Customers accuse Loblaws of screwing them over in new way after produce find

Chatter about the practices of Loblaws and other grocery chains in Canada has been never-ending now that food inflation and alleged price gouging have been thrust into the spotlight, and some shoppers are drawing yet another seemingly suspect find at their local stores into question.

Photos have emerged online of green onions on the shelves of Loblaws without their roots, which customers seem to feel could be some sort of nefarious tactic to prevent them from using the store-bought onions to grow their own at home.

While it is unclear how many locations in Canada (and which ones, exactly) that residents have been noticing the phenomenon at, it seems that consumers' general displeasure of the supermarket giant amid a national boycott against its prices is prompting more warinesss of the brand than ever.

They’ve started cutting the stems off of Scallions
byu/Vast_Librarian_3484 inloblawsisoutofcontrol

A recent Reddit post showing the chopped-down vegetables garnered nearly 300 comments and 1,000 upvotes on the platform, while a similar photo is likewise making the rounds on other socials.

While some are quick to blame Loblaws and offer what they believe the reasoning for the move might be, others wonder if the occurrences are simply isolated errors by staff, something encouraged on a more local level by management rather than by corporate, or something that happened at the supplier rather than the store level.

Others suggested that it may have also been done to make the produce sellable if the roots had started to rot.

As the top comment on a Reddit post on the subject reads, "I used to be a produce boy at Loblaws years ago. Hate the company totally now. This might just be a bad trim job from a young idiot like myself. Unless this is being done at multiple stores, I'd assume it's an underpaid worker making a mistake."

"It's not like [Loblaws heir] Galen Weston is sitting in the back room trimming the green onions," another added, though still another replied to point out that higher-ups would indeed have some sort of involvement if this happened to be a new company policy.

Man, Loblaws really need that margin for that head office boardroom of donkeys eh? pic.twitter.com/MAaGyeYSeJ

— adam (@TheBrewHead) May 11, 2024

In response to the allegations that the onion amputations were potentially deliberate, a spokesperson for Loblaw Companies Ltd. joked that they "peeled back the onion" looking into the incident, which "it turns out happened accidentally during a morning prep shift to one unfortunately batch of green onions."

They assured blogTO (and the public) that the instance was limited to one time at one store, and that the onions ended up being removed from shelves rather than sold. "We hope this solves the mysterious chive-y conundrum," they added.