict advertisements with <a href="https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/mars-emotional-measurement-research-proves-eyes-window-sales/1428105">high sales impacts</a>. Kellogg’s and Coca-Cola are reportedly also using the technology to optimise their <a href="https://aitrends.com/emotion-recognition/ai-powering-growing-emotional-intelligence-business/">product marketing</a>.</p>
<h2>We need to turn this around</h2>
<p>We now have a young generation who are more socially conscious than ever before with <a href="https://www2.deloitte.com/global/en/pages/about-deloitte/articles/millennialsurvey.html">73% of millennials</a> believing business could have a positive impact on the world. This generation are also twice as likely to distrust large food companies <a href="https://store.mintel.com/the-millennial-impact-food-shopping-decisions-us-september-2015">compared to older generations</a>. </p>
<p>We must capitalise on these trends to create demand for a more ethical, healthy and sustainable food system.</p>
<p>How can we engineer grocery shopping to be an immersive, salubrious experience?</p>
<p>Smart shopping trolleys, equipped with barcode scanners and locating technology, have started to hit retail stores around the world, <a href="http://www.ausfoodnews.com.au/2011/01/25/smart-trolleys-launch-at-richies-hq.html">including in Australia</a>. </p>
<p>What if these trolleys were also equipped with resistance controls to incorporate physical activity into your daily shop, with personalised and tailored nutritious food marketing? Or if <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/19/17027902/google-verily-ai-algorithm-eye-scan-heart-disease-cardiovascular-risk">Google’s ocular scanning devices</a> were incorporated into trolley handles to provide you with a health check, simply by scanning the retina of your eye?</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-shopping-centres-are-changing-to-fight-online-shopping-80056">How shopping centres are changing to fight online shopping</a>
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<p>We could capitalise on <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com.au/kroger-is-rolling-out-digital-shelf-technology-2018-1?r=US&IR=T">retail digital shelf technology</a> to display, not only pricing and nutritional information, but also farm-to-fork traceability of foods at point-of-purchase, and complementary healthy food marketing.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.foodnavigator.com/Article/2017/10/19/Dynamic-pricing-an-unrealised-threat-for-food-brands-and-e-retailers">Dynamic food pricing</a> systems could be designed to not only align with consumer demand or competitor pricing, but to ensure healthy options are always the cheaper choice. </p>
<p>And if we’re going to have intelligent robots conversing with customers in stores, let’s ensure they steer them towards healthy food choices – making a healthy shopping experience easier, more enjoyable and more convenient. </p>
<p>The way we engage with the food sector will fundamentally change in the future. If we keep doing what we have always done, our current efforts to improve health through food may be undermined. We need to think forward to ensure the future of food is steered in a healthy direction.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/96204/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kathryn Backholer receives funding from VicHealth and the National Heart Foundation. She is the co-convenor for the Public Health Association Food and Nutrition Special Interest Group.
</span></em></p>New technologies do not discriminate between the promotion of a healthy or unhealthy diet. It’s how we apply them that matters.Kathryn Backholer, Senior research fellow, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/972252018-06-12T23:00:13Z2018-06-12T23:00:13ZRestaurants not only feed us, they shape our food preferences<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/220663/original/file-20180528-80640-9hit8s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Canadians are spending more of their money on restaurants. In turn, restaurants have an impact on what we eat at home.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Restaurants are playing an increasingly important role in the food culture of North Americans. </p>
<p>In the United States, food prepared outside the home represents more than 50 per cent of the food dollar, or more than <a href="http://www.restaurant.org/News-Research/Research/Facts-at-a-Glance">US$800 billion</a> a year. </p>
<p>Canadians spend $80 billion annually in restaurants, spending almost 30 per cent of their food dollars in restaurants. They also buy a lot of prepared food for consumption at home.</p>
<p>But the rate of growth in restaurant spending is greater than it is for stores. This spending has an impact on the food market in a variety of ways. Most importantly, however, restaurants are changing how we think about food and what we choose to eat.</p>
<p>Restaurants make choices for consumers. They choose menu items and they decide how to prepare those items. </p>
<p>Grocery stores want to give consumers as much choice and variety as possible, but this causes issues for restaurants.</p>
<p>In a grocery store, for example, there may be many choices of eggs (white, brown, different sizes, organic, high Omega-3, free-run, free-range and cage-free), breakfast sausages (beef, pork, turkey, enhanced-animal welfare, reduced antibiotic use, low sodium, mild or spicy) and English muffins (regular, whole wheat, multigrain, gluten-free and low sodium). </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221845/original/file-20180605-119875-iebm6m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221845/original/file-20180605-119875-iebm6m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221845/original/file-20180605-119875-iebm6m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221845/original/file-20180605-119875-iebm6m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221845/original/file-20180605-119875-iebm6m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221845/original/file-20180605-119875-iebm6m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221845/original/file-20180605-119875-iebm6m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Egg McMuffins are a popular McDonald’s item but, except for sausage or bacon, customers don’t get as much choice as they do at sit-down restaurants.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>By comparison, in most restaurants you only have one or two options for a breakfast sandwich — likely with or without the sausage. Not only do restaurants make the choices for us, they communicate the value of those choices and can raise awareness of issues. </p>
<p>Nonetheless, it was quick-service restaurants like <a href="https://www.wattagnet.com/blogs/23-poultry-around-the-world/post/27480-mcdonalds-in-layer-welfare-first">McDonald’s</a> and <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/tim-hortons-burger-king-cage-free-eggs-1.3428987">Tim Hortons</a> that drove animal welfare discussions with respect to layer hens and eggs. This may, to a degree, have been driven by activist pressure, but was not due to consumer demands.</p>
<h2>Fast-food restaurants have helped affect change</h2>
<p>Large restaurant chains drive significant volumes of business. Their demands can drive changes in how food is produced by creating the <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK114491/">critical mass</a> of demand to justify those changes.</p>
<p>Restaurants also have a better opportunity to communicate their choices to consumers than retailers do. In a full-service restaurant, the server can describe important attributes of the dishes on offer; furthermore, a limited menu provides the opportunity to highlight those special qualities.</p>
<p>Chain restaurants, particularly fast-food outlets, advertise and differentiate on those attributes and raise them in the consciousness of Canadians (<a href="http://www.foodincanada.com/food-in-canada/aw-now-serves-antibiotic-free-pork-135152/">for example, A&W and its commitment to antibiotic-free meats</a>). Through this communication, restaurants are not only attracting new customers, they’re having an <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK114491/">impact on the choices people make when they grocery shop too</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/220660/original/file-20180528-80661-en8te4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/220660/original/file-20180528-80661-en8te4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/220660/original/file-20180528-80661-en8te4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/220660/original/file-20180528-80661-en8te4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/220660/original/file-20180528-80661-en8te4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/220660/original/file-20180528-80661-en8te4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/220660/original/file-20180528-80661-en8te4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Canadians are spending an ever-increasing portion of their food dollars in restaurants.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Like food retail, restaurants are low-margin businesses. Rising costs in food, labour and rent are forcing restaurants to look for cost savings in different areas. This has driven a shift, first to lesser cuts of meat (the biggest expense for most restaurants) and smaller portions, and now often to alternate sources of protein. </p>
