STELLARTON, N.S. — Analysts this week said that Sobeys will likely follow Loblaw and Metro in demanding higher fees from suppliers, raising concerns the move would drive competition down and prices up. Loblaw wrote to suppliers last week saying that its business has become “more challenging and costly to operate” and that it will charge more to carry products beginning in January.
“I’d be surprised if other big grocery retailers didn’t do the same thing,” Michael von Massow, a University of Guelph food economist, told BNN. “We’re likely going to see this happen across the board.” Dalhousie Professor Sylvain Charlebois, who specializes in food policy, said he anticipates a similar announcement from Sobeys “before the holidays”. He said that the “oligopoly in food retail in Canada … puts smaller independent grocers at a disadvantage.”
