Grocery stores in Canada are overcharging customers - with impunity

A recent CBC report shows that numerous grocery chains in Canada have been illegally overcharging customers.

Loblaw Companies Ltd. spokesperson Catherine Thomas said in an email that due to an error involving a change in packaging, the grocer sold "a small number" of underweighted meat products in 80 stores across Western Canada...

In late 2024, almost one year after the CFIA closed the case, CBC News found packages of underweighted chicken at a Loblaws store in Toronto, and underweighted chicken, pork and ground beef at a Loblaw-owned No Frills in Calgary. It appeared the items had been weighed with the packaging...

Several packages of underweighted pork, chicken and beef were also found by CBC News at a Sobeys-owned FreshCo in Toronto in late 2024, and at a Walmart in Richmond, B.C. last week. It appeared the products at both stores had been weighed with the packaging.

Loblaws blamed new packaging - that they adopted - for the discrepancy. 

The result? Customers were cheated, and the stores walked away with their money.

The penalty?

CBC News uncovered documents detailing 11 other CFIA investigations between 2019 and 2023, where individual food stores weren't properly subtracting the weight of the packaging for one or more meat or seafood products.

The agency said that in each case, the errors had been fixed and no fines issued.

So... no penalty.

Some Loblaws stores have put products on sale to make it up to customers. But the only real way to make it up to customers is to penalize them. Otherwise, grocery stores will continue to cheat customers.

Canadians deserve responsible corporations.