<p>This helps to drive changing perceptions of plant-based proteins and even insect proteins.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/less-meat-more-bugs-in-our-dietary-future-94853">Less meat, more bugs in our dietary future</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The lines between food retail and restaurants are increasingly being blurred, which extends the influence of the “restaurant experience.”</p>
<h2>Food kits gaining popularity</h2>
<p>Retailers and online services are increasingly offering meal kits that come completely portioned and ready to prepare. These allow consumers to have the comfort and convenience of eating at home while also enjoying a more sophisticated meal experience.</p>
<p>These kits usually come with premium attributes (for example, ingredients with enhanced welfare and sustainable production attributes) that also increase awareness. Some food retailers are even opening restaurants <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-grocerant-how-smart-grocery-stores-are-becoming-hybrids-86641">(often termed grocerants)</a> to offer more options for customers.</p>
<p>Restaurant food delivery is also becoming more common. Uber Eats, SkipTheDishes and other services offer delivery from a much broader range of choices than the traditional pizza and Chinese food. </p>
<p>This has not been without its hiccups. Some food doesn’t travel well, and using a third-party delivery service eliminates the restaurant’s control over quality and, therefore, the complete consumer experience.</p>
<p>Retail food delivery or order pickup is also becoming more common. We heard a lot about <a href="http://fortune.com/longform/amazon-groceries-fortune-500/">Amazon’s entry into the market and the acquisition of Whole Foods</a> but there are other well-established players around, and new ones entering the market too. </p>
<p>Grocery delivery is difficult, particularly in the early days as routing and timing are complicated. This has lead more companies to follow the “click-and-collect” model where consumers order online and pick up their groceries at the store themselves. This also allows consumers to buy some of the fresh produce separately.</p>
<p>The desire for variety and convenience is increasing the role that restaurants are playing in our food experience. More importantly, though, restaurants are also playing an increasing role in how we think about food. </p>
<p>Restaurants, in fact, matter more than ever.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/97225/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael von Massow receives funding from the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food to research issues in food waste and nutrition labeling for restaurant menus. He has received funding from the Walmart Foundation to explore food waste at the household level. He has received money from the Tim Hortons Sustainable Food Management Fund to explore consumer attitudes to antibiotic use and animal welfare. He has also received funding from Longo's Brothers Markets in support of research into consumer behaviour in food retail.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alfons Weersink receives funding from Food from Thought, sponsored through the Canada First Research Excellence Fund, and from the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bruce Gregory McAdams has received funding from Longo's Brothers Markets to study prepared meal solutions in grocery retail.</span></em></p>Restaurants are playing an increasingly influential role in how we live. We not only patronize them more often, they also influence our choices at the grocery store.Michael von Massow, Associate Professor, Food Economics, University of GuelphAlfons Weersink, Professor, Dept of Food, Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of GuelphBruce McAdams, Professor in Hospitality, Food and Tourism, University of GuelphLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/963842018-05-09T23:00:56Z2018-05-09T23:00:56ZThe increasingly bleak outlook for Canadian grocery stores<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218328/original/file-20180509-34018-1jnkx1x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Empty grocery stores could be a sign of the future as grocery stores struggle to make profits and consumer preferences for more choice and services, including online shopping, evolve.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Clark Young/Unsplash</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Retail food prices are not moving much these days. They are barely higher than last year, <a href="https://www.statcan.gc.ca/tables-tableaux/sum-som/l01/cst01/trad42b-eng.htm">with a modest increase of 0.5 per cent.</a> </p>
<p>In fact, according to Statistics Canada, prices dropped over all <a href="https://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/180420/dq180420a-eng.htm?HPA=1&indid=3665-1&indgeo=0">by 0.7 per cent over the winter months.</a> South of the border, U.S. grocers are <a href="https://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/180302/dq180302a-eng.htm?HPA=1&indid=3278-1&indgeo=0">dealing with the same issue.</a> Since our economy has some momentum, you would expect food retail prices to inch higher. But they are not moving, and for several reasons.</p>
<p>Grocers will always pick the right time to raise prices. Unemployment is near historic lows, consumer confidence is relatively high and inflation is inching upward — normally, these are perfect market conditions. Not so at the moment. </p>
<p>For one thing, both Walmart and Amazon are at war trying to attract customer loyalty through online strategies. Walmart’s online food sales were disappointing in the last quarter, but sales are growing nonetheless. </p>
<p>And generic brands are becoming increasingly popular as consumers trade down. <a href="http://business.financialpost.com/executive/why-its-so-important-to-safeguard-your-customer-data-and-protect-your-brand">Brands are becoming less important</a> to a growing number of consumers, so trading down has become less embarrassing and more of a statement consumers want to make while shopping. </p>
<p>Loyalty — the most powerful tool a grocer needs to increase sales — is almost non-existent nowadays. The power has now firmly shifted into the hands of consumers, and grocers know it. With interesting tweaks to their strategy, profits are still there, but market shares are not.</p>
<h2>Cutting costs</h2>
<p>For the past few years, grocers have been cutting costs and passing the savings onto consumers, all the while hoping that the perfect inflationary environment would return so that they could raise prices again. The return of food inflation was exactly what the grocery industry was hoping for, but so far, results have been disappointing. </p>
<p>What they did not expect was to lose the ability to increase retail prices. With higher general inflation, costs are increasing and grocers are now getting hit in more ways than one.</p>
<p>Grocers can try to justify their poor financial performance, citing higher minimum wages and how much pressure they are under, but top-line growth revenues are painfully idle for most of them. All grocers are moving aggressively on their online strategy, and all are also looking at home delivery, as soon as possible. </p>
<p>In many markets — Toronto, Guelph, Ont., Halifax, Vancouver, among others — <a href="https://www.ic.gc.ca/app/scr/app/cis/summary-sommaire/445">the number of stores is increasing.</a> There are almost 39,000 food and beverage stores in Canada, which is up more than five per cent from about two years ago. </p>
<p>It seems some grocers are remaining in this funk of building new stores just for the sake of it. Bricks-and-mortar stores may remain a sign of business success from the perspective of some executives, but this just isn’t true anymore.</p>
<p>Pressures are also coming from the online market, as more small- and medium-sized companies are chipping away at market shares in some specific food categories. It’s not just Amazon, but a portfolio of intriguing small companies using virtual platforms to brand and commercialize high-value products that cannot be found elsewhere, <a href="http://windsorstar.com/news/local-news/bonduelle-to-get-up-to-8-5-million-from-province-for-expansion">like Bonduelle</a> <a href="https://naakbar.com/">or Naak.</a></p>
<h2>Innovation could lead to growth</h2>
<p>Innovation is always seen as a logical path to growth in the grocery business, but how we define innovation in food is also changing.</p>
<p>Many innovative products are becoming known in Canada, like the cricket-protein bars sold by Naak, but most are not sold by major grocers. They are sold online or through independent shops. </p>
<p>This is another major problem that grocers in this country will need to fix and quickly. If grocers’ capacity to increase revenues is hampered by more competition, the consequences of these pressures will be shared with food processors and others in the supply chain. To make matters worse, relationships <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/rob-magazine/article-sobeys-on-the-rebound-is-michael-medlines-strategy-working/">within the food value chain have not been great in recent years.</a> </p>
