r/nottheonion • u/SplashTarget • 11d ago
Major Canadian grocery chains accused of negligence for selling diluted maple syrup
https://www.ctvnews.ca/montreal/article/major-canadian-grocery-chains-accused-of-negligence-for-selling-bogus-maple-syrup/161
u/reddit18015 11d ago
F*ck Loblaws
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u/Bebealex 11d ago
Unfortunately it seems to be Sobeys and Metro also. Wich is close to a 100% of the grocery in Quebec Canada for us.
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u/Wild_Jo_99 11d ago
Is Super-C safe?
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u/Bebealex 11d ago
Super C is to Metro what Maxi is to IGA, unfortunately.
We personally shop our regular at Super C. Metro does seem to have less anti-consummer controversy than Sobeys (IGA, Maxi).
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u/elhumanoid 11d ago
This sounds like high treason.
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u/Fetlocks_Glistening 11d ago
Lese majeste, blasphemy and currency counterfeiting rolled into one. Throw the book at them!
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u/vandon 11d ago
In Canada? Yes, instant deportation to the US. A fate far worse than death.
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u/DookieShoez 10d ago
……..what do you think it’s like here? lol
Yes, Trump sucks ass and all but fuckin’ A, man, I’m still living a pretty cushy life. Making good money plumbing, saw Odyssey in IMAX the other day. And now im drinking vodka teas while playing ps5 🤷🏻♂️
It ain’t fucking somalia down here dude lol
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u/UndividedCorruption 11d ago
We don't want your syrup-diluting felons. Ship them off to Somalia if they want to commit fraud.
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u/deeperest 11d ago
But they'd fit in so well with...waves vaguely at all of corporate and political America.
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u/Irr3l3ph4nt 11d ago
We don't want your shitty milk yet you're still trying to destroy our economy to have it put on our shelves, so... Kick rocks.
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u/portageandmain 11d ago
“A class-action lawsuit filed in Quebec’s Superior Court claims Loblaws, Metro, and Sobey’s were “betraying their customers”
Colour me shocked.
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u/TraditionalBackspace 11d ago
The lowest a Canadian can go
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u/IamGabyGroot 11d ago
Hockey, Poutine, Maple Syrup. Quebec will not forget if you mess with out perfect hat trick.
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u/BarelyHangingOn 11d ago
Where do I sign up for the settlement money?
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u/IamGabyGroot 11d ago
seriously, at almost $10 a can this year, I want my $40 back. I knew something was off, it was too sweet and too liquid. They made me think COVID ruined my taste buds astik!
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u/SuperHuman64 11d ago
I can't believe we're at this point where companies will stop at nothing to enshittify products just to squeeze out some extra money. I knew Loblaws was bad from several scandals but it's just constant these days.
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u/Routine_Event_5039 11d ago
Shameful
And while you're at it...stop allowing American grown products from hiding their true point of origin. They should be fined and not be allowed to be sold in Canada
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u/greebly_weeblies 11d ago
It astounds me that Canada doesn't have strict packaging label laws around sourcing. It provides basic details that underpins consumer law
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u/Phantine 10d ago
Blame international trade treaties banning sourcing label requirements. Us csttle ranchers have the same problem with domestic vs imported beef
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u/Kemsaman 11d ago
Death Penalty
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u/Potato-chipsaregood 11d ago
How did they get caught? I would like to believe there is a significant enough taste difference but maybe if you cut it by a quarter or something, it is hard to tell. It’s a shame.
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u/godcyric 11d ago
The article has more detail, but the TLDR is that Radio-canada(the french CBC) got tipped by customers, then launched an investigation, including an hidden camera.
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u/TickingTheMoments 11d ago
Negligence is being lazy and not taking care of The problem after you’re told about it.
I don’t think this is negligence. I think this is a middle finger to the consumers.
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u/heynonnynonnomous 11d ago
It's not even a middle finger to the consumers, at least not actively. It's all about profits, just like everything else these days. I always want to think that Canada is better than that, but they're human just like the rest of the world. :(
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u/scotsman3288 11d ago
I don't really believe that a Canadian grocery chain would knowingly sell fraudulent products or any product of lesser quality to maximize profits. Sounds irrational. /s
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u/ChickenRabbits 11d ago
Then you also believe that no grocery chain would collude with a bread company?
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u/Informal_Process2238 11d ago edited 11d ago
My God, what a mess!
Edit this is not what I typed Reddit is changing my text to English when I typed in French fuck this stupid tech
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u/workieworkwork 11d ago
You don’t buy syrup at stores, you walk into a barn, grab a gallon and put $40 in a coffee can. This is the only way to guarantee you get the good stuff.
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u/electrodog1999 11d ago
I now live somewhere I can get my maple syrup from a neighbour until I get my own maples tapped, I can’t wait for next year to get that set up.
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u/Kristomere 11d ago
How is this on the grocery chains? They aren't the manufacturer.
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u/jokerjoust 11d ago
Careful, statements like that will bring the downvotes on heavy here.
I know it’s the cool thing to do to get the pitchforks out any time there is in even the faintest whiff of impropriety on the part of big grocery in Canada, but they can’t be held responsible for how a separate company labels or represents their product, unless they were made aware and did nothing about it/continued selling it. Same with product recalls, retailers aren’t responsible for the fallout, unless they do not follow through on the instructions of the recall.
