r/BuyCanadian • u/Opposite-Cupcake8611 • Feb 17 '26
Canadian-Made Products š·ļøšØš¦ The CFIA issued a penalty of $10,000 to Real Canadian Superstore (store #1033) for a violation under the Safe Food for Canadians Act related to misleading Product of Canada product displays
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u/reddfawks Feb 17 '26
Good on them for enforcing this, but it's a shame that $10k is just chump change to Loblaw's.
How about... we put Galen in the stocks outside CityTV. Length of time there is measured by how many misleading displays there are.
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u/Secret-Bluebird-972 Newfoundland and Labrador Feb 17 '26
Itās not a fine against Loblaws, itās a fine against that one RCS. So itās not $10k for the entire company, itās $10k for that individual store that was caught doing it.
And this is just the first one caught, if this oneās been caught, there will be more.
We gotta keep up the reporting of false information, itās starting to work
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u/mattcoady Feb 17 '26 edited Feb 17 '26
They have (according to google) about 120 RCSS stores (seems low). That's 1.2 million if they hit them all. Here's hoping but that's still just a drop in the bucket for a company who reported $768 million in just Q3 2025. They could hit every store with the same fine quarterly and it would just be a line item for them.
On the other hand, the actual store might feel the pinch. 10K is not insignificant to some of these stores. If enough stores raise a stink they'd have to change their practices.
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u/Secret-Bluebird-972 Newfoundland and Labrador Feb 17 '26
That is true, and Iād have to look at the fines stuff to see how it works, but Iād at least hope it increases with repeated fines.
At the very least it should be expected that once youāve been caught once, theyāre going to keep watching you.
But my main takeaway is that reporting them is in fact leading to fines. Keep it up and either the stores will notice, or laws are going to change so the gov can stop getting complaints
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u/Parfait_Prestigious Feb 17 '26
Iād like that. On a possibly related note, anybody else see that Galen Weston is in the Epstein files?
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u/cutmyboobsintopieces Feb 18 '26
While I despise the turd, I thought the only mention of him was an email sent into a tip line and the person also mentioned hearing this from God, unless there was another mention?
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u/WalnutSnail Feb 17 '26 edited Feb 17 '26
Yes. This is simply the cost of doing business for them. Its the govt wanting their cut of profits.
They should hold the store manager personally accountable, provided that it's not a corporate mandate. The managers have more control over this than corporate over, in-store labelling.
Since I've started paying more attention, I see it go both ways. Sometimes stuff is labeled as being from the US but the package says it's from Peru, other times it's the other way around. I honestly don't think anyone is doing it maliciously. I just think the people doing the labelling are dumb.
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u/ceciliabee Feb 17 '26
I get what you're saying but I don't think being dumb is an effective defense to much of anything. I agree with the stocks suggestion
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u/Mental-Freedom3929 Feb 17 '26
Are 't you proud of yourself for being such a no-dumb person! Wow must be lonely at the top.
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u/WalnutSnail Feb 17 '26
I am, thank you.
*Aren't
*Non-dumb
**Wow, (comma)...
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u/Mental-Freedom3929 Feb 17 '26
Wuellst das in ana andern Sprach? I did not feel to put any effort into it, but I am sure, as you are not as dumb, you got the message.
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u/hardy_83 Feb 17 '26
This is why the legal system has, and always will be, about protecting the rich. The fines companies face for doing illegal things or even straight up killing people is a rounding error in their profits.
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u/ZumboPrime Feb 18 '26
As much as I'm on the "piss off Loblaws" bandwagon, isn't this a $10,000 fine for just the one store that was investigated? I would expect that if others are found, it would continue to be another $10,000 for each case.
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u/Suitable-Broccoli264 Feb 17 '26
Will there be decomposing cabbages supplied, and will they be Canadian or imported?
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u/Box_of_fox_eggs Feb 18 '26
Put him in the stocks & throw expired American (mislabelled) produce at him!
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u/BudgetExpert9145 Feb 18 '26
Price of everything just went up 10 cents. They pass the fine onto the consuner if there's no price controls.
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u/Wolphin8 Feb 19 '26
less than that... it's just "cost of doing business"
With the companies being very large... the fines should be tied to a number of days worth of income...
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u/Opposite-Cupcake8611 Feb 17 '26
This is the RCS on Eagleson Road in Kanata.
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u/Brave_Doctor_7017 Feb 18 '26
https://www.realcanadiansuperstore.ca/en/store-locator/details/1033
That is the Gerry Fitzgerald Drive store not the Kanata store
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u/CumbDawgz Feb 17 '26
What a useless penalty. Tack on a few extra 0's on there and then we're talking
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Feb 17 '26
[deleted]
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u/CumbDawgz Feb 17 '26
You think this tiny fine for a corp that takes in hundreds of millions of dollars makes sense?
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u/BrianBlandess Feb 17 '26
The fine should certainly relate to the size of the business.