<p>Despite the food retailing woes we are seeing in North America, food services is a different story entirely. </p>
<p>Prices have gone up by <a href="http://www.canadiangrocer.com/top-stories/grocery-industry-is-stable-despite-a-couple-black-eyes-expert-says-80412">more than four per cent</a> since the beginning of the year, and the sector is not showing signs of slowing down. </p>
<p>The convergence between retailing and service will be a definite attraction for a food-retailing sector desperate for growth. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-grocerant-how-smart-grocery-stores-are-becoming-hybrids-86641">The Grocerant: How smart grocery stores are becoming hybrids</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The grocery sector, however, is facing swift changes in consumer preferences as customers clamour for different products and services. Consequently, the number of food stores we have in Canada is likely not sustainable. Don’t be surprised to increasingly hear <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/loblaw-store-closure-1.4402838">about more grocery stores closing</a> in months to come.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/96384/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sylvain Charlebois does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Canada’s bricks-and-mortar grocery stores are in trouble due to stagnant food prices and changing consumer preferences. More grocery store closures are likely on the horizon.Sylvain Charlebois, Professor in Food Distribution and Policy, Dalhousie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/944682018-04-11T23:04:10Z2018-04-11T23:04:10ZWhy the price-fixing scandal might not be all bad for Loblaws<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/214163/original/file-20180410-536-11ebgpe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Loblaws bread price-fixing scandal may have eroded public trust in the company, but will it truly hurt the grocery giant in the long run? Galen G. Weston, executive president and chairman of Loblaw Ltd., is seen in this 2016 photo.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Fred Thornhill</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The bread price-fixing scandal has garnered Canada’s biggest grocery chain a lot of negative media attention.</p>
<p><a href="https://cdn.dal.ca/content/dam/dalhousie/pdf/management/News/News%20%26%20Events/Food%20Retail%20Sector%20Supplementary%20release%20March%202018.pdf">A recent survey</a> from Dalhousie University suggested that consumer trust in Loblaws has fallen by 10 per cent since the announcement of the bread price-fixing issue.</p>
<p>But will the scandal have a sustained negative impact on Loblaws?</p>
<p>While the company may face civil suits at some point, there is no risk of prosecution under the whistle-blower provisions of Canada’s competition regulations. And so the outstanding question is whether the decline in consumer trust results in significant losses in sales and market share to Loblaws.</p>
<p>Several factors suggest perhaps not. </p>
<h2>All retailers painted with same brush</h2>
<p>It’s clear that consumers are becoming <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2017/04/11/dealing-with-declining-trust-among-consumers/#14f5add8f880">increasingly distrustful</a> of business generally. They feel in many cases that bad behaviour is the norm, and aren’t surprised when stories like the Loblaws price-fixing emerge.</p>
<p>This is particularly true in this case because Loblaws has claimed (and preliminary findings from the Competition Bureau suggest) that many, but not all, Canadian retailers were involved in the bread scheme. </p>
<p>The Dalhousie study suggested that on average, trust went down for all Canadian retailers following the scandal, although trust in Loblaws declined the most. And so if consumers believe everyone cheats, there’s little motivation to switch stores. Food is a staple. We can’t choose to forego groceries.</p>
<p>It’s worth noting the case of Volkswagen. The <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/business-34324772">emissions scandal</a> that engulfed the German company in 2015 was a significant challenge. Volkswagen paid huge fines and had to retrofit millions of cars. Despite that, the company has seen unit <a href="http://www.dw.com/en/volkswagen-group-achieves-record-sales-in-2017/a-42177892">sales growth</a> of 3.8 per cent in 2016 and 4.3 per cent in 2017. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/214164/original/file-20180410-566-1ooryaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/214164/original/file-20180410-566-1ooryaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/214164/original/file-20180410-566-1ooryaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/214164/original/file-20180410-566-1ooryaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/214164/original/file-20180410-566-1ooryaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/214164/original/file-20180410-566-1ooryaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/214164/original/file-20180410-566-1ooryaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Volkswagen cars are lifted inside a delivery tower of the company in Wolfsburg, Germany in March 2017. The CEO of Volkswagen said the United States remains a core market for the company despite its diesel emissions scandal.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Michael Sohn)</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>There were financial challenges, and Volkswagen performed in some markets better than others, but customers aren’t staying away in droves despite the negative media attention and bad corporate behaviour.</p>
<h2>Who is Loblaws anyway?</h2>
<p>Another factor that will likely buffer the Loblaws parent company is that many customers likely shop at Loblaws without knowing it. </p>
<p>Loblaws sells food under many <a href="http://www.loblaw.ca/en.html">different banners</a> including Real Canadian Superstore, Zehrs, Provigo, Fortino’s, No Frills and Shoppers Drug Mart. Many customers likely shop at a favourite store without making an explicit connection to the Loblaws name.</p>
<p>That means even those customers who are inclined to punish Loblaws might not even know they are shopping there.</p>
<h2>Free groceries</h2>
<p>Loblaws has reportedly distributed <a href="http://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/you-can-sign-up-for-the-25-loblaw-gift-card-starting-today-heres-how/">as much as $150 million</a> in gift cards (in $25 increments) as part of the campaign to win back public trust in the wake of the price-fixing revelations. These gift cards need to be spent in Loblaws stores. It will bring customers back into the store and they will likely spend more than the $25 they’re entitled to via the gift cards.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/214162/original/file-20180410-577-6rtetn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/214162/original/file-20180410-577-6rtetn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/214162/original/file-20180410-577-6rtetn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/214162/original/file-20180410-577-6rtetn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/214162/original/file-20180410-577-6rtetn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/214162/original/file-20180410-577-6rtetn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/214162/original/file-20180410-577-6rtetn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A $25 Loblaws gift card is shown in Oakville, Ont., in March 2018.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(THE CANADIAN PRESS/Richard Buchan)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There will also be people who have never shopped at a Loblaws store who applied for gift cards. Rival grocery chain Sobeys has said it expects <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/sobeys-parent-empire-beats-profit-expectations-in-third-quarter/article38285355/">to feel an impact</a> from the distribution of the gift cards. </p>
<p>Once again, we would expect customers who may have never set foot in a Loblaws store before to spend more than the gift card. It’s even possible that they’ll enjoy shopping at Loblaws so much that they’ll switch stores after spending the card.</p>
<h2>Short-term pain</h2>
<p>That’s not to say Loblaws won’t feel an impact from the price-fixing scandal. They distributed millions of dollars in gift cards. Some of them will not be redeemed — <a href="https://nypost.com/2014/01/26/unused-gift-cards-total-44b-since-2008-study/">that’s always true of gift cards.</a> </p>
<p>Those that are redeemed will not cost Loblaws the full $150 million as they must be spent in Loblaws stores. That means that, although Loblaws will lose the margin they would have made on the sales, the actual out-of-pocket cost of the card is less than the face value of the card. There also remains the real threat of class-action lawsuits.</p>
<p>In the long run, however, it doesn’t seem likely that Loblaws will suffer significant losses in food market share. The price-fixing announcement came very late in the year, so <a href="http://media.loblaw.ca/English/media-centre/press-releases/press-release-details/2018/Loblaw-Reports-2017-Fourth-Quarter-and-Fiscal-Year-Ended-December-30-2017-Results1/default.aspx">fourth-quarter results</a> will not provide much insight. </p>
