Loblaws ridiculed over what do you feel guilty about tweet
Tsk, tsk, tsk... brands on Twitter. Will they ever learn? For the sake of my own career, I certainly hope not.
In what might be the dumbest thing Loblaws has done since replacing all the words on their self-checkout machines with pictures, the Canadian grocery giant put forth a bizarre question to its customers this week online: "What do you feel most guilty about?"
The question was posed in the form of a Twitter poll, in which participants could select from four options: not spending enough time with their kids, eating easy frozen meals, ordering in too much, or spending too much money.
Loblaws deleted a Twitter poll due to replies like these before we could find out what won ... pic.twitter.com/ULrE46LQ4o
— twelvethirtysix (@1236) June 6, 2018
It didn't take long for people who saw the tweet to suggest a fifth answer — one that Loblaws, they suggested, should choose for itself: "Fixing the price of bread for 15 years!"
Loblaws - who famously admitted their part in a national price-fixing scheme a few months back - posted this tweet, asking people what they feel most guilty about.
— Chris Patrick Carolan (@cpcwrites) June 6, 2018
Predictably, this didn't go so well for them. https://t.co/SZyf3F0wDl
...Among other things.
I systematically stole from from every Canadian on an ongoing basis for 15 years, I turned huge profits while hiding billions in offshore tax havens, I worked tirelessly to remove rights and benefits from thousands of workers.
— Drew Riley - 🥰 (@WerdEmUp) June 6, 2018
Oh no wait, right, that was you. https://t.co/qtn0l44vT8
As replies to the poll started rolling in, Loblaws was reminded of a very recent and very high-profile scandal in which they were revealed to have colluded with at least six other corporations to keep the cost of bread higher than it should have been.
What about you, Loblaws... What do you feel most guilty about? Maybe... the price of bread?
— Nickie (@MuskokaMoneybag) June 5, 2018
Canada's Competition Bureau concluded in January that Loblaws, Metro, Sobeys and Walmart had all "committed indictable offences under the Competition Act" for their roles in a nearly 15-year-long, "industry-wide price-fixing arrangement involving certain packaged bread products."
Penalties have yet to be publicized, but Loblaw Companies Ltd. and CEO Galen Weston Jr. won't suffer much.
They were given immunity in the case for cooperating with investigators. For its penance, Loblaws gave Canadians the chance to register for and receive one free $25 grocery card each.
Ask Galen if he feels even slightly guilty about using a Barbados tax shelter to withhold $400 MILLION that should have flowed to Canadian residents in the form of schools, roads, social services, etc. Thanks! https://t.co/ush5NdJ5LH
— Hi-Fi Pizza (@hifipizza) June 5, 2018
Loblaws deleted its Twitter poll within 24 hours of having posted it, presumably upon realizing that it was really dumb and bad.
LOL Loblaws deleted their 'what do you feel guilty about' tweet after getting swarmed with reminders that they colluded to fix the price of bread.
— Adam (@ChalicothereX) June 6, 2018
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