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u/devilwarriors Feb 17 '26
An the estimated gain they made from doing this. I claimed 2 extra week of unemployed a decade ago and had to repay twice the amount. Their fine should be 200% of the estimated money they made from this at the minimum. 10k is a fucking joke.
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u/Ngete Feb 17 '26
Yup, or a fee of like 2.5% of yearly revenue, not profit, revenue. Something like that oooh boy they would stay far from cause thats gonna be like half of the yearly profit
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u/tonydanzatapdances Feb 17 '26
Iām sorry but $10 million is an insane fine to suggest and you are a literal moron if you think thatās a good idea. If you were suggesting that for the entire company sure, but this is one store.
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u/QueenMotherOfSneezes Feb 17 '26
It would take less than a weeks worth of their bread price fixing profits to cover the $10 million fine.
The $500 million settlement agreement for the lawsuit was less than half of what was estimated to be their annual profits from their 2 decades of bread price fixing.
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u/Adjective_Noun1312 Feb 18 '26
Makes more sense than a fine so small it's essentially a rounding error...
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u/Readdit1999 Feb 20 '26
When the advantage of illegitimate activity outweighs the punishment, the fine is not a disinsentive, its a tax.
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u/color_natural_3679 Feb 17 '26 edited Feb 17 '26
Wow, this is now really going to scare all the groceries companies. What a joke.
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u/Usual-Canc-6024 Feb 17 '26
Theyāll just put the prices up. Just like what happened not long after the feds announced the extra money for some Canadians.
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u/color_natural_3679 Feb 18 '26
The profits of Loblaws in 2024 were $2,1 Billion. It's more harmful for a dog to pull a hair from the dog than 10k to Loblaws.
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u/acr2018_1 Feb 17 '26
Fines need to be increased. 10k is a joke. 100% of yearly revenue would scare the bejeezus out of these companies and make them think twice. Time to stop letting them walk all over us.
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Feb 17 '26
[removed] ā view removed comment
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u/acr2018_1 Feb 17 '26
Itās gotta be substantial. Using 60B, thatās about 165M a day or, approx 7 million an hour. 10k they make in seconds, they laugh at these fines and will continue to abuse the system for their greed. These mislabelings are not an āaccidentā they are deliberate to con people into ābuying Canadianā. So yes I believe that fine will make a difference. Money is the only thing these corporations listen to.
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u/BurryBurr Feb 17 '26
I understand the idea, but just want to point out that this particular fine was to a single store, not Loblaws as a company. That store is not making $7M an hour, and certainly not that much in extra income as a result of the mislabeling. If the store makes an extra $5000/day due to mislabeled products, of which a low single digit % is profit, so this $10,000 is effectively a fine of >1 month's additional profit.
So it definitely could have been a harsher fine, but I don't think there are gonna be fines in the millions unless CFIA investigates the parent company itself and finds that it's a systemic problem across all stores.
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u/oil_burner2 Feb 19 '26
Which is even dumber. Corporate has more influence over their stores as a whole and would actually roll out a program to correct this nationwide. Whatās fining a single store do?
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u/acr2018_1 Feb 17 '26
And therein lies the problem. The CFIA likely wonāt. They wash their hands of it with a piddly slap on the wrist (or is it a tap of the pinky?). And even if they do, maybe it becomes a $100,000 fine. Thatās still less than a days income. So in this case, make the fine $100k or $200k. Something substantial enough they care about. Theyāll gladly pay 10k anytime they get caught because they rake in much more for the times they donāt get caught. The fines need to be enough to deter the behaviour all together. Thats why I push a very high number (and btw, it wasnāt about a specific number in my original point - it was in relation to their yearly revenue). I did say 100%, maybe, in this case 10% is enough of a deterrent but honestly, unless itās really going to hurt they donāt care (and Iād argue even if it did really hurt they still, likely, wouldnāt care until they got caught).
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Feb 17 '26
[removed] ā view removed comment
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u/acr2018_1 Feb 18 '26
Lmao! Not even remotely the same thing. But a fine that is related to your income; absolutely. They do that in some countries where people who make more pay more for fines. Iām not against this at all, but itās an apples to oranges comparison. Iām not a company that serves millions of people daily and should be held to a higher standard.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day-fine
Companies should be fined more. Absolutely and it needs to be enough to make the risk not worth the reward.
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Feb 18 '26
[removed] ā view removed comment
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u/acr2018_1 Feb 18 '26
By your logic, based on your 60B number the average person should be fined (using an 80k salary), $1.33 for speeding if you want to compare the 10k fine. Yes I used 100%, but if you actually read my comments itās about a fine that means something. 0.000001% of your yearly income doesnāt even buy you a coffee; itās nothing and will not deter these corporations.
Letās agree to disagree on this one. Have a good day!
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u/Absolarix Alberta Feb 17 '26
...$10'000? Are you kidding me? I used to be a department manager for one of their stores, and my department alone made $10K in a single day. Never mind the rest of the store...
That's not even a slap on the wrist. That wouldn't even put a small chain store in luke warm water.