<p>It’s worth noting that same-store food sales were up 0.5 per cent over the previous year in the fourth quarter. While third-quarter results showed a 1.5 per cent increase over the previous year, it does not appear that there was a dramatic flight from shopping at Loblaws in the immediate aftermath of the announcement. </p>
<p>Loblaws’ first-quarter 2018 results will be telling. But the market also seems to believe Loblaws will weather the price-fixing storm. Share price did not decline significantly after the announcement, and a late January drop <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/business/loblaw-shares-downgraded-to-hold-after-new-generic-drug-deal-reached-1.3781673">was attributed</a> to generic drug-pricing reform and the cost of minimum wage increases.</p>
<p>There are still challenges in the market. Stiff competition in the grocery sector still exists and will increase if and when online sales grow. Other factors will continue to keep Loblaws on its toes, but the price-fixing scandal might not be among them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/94468/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael von Massow receives funding from the Tim Hortons Sustainable Food Management Fund, the Longo's Retail Research Laboratory and the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food. </span></em></p>Loblaws’ reputation has taken a hit following the bread price-fixing scandal. But will it do prolonged damage to Canada’s biggest grocery chain?Michael von Massow, Associate Professor, Food Economics, University of GuelphLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/894892018-01-03T23:47:40Z2018-01-03T23:47:40ZLess meat, more choice: A look at key food issues in 2018<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/200575/original/file-20180102-26163-1kcbxdr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Health concerns about red meat consumption, as well as the environmental impact of meat production, have fuelled an increased demand in plant-based proteins among Canadians. These calves are shown on the Grazed Right cattle ranch near Black Diamond, Alta., in 2016.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Food is <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/2031908/do-you-want-to-know-whats-in-your-food-canadians-want-more-transparency/">increasingly in the day-to-day consciousness</a> of Canadians. Consumers are hearing more about food in the media and in the broader conversation. </p>
<p>They’re also seeking more information about their food, including where it comes from and how it’s produced. New issues of interest regularly emerge. </p>
<p>Here are a number of <a href="https://www.uoguelph.ca/fare/files/Food%20Focus%202108_Final%2BAODA.pdf">key trends</a> you can expect to be in the forefront for 2018:</p>
<h2>Increasing choice and micro-markets for food</h2>
<p>As consumers are learning more about food, different attributes are becoming more important for various individuals. Food is becoming less a commodity and more a specialized, individual choice.</p>
<p>Producers and processors are responding to these evolving demands by offering more choices and niche products. There are also increasing choices on where food can be purchased — from smaller-footprint neighbourhood shops to big-box stores.</p>
<p>The challenge becomes balancing the costs of choice and the value that choice brings. Retailers, food services, processors and producers need to determine which products and services to develop and offer, as well as asking the question: “How much choice do consumers really want?”</p>
<p>There are significant supply-chain implications, both positive and negative, arising from providing more variety. Do consumers want more choice of standard food products, or do they want entirely different foodstuffs? </p>
<h2>The rise of alternate proteins</h2>
<p>On that front, there is increasing interest in alternate sources of protein. Nielsen, the global data measurement company, reports that <a href="http://www.nielsen.com/ca/en/insights/news/2017/plant-based-proteins-are-gaining-dollar-share-among-north-americans.html">43 per cent of Canadians</a> are trying to get more plant-based proteins into their diet. </p>
<p>With only six per cent of Canadians identifying as vegetarian and two per cent as vegan, this 43 per cent represents a significant portion of the population determined to eat less meat. Indeed, we’ve seen a 25 per cent decrease in <a href="http://www.agr.gc.ca/eng/industry-markets-and-trade/market-information-by-sector/poultry-and-eggs/poultry-and-egg-market-information/industry-indicators/per-capita-disappearance/?id=1384971854413">red meat demand</a> over the past decade. </p>
<p>The phenomenon is driven by increasing concern over the <a href="https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/cutting-red-meat-for-a-longer-life">health effects</a> of eating too much meat as well as the <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/meat-and-environment/">environmental impact</a> of meat production. While the science on both issues remains contentious, it’s clear that consumers are eating less meat or, to a smaller degree, not eating meat at all.</p>
<p>That’s meant an increase in demand for plant-based proteins, <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/a01b86c4-52a9-11e7-a1f2-db19572361bb">insect proteins</a> and cultured meats. We’ll continue to see growth in this area as more products become available in both retail and food services.</p>
<h2>Antibiotic use in meat production</h2>
<p>There’s been a lot of discussion in Canada <a href="http://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/majority-of-canadians-oppose-animal-cruelty-would-pay-more-at-the-grocery-store-to-ensure-welfare">about animal welfare</a> over the past five years. </p>
<p>The next issue we expect will get substantial attention is antibiotic use in meat production. Its use has animal welfare implications, but there are also a wide range of other potential repercussions that make it a much more complex issue than animal welfare.</p>
<p>The World Health Organization has called for a <a href="http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2017/antibiotics-animals-effectiveness/en/">reduction</a> in antibiotic use in meat production, particularly in healthy animals.</p>
<p>Reducing the use of antibiotics, particularly those used in human medicine, is important. But the complete removal of antibiotics from livestock production could have significant negative implications for animal health and welfare. Going forward, great care needs to be taken to strike the right balance among human health needs, consumer preference and animal health.</p>
<p>The appropriate balance can be undermined by opportunistic marketing with over-simplistic taglines on food products regarding antibiotic use.</p>
<h2>Restaurants matter more</h2>
<p>Canadians are spending an increasing proportion of their food dollar outside of the home. We spend <a href="https://www.restaurantscanada.org/research/">$80 billion</a> a year in restaurants, and restaurant spending is growing more quickly than grocery store spending.</p>
<p>Food delivery services and meal packages <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-grocerant-how-smart-grocery-stores-are-becoming-hybrids-86641">are blurring the lines</a> between restaurants and grocery stores. Visits to restaurants are more frequent, and dining establishments influence food choices as we shop. Their ability to communicate directly with consumers through personal interactions, mass marketing and social media means food service is shaping our thinking about food and the choices we make in grocery stores. </p>
<p>For example, consumers at the grocery store can choose between eggs with attributes ranging from conventional to omega-3 to organic to free range, but the consumer buying an egg sandwich from a fast-food outlet has no choice about the type of egg used — that decision has been made by the restaurant.</p>
<p>However, the restaurant serving chèvre omelets made from “cage-free” eggs and goats free to roam and graze at will can create demand for those eggs and that chèvre at the retail level.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/200568/original/file-20180102-26160-tytaaz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/200568/original/file-20180102-26160-tytaaz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200568/original/file-20180102-26160-tytaaz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200568/original/file-20180102-26160-tytaaz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200568/original/file-20180102-26160-tytaaz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=530&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200568/original/file-20180102-26160-tytaaz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=530&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200568/original/file-20180102-26160-tytaaz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=530&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Canadians are increasingly engaged in food, including where it comes from and how it’s grown – a trend expected to grow in 2018. A grocery store customer is seen here in late 2015 at a Loblaws grocery store in Toronto.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Minimum wage increases</h2>