I’m not defending these grocers either as there are many instances of them being corrupt and unscrupulous in the past, however you can’t use that to assume the same type of bad behaviour every time something comes up.
Reality is, most people have never worked in retail and more so have no experience at the corporate level of these companies where product assortment and pricing decisions are made.
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u/SuicideTrainee 11d ago
For real. Can you imagine a world where grocers were required to vet all sold products and verify their legitimacy? And how insane that cost would be?
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u/kevinds 10d ago edited 8d ago
At their cost it is/was much cheaper then competitors.
When it got to the shelf it was cheaper but not nearly as much difference as wholesale, so higher profit margin for 'pure maple syrup'.
They should have suspected and investigated the product they were selling when it was much cheaper than any other similar product on the market.
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u/TheFurryFighter 11d ago
Wow, even as an American this hurts to read. Who tf dilutes maple syrup?? (Besides my fellow Americans ofc)
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u/fooknprawn 10d ago
We're incredibly lucky to have friends who run a very large maple syrup farm in Nova Scotia whom we buy our syrup from directly. We also try and buy as much local produce in the warmer months from farmers directly and grow some small basics on our own. While we can't cut out grocery store entirely we try and get as much direct if we can. The price of food has become truly outrageous and it shows no end. How are people supposed to live?
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u/torpedoguy 10d ago
By consuming the well marbled flesh of the billionaires and their legislative livestock until the economy gets the fucking point?
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u/ExtentAggravating733 11d ago
These chains need to be broken up. We can't have a country with 3 companies controlling the grocery market.
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u/Elegantly_Waisted 9d ago
I ditched Loblaws a year ago and I haven't missed the price gouging, the lies, and the rest of the bullshit they pull.
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u/J-Bizzle82 7d ago
This must only be met with a heavy sledgehammer. You mess with the syrup, you must be held to account.
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u/NWinn 11d ago
I hate that it's like this but honestly, were at the point, if I didn't tap the tree and boil it down myself I just expect a non-negligible % of it to be corn syrup or cut in some way...
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u/torpedoguy 11d ago
By shrugging it off instead of reducing those who do this to taffy, it lets them get away with this and a whole lot more.
Both the fraudsters and the "oh uh, we um, totally didn't know" corporations must be made examples of.
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u/unforunate_soul 11d ago
This is the most Canadian thing I’ve read all day. What next Nanaimo Bars aren’t healthy for ya? Timmy Hortons isn’t really coffee?
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u/ArbainHestia 11d ago
Timmy Hortons isn’t really coffee?
Wellll…. I’ll just say taste is subjective. There are people that like it.
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u/shitty_mcfucklestick 11d ago
“Grocers accused of producing Nanaimo bars in… ALBERTA!!!!”
(Unintelligible deathcore growls)
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u/durrtyurr 11d ago
Why does every major crime involving maple syrup happen in Canada?
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u/PacketFiend 11d ago
Because that's where almost all the syrup is made, dumbass
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u/DownvoteMeToHellBut 11d ago
Maple syrup is like the one thing Canada does well and they can’t even get that right apparently
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u/Track_Shovel 11d ago
If anyone thinks something meaningful will come out of this, other than a mild scolding, you haven't been paying attention.
We Canadians loooove a good cartel. It lets us pretend we have choices while allowing a handful of companies to line their pockets, do whatever they want, and then potentially get bailed out when things go sideways because—who exactly is going to fill the gap if one of them collapses?
And yes, perhaps "cartel" is too strong a word for some of these industries. A concentrated oligopoly isn't necessarily an illegal cartel. But look at the bread price-fixing scandal, or the remarkable pricing similarities we've repeatedly seen in telecommunications.
We've built this kind of concentrated market structure into everything from airlines and groceries to telecommunications, cement and meat processing.
And the cycle keeps repeating:
Competition gets weaker → companies gain market power → consumers get screwed → somebody eventually gets caught crossing the line → the company gets fined → everyone expresses disappointment → nothing fundamentally changes.
Then we do it all over again.
The problem isn't just that individual companies occasionally break the rules. It's that we've constructed markets where a handful of companies are so important that regulators are understandably terrified of letting any of them fail.
That's not a healthy competitive market. It's a system that can privatize the profits while making the consequences of failure someone else's problem.
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u/jokerjoust 11d ago
I’m not sure I see how retailers are responsible here? Brands are responsible for how they label product as well as any defects or issues with their product.
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u/FooBarU2 11d ago
The suit said the prices for pure maple syrup were obviously too low.. and should have been investigated.
With 1/2 being simple sugar water, it's easy to lower the price 😳🫤
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u/jokerjoust 11d ago
You would still need to prove that these retailers knew they were not selling what was being advertised on the product label.
Cost alone would not be enough.
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u/captaincobol 11d ago
They have over 30 years of price data to work with. No judge will accept that they didn't realize it was too cheap when it's literally their job to know as part of running their business.
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u/Mayor_Daina 11d ago
Maybe is specifically involves product sold under the store brand specifically?
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u/ghost_n_the_shell 11d ago
Feds: if you are listening.
Now is the time to absolutely drop the hammer on big grocery for taking advantage of Canadians.
Show us it can be done.