Loblaw President Says A Customer Confronted Him About Grocery Prices But Twitter Is Calling BS
The president of Loblaw Companies Limited Galen Weston Jr. was summoned before parliament on March 8 to discuss grocery store prices in Canada.
However, one of Weston's anecdotes from the committee meeting has given some Twitter users pause.
After being asked by NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh about his company's record profits and how he can "look a family in the eye and tell them that's okay," Weston spoke about an interaction he claims he had with a Loblaws shopper.
According to Weston, he was recently confronted by a shopper who was upset about the cost of groceries.
"We chatted for about 15 minutes," said Weston, recounting how he explained the various factors that have led to high grocery store prices — which include inflation and supply chain disruption.
"And she understood," said Weston. "She said 'Okay, I didn't realize that. That's not the way it's being characterized when I read the Globe and Mail or when I read the Toronto Star.'"
However, some people took to social media to share their doubts about this story.
"That customer? Grew up to be none other than Albert Einstein," said one Twitter user.
"And is the customer in the room with us right now," said another.
One user simply posted a GIF of Jonathan Frakes from the TV show Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction with the caption "[it] never happened."
Another person responded with a picture of a blue and yellow pie chart asking, "Did this happen?" with the blue segment showing "no" and the yellow representing "no but in yellow."
Another poked fun at the anecdote by posting a picture of comedian Nathan Fielder with the caption, "Galen chatting with an angry customer. They're just out of frame, laughing too."
While people on social media have called this story into question, there's no evidence that it was made up by the grocery store president, and the parliamentary committee didn't spend any time dissecting it.
Narcity has reached out to Loblaw Companies Limited for comment and will update the story accordingly.
This committee meeting follows recent scrutiny on the concept of "greedflation" in Canada, which is a term that's been coined to describe inflation driven by corporate profits.
Just this December, the federal government started an investigation into greedflation in Canadian grocery stores.
This article's cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.