<p>Substantial minimum wage increases are happening in both Alberta and Ontario. Other provinces, most notably British Columbia, have indicated that they intend to raise theirs in the years to come. </p>
<p>Minimum wage increases have the potential to have a major impact in the food sector. </p>
<p>Restaurants employ more than 1.2 million people in Canada, and most of them work at or close to minimum wage. Food retail employs more than 500,000 people in Canada, and again, most of these employees work for minimum wage. Substantial increases in minimum wages will push companies to change how they function, and could reduce overall employment. </p>
<p>While many farm activities will be exempt from minimum wage requirements, higher wages in other sectors could make an already difficult labour situation worse on farms. Farms relying heavily on manual labour, such as fruit and vegetable operations, will feel the impacts of higher wage costs, which therefore could result in more mechanization and automation.</p>
<h2>Food prices</h2>
<p>We expect an annual increase in food prices overall of two per cent to 2.5 per cent in 2018 (similar to <a href="http://www.statcan.gc.ca/tables-tableaux/sum-som/l01/cst01/cpis08a-eng.htm">2017</a>). Price increases for specific products cause consternation, but consumers can often offset rising prices by modifying purchases in the short run. A <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/soaring-price-for-trendy-cauliflower-causes-problems-for-restaurants-1.3408168">number of factors</a> can cause unexpected fluctuations in prices, most notably extreme weather events and exchange rate fluctuations. </p>
<p>In the absence of these factors, prices will generally increase at the rate stated above although there is considerable volatility between product and within the year.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/89489/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael von Massow receives funding from Longo's Grocery chain in support of his research to understand consumer food choice behaviour. He has also received funding from the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alfons Weersink receives funding from the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA)</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bruce McAdams does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Canadians are increasingly invested in their food – where it comes from, how it’s produced, and whether it’s healthy. Here are some predicted food trends for 2018.Michael von Massow, Associate Professor, Food Economics, University of GuelphAlfons Weersink, Professor, University of GuelphBruce McAdams, Professor in Hospitality, Food and Tourism, University of GuelphLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/876512017-11-21T00:00:04Z2017-11-21T00:00:04ZWhy Canada is wary of online grocery shopping<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195307/original/file-20171119-11439-1fvbqy5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Canadian grocery chains are recognizing the potential for growth in online shopping and delivery, but Canadians are slow to embrace the service.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Canadian grocery giant <a href="http://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/loblaw-and-instacart-to-offer-grocery-delivery-to-millions-of-canadian-homes-657734993.html">Loblaw</a> recently announced <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/loblaw-store-closure-1.4402838">it’s closing some stores</a> and introducing home delivery of groceries in the Toronto market, while <a href="http://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/walmart-canada-brings-grocery-home-delivery-to-the-greater-toronto-area-616954214.html">Walmart</a> says it’s expanding its home delivery service. </p>
<p>While it may feel that the Canadian market is late to the online grocery game — there are several chains that have been <a href="https://www.lifewire.com/groceries-online-3482646">offering it in the United States for years</a>, for example — it’s really a natural evolution reflecting differences in Canada.</p>
<p>Online grocery shopping has received a lot of attention but remains a relatively small proportion of total grocery sales in Canada. Total online grocery expenditure is estimated at approximately <a href="http://business.financialpost.com/news/retail-marketing/canadians-not-yet-buying-into-idea-of-online-grocery-shopping-as-retailers-try-to-change-behaviour">$2 billion with growth predicted to climb to almost $4 billion</a> in the next couple of years. The current activity is largely focused in and around Toronto and Vancouver.</p>
<p>That’s tiny given an annual retail food market of almost <a href="http://www.statcan.gc.ca/tables-tableaux/sum-som/l01/cst01/trad15a-eng.htm">$100 billion</a>, $80 billion of which is focused on traditional grocery stores. </p>
<p>Online grocery shopping represents a larger share of total food purchases in other markets. While the <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/01/30/online-grocery-sales-set-surge-grabbing-20-percent-of-market-by-2025.html">U.S. proportion</a> is predicted to grow to 20 per cent by 2025, it currently represents approximately four per cent of total food purchases. Many European markets are somewhat higher, with <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-70284-1_16">Great Britain estimated</a> at almost seven per cent.</p>
<p>This begs the question: Are sales in Canada low because demand is low, or because there are not many good options outside of Toronto and Vancouver?</p>
<h2>Canadians shop differently</h2>
<p>Canadians are much less likely to shop online than Americans. Estimates of online shopping range from <a href="https://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/170622/t003a-eng.htm">2.5 per cent</a> to <a href="https://retail.emarketer.com/article/ecommerce-canada-its-time-has-come/58acceae9c13e50c186f6f31">6.5 per cent</a> of total retail sales. By comparison, online purchases are estimated to be closer to <a href="https://www2.census.gov/retail/releases/historical/ecomm/17q3.pdf">8.5 per cent to nine per cent</a> in the United States. It’s unsurprising, then, that online grocery sales are lower in Canada than in the U.S.</p>
<p>Canadians also express a strong preference for <a href="https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/industries/retail-consumer/total-retail/total-retail-categories.html">shopping for food in stores</a>. </p>
<p>Globally, 70 per cent of consumers prefer to get their groceries by visiting stores, but that number is 81 per cent for Canadians. There are <a href="http://www.ift.org/Food-Technology/Daily-News/2017/June/21/majority-of-us-consumers-arent-shopping-for-groceries-online.aspx">lots of reasons</a> why shoppers prefer picking up groceries in person, including cost, the ability to choose products on impulse and the issue of scheduling and waiting for delivery.</p>
<p>There are clear differences between the markets in the U.S. and Canada. They help explain why Canadians have been slower to embrace online grocery shopping here.</p>
<p>The Canadian grocery market is dominated by Loblaw, Metro and Sobeys, representing almost <a href="http://www.quiconline.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/CH-Canadian-Grocery-Report-01.16.17.pdf">two thirds of the retail market</a>. Walmart and Costco are estimated to have almost <a href="https://www.thestar.com/business/2017/05/16/canadian-traditional-grocers-see-slowing-market-share-loss-to-costco-walmart.html">10 per cent of the market</a> and are gaining ground. By comparison, the <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/16/amazon-whole-foods-control-only-sliver-of-the-grocery-market-for-now.html">U.S. market</a> is much less concentrated. </p>
<h2>Big-box stores have posed bigger threat</h2>
<p>Given that Canadian consumers have expressed a strong preference for in-store shopping, the main competitive pressure is coming from bricks-and-mortar big box stores. </p>
<p>Some have argued that the Amazon purchase of Whole Foods was, in part, an acknowledgement that some bricks-and-mortar stores are necessary, particularly for fresh produce categories.</p>
<p>It’s hardly surprising then that retailers have not made expansion to online shopping and home delivery a competitive priority. Why beef up online options when customers aren’t clamouring for it? </p>
<p>Nonetheless, pressure is coming from smaller players and non-traditional grocers. A strong and well-positioned regional brand, Longo’s Brothers, is prioritizing growth through its <a href="http://www.canadiangrocer.com/top-stories/longos-expands-grocery-gateway-69767">Grocery Gateway</a> division in the Toronto area. </p>
<p>Longo’s has seen significant growth at the expense of the big chains, but that growth is on a relatively small customer base. Grocers are preparing themselves anyway, in the event that Amazon’s online and home delivery options are a huge success. That threat is driving traditional grocers to increase online offerings.</p>
<h2>Online execution is hard</h2>
<p>Executing online sales is difficult, however. </p>
<p>Grocery retailing is a relatively low-margin business, and there are costs associated with online shopping and home delivery, especially the “last mile” — the final leg of the delivery to the customer’s door.</p>
