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| Montrealer Laurette Sloan urges shoppers to boycott groceries in Oct. 1966 |
"Four dollars please."
Four bucks!...are you freakin kidding me brah?!
Modern price sticker shockers like this were once so common that for generations cash register outrage sparked shopping boycotts and protests in Montreal.
The first Montreal grocery boycott against high food prices appears to be the potato boycott of 1916 when the Montreal Housewives League - which lasted until at least 1951 - had shoppers snubbing the spuds just before Christmas that year during WWI.*
The same housewives organization urged consumers to "fight the profiteers" in 1939 at the onset of the next big war and the thrifty women continued butting heads against dairy farmers - who irked them by fighting the advent of margarine - and sent a delegation to the provincial capital, led by Gertrude Partridge, to demand a price cut on milk products in 1946.**
But the wallet-closing perfect storm initiative against high food prices in Montreal was supposedly sparked in 1966 when a Toronto shopper claimed that a store was charging $1.20 for a single turnip, about $9.21 in today's money.
Quebec's League of Women, who boasted 100,000 members, joined in on the boycott of larger chains in October 1966, while Inflation Fighters, led by Ursula Krueger of 5331 Henri Bourassa east were on board.
Krueger was no softie, accusing the smaller stores of hiking prices once they realized that they had a new captive market."Grocery store owners were behind the boycott but once they got the women buying from them at the promised 10 percent cut, they started raising their prices again," she said.
About 75 women assembled in Verdun to plan their boycott strategy at a meeting which saw federal cabinet minister Bryce Mackasey applaud the frugal women and their actions, which would last about three weeks that ended in early November 1966 without any clear result.
Montreal housewives even vowed to launch their own coop grocery stores to keep prices down. Norma Meyers launched a group called Angry Consumers that picketed Montreal supermarkets.
"Food boycotts and picketing while useful in attracting publicity are only temporary inducements to chain stores to lower prices. We must find a more permanent solution. We are forming a committee of businessmen, bankers, architects and other qualified people to advise us how and where to set up co ops," a representative said.
"Food boycotts and picketing while useful in attracting publicity are only temporary inducements to chain stores to lower prices. We must find a more permanent solution. We are forming a committee of businessmen, bankers, architects and other qualified people to advise us how and where to set up co ops," a representative said.
Boycotts were few after that, although a Toronto group called WARP - Women Against Rising Prices, inspired the inception of a Montreal group known as the Mouvement Quebecois pour le boycottage des prodiuts alimentaire.
That group took aim at a new list of products every week in an effort to bring those prices down, so for example on 7 April, 1979 they asked shoppers to boycott "all meat that costs $1.75 or more, sugar cereal, canned fish, grapes costing more than $1.25 per pound. " and so on.
The legacy of all of this is a theme which resonates throughout Coolopolis - systems have improved with time and our lives our better than in the past. Over the years the portion of a family's budget devoted to food shopping has been radically diminished as food production and delivery has been streamlined to the point that our lives have all benefitted.
So Montrealers, feel joy when you slide that bank card over the cash reader as the cause of your grocery price stress no longer measures up against the misery of the past.
* Mtl Gazette pg. 3 Dec. 4 1916
*Ibid Oct. 7, 1946 p. 7
Food and General Consumer Prices and Rules - Part 1
ReplyDeleteLaws and rules change over time. It wasn't so long ago that the major supermarkets in Quebec such as Steinberg's, Dominion, Dionne, A&P, etc., were not even permitted to sell beer at all; this in order to give the local, small grocery stores the opportunity to generate a little more neighbourhood business. Even so, as we all know, high-end wines and hard liquor were (and still are) sold exclusively by outlets of the Quebec Regie des Alcools--later renamed the SAQ.
Over time, these regulations were cautiously eased further when those small grocers and depanneurs could legally sell Quebec-made apple cider. Subsequent pressure was applied to the provincial government so as to allow the large supermarkets to not only sell beer and cider, but some cheaper brands of wines, vodka, etc., but with the SAQ still exclusively mandated to carry the more expensive brands and imports.
