Gone are the days of 50% off products at Provigo. Its parent company Loblaw confirmed Monday to Newspaper the news broken by expert Sylvain Charlebois: we will no longer see ugly fruits and vegetables or half-price bakery products on the shelves.
“More than 19% of consumers were looking for these deals,” observes Sylvain Charlebois, director of the Agri-Food Analytical Sciences Laboratory at Dalhousie University.
“We send people to an application. We protect our margins by abandoning the 50% to force them to pay more at the meat and fruit and vegetable counters,” he analyzes. “It’s funny timing. It happens after the holidays,” he believes.
We will no longer see little pink 50% labels at Provigo. Discounts will now be 30%.
Photo Francis Halin
Fruits, vegetables, breads, juices… In recent years, many Quebecers have become accustomed to finding certain items at half price at the end of the aisles to reduce their grocery bill.
“It doesn’t make sense to put in 50% and scrape off 30%. This makes me think about portions. They reduced them and increased the price,” denounced Newspaper Michel Robert, an 80-year-old retiree, encountered leaving a supermarket on the South Shore of Montreal.
For Lise Levac, also a customer, this news does not bode well for the wallets of Quebecers.
“It’s a bad idea. I always feel like I’m losing out at the grocery store,” she shared.
- Listen to the interview with Sylvain Charlebois, economist and agri-food industry specialist on Alexandre Dubé’s show via QUB radio :
“Little impact”
Asked by The newspaper On Monday, Loblaw indicated that around fifty Provigo stores in Quebec are affected, while downplaying the scope of this decision. Remember that the company is currently converting its Provigo into Maxi.
“It has little impact in Quebec while this policy change only applies to the remaining Provigo. Discounts have already been at 30%, for a long time, in the 155 discount stores of the Maxi banner,” explained its spokesperson Geneviève Poirier.
New apps
As for Metro, we do not offer a 50% discount. “Our discount program for products for short-term consumption offers a 30% reduction, both at Metro and at Super C,” explained Marie-Claude Bacon, its vice-president of communications.
In recent years, apps like FlashFood (Provigo, Maxi) and FoodHero (IGA and Metro) have started offering products close to the expiration date (or frozen just before) at 30%, 50% or even sometimes 60% off. discount.
However, not everyone is glued to their phone to hunt for deals.