<p>The cost of delivery for the grocer is also highest in the early days, before a big customer base has been built up. That’s resulted in partnerships to facilitate delivery. Walmart, for example, uses Uber and <a href="http://www.deliv.co/">Deliv</a> to allow for same-day delivery for individual customers, so route planning and trucks aren’t needed.</p>
<p>What’s more, consumer wariness and resistance <a href="http://www.ift.org/Food-Technology/Daily-News/2017/June/21/majority-of-us-consumers-arent-shopping-for-groceries-online.aspx">to a number of elements</a> unique to online grocery ordering pose challenges. There are often delivery and membership fees, which raise the cost of shopping. Consumers also have to wait for the order. Not only is delivery delayed, but it needs to be coordinated so someone is there to accept delivery. </p>
<p>Grocery companies are making efforts to address these concerns. </p>
<p>Some retailers are offering pickup at stores or other central depots. Amazon and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/walmart-in-fridge-delivery-beat-amazon-2017-9">Walmart have proposed having drivers enter houses</a> to put food in the fridge and avoid the need to have a consumer at home. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195312/original/file-20171119-11473-fyh812.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195312/original/file-20171119-11473-fyh812.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195312/original/file-20171119-11473-fyh812.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195312/original/file-20171119-11473-fyh812.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195312/original/file-20171119-11473-fyh812.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195312/original/file-20171119-11473-fyh812.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195312/original/file-20171119-11473-fyh812.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A worker for Loblaw’s Click and Collect service gathers a customer’s order at one of the grocery chain’s outlets in Toronto in June 2016.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>After all, there are clearly benefits for grocers who offer online shopping and home delivery. </p>
<p>Order sizes for groceries are likely to be bigger, and more regular, than for books, electronics or other items. Once a customer has tried an online food retailer, they may be less likely to switch. They become familiar with the interface, and an algorithm can make recommendations based on past purchases to speed up the order process, creating customer loyalty.</p>
<p>Increased offerings may also drive demand to some degree, but retailers don’t want to establish unprofitable channels without some assurance that demand exists and will grow.</p>
<p>Right now, the fact that online represents a smaller share of total food expenditures in Canada than elsewhere has more to do with consumer preferences than with an industry lagging in its offerings.</p>
<p>Online grocery shopping options will grow if more consumers become interested, but it’s unclear how quickly wary Canadians will embrace them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/87651/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael von Massow is research director of the Guelph Food Innovation Laboratory which includes the Longo’s Retail Food Lab. </span></em></p>Online grocery shopping is a potential growth area for Canadian grocery chains. Yet Canadians are proving to be lukewarm about buying groceries online, preferring to shop in stores.Michael von Massow, Associate Professor, Food Economics, University of GuelphLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/869212017-11-06T23:12:41Z2017-11-06T23:12:41ZThe puzzling probe into Canada’s alleged bread cartel<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193318/original/file-20171105-1055-1yynse8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Loaves of fresh-baked bread line the shelves at a bakery. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Douglas C. Pizac</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A bread cartel is alive and well in Canada. Or is it?</p>
<p>Canada’s Competition Bureau is <a href="https://www.thestar.com/business/2017/11/01/competition-bureaus-bread-price-fixing-probe-leaves-experts-surprised.html">investigating major grocery chains</a> for evidence of retail price fixing. </p>
<p>Loblaws, Sobeys, Metro, Wal-Mart and other companies have acknowledged the ongoing investigation. The outcome of the inquiry will likely not amount to much, but it does <a href="http://www.canadiangrocer.com/top-stories/headlines/cfig-says-it-did-not-request-investigation-into-bread-price-fixing-76597">raise the question</a>: Why is bread is being targeted by the bureau?</p>
<p>Demonstrating beyond a reasonable doubt that grocers are colluding to keep retail prices artificially high is almost impossible. Several attempts have been made in the past, with mixed results. </p>
<p>The average grocery store carries well over 30,000 different products, and prices can be affected by an array of factors: Commodity prices, energy and labour costs, new food safety and packaging regulations among them. These and others factors can all influence price points in many categories more or less simultaneously. An intentional collusion to falsely inflate profit margins would be hard to prove.</p>
<p>Historically, bread prices have been quite stable, with the exemption of 2008 and 2009, when prices <a href="http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/11-402-x/2010000/chap/prices-prix/prices-prix01-eng.htm">jumped almost 50 per cent in a single year</a> for all bakery products.</p>
<p>On the whole — unlike prices for fruits, vegetables and even meat products — bread has been immune to fluctuating prices for some time. In fact, Canadians have access to the most affordable food basket in the world.</p>
<h2>Canadian food prices are relatively low</h2>
<p>After the United States, Ireland and a few other countries like Singapore, Canadians <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2017-food-security/">spend less on food relative to their income</a> than most countries in the world.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, since we live so close to the United States, where food quality is generally questionable but amazingly cheap, we often believe our own food prices are unfairly high. Prices are indeed higher here than in the United States, but <a href="https://cdn.dal.ca/content/dam/dalhousie/pdf/management/News/News%20&%20Events/21135-Food-Price-Report-Eng-2017-Final.pdf">much lower</a> than in many places around the world. </p>
<p>In the last month alone, food retail prices have dropped in Canada, <a href="http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/62-001-x/2017009/tbl/tbl-4-1-eng.htm">including bakery products.</a> So, to suggest that food prices are inflated in Canada is somewhat far-fetched. And if Canadian consumers are paying too much for bread due to price-fixing schemes, the evidence isn’t readily apparent.</p>
<p>At the centre of this investigation, however, is a much deeper problem that lies in the food supply chain. </p>
<p>For years now, grocers have engaged in an open war with food processors, with grocers trying to position themselves as protectors of the public interest by pushing vendors to lower prices in order to remain competitive.</p>
<p>For the past few years, tensions between grocers and vendors have been at an <a href="https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/tensions-rising-again-between-loblaw-suppliers/article36832146/?ref=http://www.theglobeandmail.com&">all-time high.</a> Major grocers have demanded price cuts from suppliers, causing a domino effect on the entire industry. </p>
<h2>Small grocers complain</h2>
<p>So, it’s not surprising to learn that independent grocers, through an industry association, <a href="https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/association-of-small-grocers-raised-alarm-over-bread-prices/article36802207/?ref=http://www.theglobeandmail.com&">passed along their concerns</a> to the Competition Bureau. Consumers have barely noticed the conflict. Until now, that is.</p>
<p>Almost by design, the Competition Bureau may be trying to communicate to the market that grocers are on watch for squeezing processors.</p>
<p>As a food staple, bread is an appealing target. The bureau could have selected any food product, but bread’s status as a staple makes it an obvious choice — a clear majority of Canadians eat bakery products almost daily and, as a result, its price is an ongoing concern.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193436/original/file-20171106-1041-1iwy210.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193436/original/file-20171106-1041-1iwy210.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193436/original/file-20171106-1041-1iwy210.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193436/original/file-20171106-1041-1iwy210.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193436/original/file-20171106-1041-1iwy210.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193436/original/file-20171106-1041-1iwy210.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193436/original/file-20171106-1041-1iwy210.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Everyone loves bread. That’s why Canada’s Competition Bureau might have chosen it to make a point to big grocers about their treatment of food processors.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It was chosen for a reason: To make an otherwise dreary, obscure, supply-side issue more imperative to the daily lives of consumers. </p>