Another weird and thankfully sinced-removed Quebec law was when local bakeries were not allowed to sell bread and other related baked goods on Sunday (or was it Monday?) ostensibly because at that time their unions cited unfairly forcing extended working hours or something to that effect. It also took many decades for Quebec margarine to legally be sold with a yellow colouring, although in fact this was an issue that had/has existed in many countries around the world: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margarine
Most inconvenient of all, many such food-related and other businesses in Quebec were not permitted to open on Sundays at all due to it being considered "The Lord's Day", not to mention certain union rules back in the day.
It was not until sometime in the 1980s that, following persistent public pressure and election promises, these archaic "blue laws" changed with 7-day business hours becoming at first optional and then acceptable general practice. For one thing, more and more people who worked the night shift did not always have the opportunity to do their essential shopping during the day when they would rather be sleeping--or try to.
Food and Consumer Prices and Rules - Part 2
ReplyDeleteOntario's rules lagged way behind even longer, however, and perhaps may even continue to do so in some instances today. "Lord's Day" Sunday closures in that province were once strictly enforced across the board.
Indeed, how well I remember taking the subway to the Yorkdale shopping centre on a Sunday back in 1971 expecting to find someplace to eat lunch, only to discover that the entire complex was closed! I couldn't believe it! No restaurants, no fast food joints, nothing! All I could find were snack vending machines. Disgusted, I went back downtown to some restaurant which served a meal nowhere near the quality we have come expect in Montreal--a situation which, incredibly, continues today. Go figure! Can anyone explain why this is so in the 21st century?
Food and Consumer Prices and Rules - Part 3
ReplyDeleteBut, back to Quebec and excuse me for digressing somewhat, one anomaly I find annoying is that some sales outlets in industries such as hardware, electronics, and others deliberately operate only from Monday through Friday between 9-5 and some even close before 5 p.m.
Correct me if I am wrong, but I assume these are "jobbers" or middle-men which exist mainly to supply retailers and not the general public. Retailers must present an official Quebec tax number at a jobber's sales counter in order to qualify paying the lower price legitimately available to them so that they can, in turn, add their mark-up to you and I.
These restricted business hours therefore make it inconvenient for would-be consumers of the general public to show up at their sales counters before closing time but when they do manage it, they are sometimes met with frowns and even a rude attitude by surly "salesmen" as if our money isn't good enough for them. They cannot legally refuse to sell to us but they are clearly not too happy about it. ("What, no tax number?", although I do remember a friend of mine who would give them a phony or expired tax number from a defunct business and not be questioned about it. Money talks).
Most of these jobber-type outfits are generally located in industrial parks or way out in the boondocks and therefore present a potential problem to access, particularly if you the "average Joe or Jane" hobbiest works downtown and cannot arrive in time before they shut their doors.
One tip: it definitely helps to be a "social engineer" and make a friendly, preliminary phone call to these outfits which may in some instances not actually have an official sales team as such. Tell the official to whom you are speaking know exactly what you want, ideally citing their own or the original manufacturer's part number. Usually (and when a bulk or a problematic minimum-quantity purchase is not required) if what you want is not in stock they will even back-order a single item for you that you can pick up later at a convenient date and time. This has been my personal experience, anyway, and definitely beats being compelled to purchase what may otherwise be an obscure and expensive item via U.S. websites.
It would be interesting to hear from anyone reading this who has first-hand experience and/or precise information about exactly what the laws and rules are concerning such jobbers and middle-men, so please be kind enough to share it here.
Some final gripes: too many retailers these days--including the giant chains like Walmart, Best Buy, Reno Depot, and Bureau en Gros (Staples)--continue to exclude many of their items from the shelves of their brick-and-mortar stores and which can only be purchased from their online catalogs, which of course requires the would-be consumer to pay ridiculously high shipping charges unless the item is sent to the actual store for customer pick-up. Always check first by phone to determine if what you want is really "in store" before running over there. Such big chain retailer webpages usually verify the "in store" status of an item, but not always, and beware of what you see on their U.S. webpages as the products might not be available from their Canadian counterparts' catalogs. Some products just are not available here, unfortunately, presuably due to lower consumer demand. Nothing new about that, to be sure.
Thankfully, though, the Internet has generated so much competition today that a determined consumer will usually find what they are seeking and from the most convenient and reasonably-priced source from a local source ideally accessible by public transit. Beware those ubiquitous bait-and-switch so-called "Canadian" webpages which in reality ship from the U.S.A. at U.S. dollar prices. You may very well also be required to pay customs duty so check the fine print on those sites.
As always: buyer beware!