<p>Publicly traded companies extorting each other is less of a political or PR concern than allegations that grocers are allegedly gouging consumers. The investigation will likely not yield material results, but bread is clearly the best medium through which the bureau can send its message.</p>
<p>It’s not likely any grocer will be accused or arrested any time soon, but the Competition Bureau investigation could potentially restore peace within the food industry family. </p>
<h2>Probe could bolster the food sector</h2>
<p>A vibrant food sector is not possible without a strong food-processing sector, and making sure all make a decent profit within the food industry is difficult. </p>
<p>Nonetheless, consumers can only benefit if all sectors, from farm to table, succeed over time: we end up with a greater variety of decently priced, high-quality, innovative food products. Ultimately, and without sending anyone to prison, this investigation could strengthen the food sector.</p>
<p>Grocers know better than to engage in a doomed strategy of quotas and illegal price-setting activities. The mere spectre of a grocery cartel would not only be bad business, it threatens to tear up the social contract with the Canadian public that they adhere to every single day. </p>
<p>Consumers can expect to see deals being made within the industry in the days ahead. </p>
<p>Food shoppers will almost certainly experience rebates in the bakery section as grocers rush to reassure their customers that a bread cartel in Canada is nothing more than a myth.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/86921/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sylvain Charlebois does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Canadian consumers could benefit from the Competition Bureau’s investigation into the so-called bread cartel, but not in a way they think. Here’s how.Sylvain Charlebois, Professor in Food Distribution and Policy, Dalhousie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/866412017-11-01T22:37:14Z2017-11-01T22:37:14ZThe Grocerant: How smart grocery stores are becoming hybrids<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192736/original/file-20171031-18725-120jylc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">"Grocerant" is a new term that describes what smart grocery stores are becoming -- a place for shoppers not only to stock up on essentials, but also to buy high quality prepared meals that can be taken home or eaten on site.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Food trends are difficult to follow these days. Just like hip sectors like tech, the food industry is coming up with its own peculiar lingo when describing market shifts.</p>
<p>One of the latest examples is “grocerant,” a word combining “grocer” and “restaurant.” The term has been around for a few years, but it seems to have gone mainstream in recent months. Or at least it’s a term most of us will be hearing more often. </p>
<p>But as trendy as it is, the term “grocerant” is also in fact quite relevant and accurately captures what is happening in the food industry these days. In short, a grocerant is a grocery store that sells prepared meals, to either eat on site or take home.</p>
<p>The numbers are staggering. According to NPD Group, a research outfit in the U.S., <a href="https://www.npd.com/wps/portal/npd/us/news/latest-reports/2016/enter-the-grocerant-grocery-stores-winning-at-foodservice/">grocerants generated 2.4 billion new visits</a> and over US$10 billion in sales in 2016 — a massive shift. </p>
<p>Efforts to offer more convenience are resulting in numbers not seen since the <a href="http://smallbusiness.chron.com/percentage-sales-drive-through-windows-fast-food-restaurants-75713.html">drive-through phenomenon</a> several decades ago. </p>
<p>In Canada, while the numbers are little more obscure, we are seeing similar trends. Many retailers are on the move. </p>
<p>Given that convenience seems to have more currency than ever before, two worlds are currently colliding in the ready-to-eat space at grocery stores, which caters to people seeking portable solutions to accommodate their hectic daily lives. </p>
<p>Grocerants offer a one-stop-shopping solution for consumers driven by either curiosity or a lack of time. An increasing number of grocery stores now allow customers to buy and eat on the spot. <a href="http://www.canadiangrocer.com/top-stories/how-to-be-a-grocreant-64184">Some stores in Canada</a> and the U.S., including several independents such as Longo’s and even larger outfits like Loblaw, Sobeys and Metro, deftly merge both food retailing and food service under one roof. </p>
<h2>Grocery stores challenging restaurants</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.dal.ca/news/2017/05/19/dal-study-explores-eating-habits-across-canada.html">Research suggests</a> many consumers generally perceive grab-and-go food products to be healthier than meals you can get at a restaurant. This works well for grocers.</p>
<p>Price wars constitute the other driving issue for grocers. Over the last 15 months in Canada, food retail prices have barely moved. But the price of food purchased at restaurants has increased significantly, more than double the general inflation rate. </p>
<p>This would suggest that menu prices are much more immune to market cycles than retail food prices. Demand in food service is inherently more inelastic, so margins can be kept up and defended in most cases, no matter what the economy is doing.</p>
<p>But restaurants aren’t staying quiet in the face of this new trend. Restaurant operators are fighting back <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/10/16/facebook-is-rolling-out-local-food-delivery.aspx">by using technology</a> to their advantage. Many are responding by using UberEats and other food delivery services, even expanding their market by offering meal kits and developing new ways to reach consumers.</p>
<p>In other words, they are trying to go where the money is instead of just waiting for the consumers to come to them.</p>
<p>Some say it’s all about millennials. It is indeed about offering fresh, healthy, reasonably priced products for the largest generation that is slowly taking over the economy. </p>
<h2>Aging baby boomers have an impact too</h2>
<p>But the changes are more deep-rooted, beyond just millennials. Millennials certainly have the economic influence to trigger the changes we’re seeing, but many demographics are behaving differently around food. </p>
<p>Families with older children like the enhanced grocerant experience, while aging baby boomers need the convenience. The appeal is across the board. Millennials were the first generation not willing to settle for what was being offered to them by grocery stores. The rise of the grocerant represents the awakening of an industry that’s been complacent for quite some time.</p>
<p>In the realm of the convenience factor that’s a critical part of the grocerant movement, the ready-to-cook market is also emerging as an interesting opportunity, but not without some headaches. </p>
<p>In the U.S., Blue Apron, the largest and best-known meal-kit provider in the world, is waging an uphill battle. The company has <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2017/10/18/blue-apron-is-laying-off-6-of-its-staff/">just laid off</a> six per cent of its staff and its stock has gone nowhere since going public in June. </p>
<p>On the other hand, we’re seeing evidence that grocers like what they see from meal-kit outlets. Plated, the five-year-old American meal-kit company, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/09/22/how-shark-tank-business-plated-sold-to-albertsons-for-300-million.html">was acquired last month by the grocery giant Albertsons,</a> for approximately US$200 million.</p>
<p>Grocers do have the capacity to cover a broader market with their product offerings, but have not yet made much of a play on meal delivery and quality. </p>
<p>Grocery chains, in fact, are often not hardwired to successfully meet new challenges. But that’s slowly changing. Metro made a significant move this year <a href="https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/metro-acquires-majority-stake-in-ready-to-cook-meal-service-missfresh/article35854476/?ref=http://www.theglobeandmail.com&">by acquiring Miss Fresh</a>, and many expect other grocers to follow suit.</p>
<p>In processing as well, Campbell’s Soup, Unilever and many others <a href="https://www.foodnavigator.com/Article/2017/10/20/Competition-in-meal-kits-heats-up-as-Unilever-enters-fray">are investing in meal kits</a> to explore what could become a US$10 billion industry by the end of next year. </p>
<p>It’s all a growth opportunity that cannot be overlooked by grocers. They’ll need to hire the right people, with the right mindset, in order to capitalize on these new opportunities. And because of changing consumer expectations and behaviours, survival seems unlikely for stand-alone meal-kit outlets.</p>
<p>So the convenience food battle is alive and well. Grocers were losing for a while, but the emergence of grocerants across the country is a sign that the industry is listening to what the modern consumer is telling them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/86641/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sylvain Charlebois does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The “grocerant” model is going mainstream, and it’s not just because of millennials. A wide swath of consumers from different demographics are demanding the convenience of a grocery store/restaurant.Sylvain Charlebois, Professor in Food Distribution and Policy, Dalhousie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/832862017-09-04T22:58:22Z2017-09-04T22:58:22ZAmazon’s appetite for disruption<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/184072/original/file-20170830-24237-1wkunnf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A man shops for avocados at a Whole Foods Market in New York on Aug. 28. The splashy price cuts Amazon made as the new owner of Whole Foods has attracted some curious customers.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Amazon is not wasting time in its acquisition of Whole Foods. Speed of execution, after all, is at the essence of the tech giant’s business model. </p>
<p>As soon as American regulators approved its acquisition of Whole Foods, Amazon said it would <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-amazon-whole-foods-prices-20170828-story.html">aggressively reduce the price</a> of several organic staples in all of the 431 Whole Foods stores in the United States and Canada. They began doing so last week. Amazon’s playbook is about low margins and high-volume sales — for anything, including avocados, baby kale and grass-fed ground beef.</p>
<p>Technically, Whole Foods <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/02/09/why-whole-foods-is-now-struggling/">was in a free fall</a> before its acquisition. Store traffic was shrinking, sales were sluggish and the company was having difficultly convincing shareholders that organic food sales are immune to economic cycles and pose a bright future for the company. </p>
<p>In fact, Whole Foods reinforced the notion that organics are, for the most part, exclusive and for the elite. Its nickname in the U.S., after all, <a href="http://adage.com/article/cmo-strategy/amazon-aims-eliminate-foods-paycheck-image/310237/">has long been Whole Paycheck</a>.</p>
<p>Organic groceries are more expensive, costing consumers almost twice as much as conventional food products. Margins are also a sweet deal for grocers, as they can be as much as five times what they would be for non-organic foodstuffs.</p>
<p>Amazon obviously knows all this and intends to make organics more affordable and more democratic. At the same time, it also expects to make a statement as a change agent in the grocery business, putting all the players in the industry on notice. <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2017/06/16/investing/walmart-target-stocks-plunge-whole-foods-amazon/index.html">Slumping stock prices for the major U.S. grocery chains</a> show Amazon certainly has the market’s attention. </p>
<h2>Walmart biggest seller of organics in U.S.</h2>
<p>It’s not the first time a giant retailer has attempted to make its mark in organics. </p>
<p>Through its mastery of supply chain management, <a href="http://grist.org/food/why-you-should-be-skeptical-of-walmarts-cheap-organic-food/">Walmart has made organics more affordable</a> over the last decade or so, although with mixed results. When it committed to organics, Walmart wanted to offer more than 140 different organic products to its customers, but failed miserably. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/184074/original/file-20170830-24230-13f1h6k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/184074/original/file-20170830-24230-13f1h6k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184074/original/file-20170830-24230-13f1h6k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184074/original/file-20170830-24230-13f1h6k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184074/original/file-20170830-24230-13f1h6k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184074/original/file-20170830-24230-13f1h6k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184074/original/file-20170830-24230-13f1h6k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Outside a Walmart store in Daytona Beach, Fla.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Walmart soon discovered that the realities of organic farming make accessibility more challenging. Over the years, it adjusted expectations by offering fewer but cheaper products. Today, Walmart is now the largest seller of organic food products in America. </p>
<p>But Amazon now has Whole Foods, the mecca of organic food, which gives it a huge advantage over Walmart. With its newfound access to an incredible organics ecosystem that encompasses well-established farms, suppliers and wholesalers, Amazon can execute its strategy almost instantaneously in ways that Walmart could not. </p>
<p>And so it begins, but it remains unclear how all this will affect the Canadian organic market. </p>
<p>Unlike the U.S., food prices in Canada <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/inflation-cpi-july-1.4252545">have started to rise again</a> in recent months.</p>
<p>If anything, Canadians could see organics go up in price too due to Amazon’s determination to introduce more Americans to organic products. With higher demand south of us, procurement could become more challenging for Canada’s major grocery chains even if our currency <a href="https://www.thestar.com/business/2017/06/28/canadian-dollar-hits-four-month-high-as-july-rate-hike-odds-jump.html">remains strong</a> against the greenback. But over time, as Amazon increases its footprint in Canada, all this could change. </p>
<p>The American food distribution landscape is much different, especially today. With German-based Lidl and Aldi <a href="https://progressivegrocer.com/5-reasons-lidl-aldi-will-win-grocery-game">also expanding into the U.S.,</a> Americans may witness a continued food price war. </p>
<h2>Food prices dropping in U.S.</h2>
<p>Except for July, food prices in the United States <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-09-27/eight-cent-eggs-consumers-gobble-cheap-food-as-grocers-squirm">have dropped for 18 months</a> in a row, the longest stretch since the 1950s. Pricing always has a very direct, short-term impact on profitability. Over time, though, the survivors absorb the shocks coming from the competition and from lower prices. </p>
<p>Since Amazon has never played the high-profit, high-dividend game, this is a non-issue for the company. But in terms of organics, the Amazon/Whole Foods story will only make matters worse for Kroger, Safeway and other competitors. </p>
<p>Why? </p>
<p>Convenience rather than prices is the primary factor in organics. And so organic retailing coupled with online selling can only leverage Amazon’s position in the marketplace. The distribution power driving Amazon’s move on Whole Foods makes the online giant almost immune to any procurement challenges, a common issue in organics. </p>
<h2>Meal kits next?</h2>
<p>Amazon’s next move could involve meal kits. </p>
<p>For years, grocers have treated food services like meal kits as an afterthought. But given that some analysts are projecting the online food service market is likely to increase 15 times faster than the rest of the restaurant business by 2027, some are starting the move. </p>
<p>The first out of the gates in Canada was Metro. <a href="https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/metro-acquires-majority-stake-in-ready-to-cook-meal-service-missfresh/article35854476/?ref=http://www.theglobeandmail.com&">Metro’s brilliant move</a> of purchasing the ready-to-cook meal delivery company MissFresh this summer is evidence that grocers are starting to see the potential, but it has been slow. </p>
<p>Amazon, however, does not move slowly.</p>
<p>Blue Apron, a U.S. meal kit provider, just announced <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/22/blue-apron-puts-hiring-freeze-in-place-cuts-recruiting-staff.html">it was reducing its sales force</a> to better calibrate sales with capacity. Several meal kit start-ups have emerged and have done well, but no one has proven they can be sustainable for the long term.</p>
<p>Many have to spend an outrageous amount on marketing, and set very high price points for their products. It’s easy to see how Amazon could get into the meal kit business by using its massive data-driven strategies. Will Amazon bulldoze into Blue Apron’s territory? </p>
<p>Amazon is essentially about merchandizing convenience for all. Organics, meal kits — it’s all about convenience. </p>
<p>For years, Walmart mastered the concept of simplicity and one-stop shopping at a big box store. But Amazon is, quite frankly, betting on the indolent nature of mankind. And it’s winning.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/83286/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sylvain Charlebois does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Amazon has pledged to continue slashing prices at Whole Foods now that it’s acquired the organic food mecca. Will that mean more affordable organic food for more people – delivered overnight?Sylvain Charlebois, Professor in Food Distribution and Policy, Dalhousie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.