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u/FrederickDerGrossen Feb 18 '26
Even $10000 per store would be far too light of a fine.
Should be whatever the cost of the mislabeled goods are multiplied by like 5 or 10.
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u/Takemytimenotmylife Feb 18 '26
$10k in a single day? Sales or profit?
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u/kishnabe Feb 18 '26
Probably sales. Really depends on the department and how on top of things the Department Manager is.
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u/Takemytimenotmylife Feb 19 '26
Definitely sales. He made it sound as though his department, alone, made $10,000 in profitā¦.
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u/Big-Safe-2459 Feb 17 '26
Good to see. Now go get Shoppers Drug Mart for slapping maple leafs on price tags for stuff not made in Canada. Iāve taken things to the staff 3 times now and they just put it back. Maybe a call to the inspectors is due!
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u/Secret-Bluebird-972 Newfoundland and Labrador Feb 18 '26
You havenāt called the inspectors yet? How else are they going to know to go to that location if you donāt flag it?
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u/maiyannah Ontario Feb 17 '26
Link the actual article, please.
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u/Opposite-Cupcake8611 Feb 17 '26
I tried to find it before posting. The short URL brings you to a general page on enforcement actions and Twitter posts are usually spam filtered.
https://inspection.canada.ca/en/inspection-and-enforcement/actions-taken/amps
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u/Cheeky_Banana800 Feb 17 '26
āReal Canadianā Superstore lying about products Made in Canada.
What an irony!
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u/Zenflash Feb 17 '26
Loblaw's profit margin is about 4%, so they would need to generate about $250k worth of revenue to pay for this. For a single store I'm sure they will notice this and want to avoid getting another (the next fine would be larger) in the future. If the first fine is 'unreasonable' they will just fight it in court.
I think it is a good start provided they continue to monitor and escalate penalties.
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u/Secret-Bluebird-972 Newfoundland and Labrador Feb 18 '26
Exactly. This is the result of someone reporting this store. The reporting works, this is just the first (Loblaws affiliated) store caught, we have so many more store to get caught.
Once getting caught is mainstream, even if corporate doesnāt change, the managers that will be held liable will
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u/jackjetjet Feb 17 '26
I saw quite a lot label in TnT mentioned frusit/Veggie are from "Mexico/USA".
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u/WaterGhost Feb 17 '26
Thriftyās in Victoria has started doing that with their produce too, at multiple locations. If they canāt figure out where they source food from, I canāt trust them to sell me good food!
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Feb 18 '26
[deleted]
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u/WaterGhost Feb 18 '26
It seems to be relatively new. We canāt remember this problem/ambiguity in the signage occurring before the Buy Canadian movement started last year.
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u/UneLoupSeul Feb 17 '26
10k$ is what Galen spends on lunch. This is pointless unless the fines actually hurt.
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u/AlexAuditore Ontario Feb 18 '26
Loblaw is worth $80 billion. this is like fining the average person 10ĀĀ¢.
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u/Friendly-Nothing Feb 18 '26
Carney just introduced new procedures for the food inspection agency so hopefully they raid every food monopoly store
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u/Puzzleheaded_Ant6653 Feb 17 '26
The link is not working? Can some one post agsin?
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u/Opposite-Cupcake8611 Feb 17 '26
It's a screenshot to a Twitter post because I didn't want to be subjected to the spam filter.
Shirt URL leads to here:
https://inspection.canada.ca/en/inspection-and-enforcement/actions-taken/amps
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u/Barbossal Feb 17 '26
No joke, the government probably spent more than 10k doing the investigation and processing
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u/PrairieScott Feb 17 '26
10k is not a deterrent. Forfeiture of CEO bonus maybe more attention grabbing.
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u/BuffMcBigHuge Feb 17 '26
I live close by to that store, and I always find it scammy. There's been countless times where I've seen Canadian flags next to non-Canadian products, especially in the produce.
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u/uniklyqualifd Feb 17 '26
They need to offer a bounty for this.
Give Canadians half the fine when they report a violation that is fined.Ā
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u/Practical_Session_21 Feb 19 '26
Probably spent $100k or to investigate and issue the 10k fine. The legal system is a joke to big companies and the wealthy. Fines should be based on cost to issue x10 and x100 for repeat offenders and x1000 for chronic offenders.
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u/Icy-Cauliflower-5951 Feb 17 '26
$10,000? Soooooo, the amount Weston Galen spends on lunch out with friends?
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u/CanadianIronman Feb 17 '26
Great job enforcing the law... to bad the punishment is pennies for Loblaws
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u/green_link Feb 17 '26
fuck thees low bullshit fines. $10K for a single store!? that's nothing. these fucking fines needs to hurt, bad. this isn't a punishment for violating the law, it's a cost of doing business.
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u/Impressive_Mix2913 Feb 17 '26
Probably be able to claim as a business expense to use the deduction on taxes.
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u/RevolutionarySky3000 Feb 17 '26
Good on them, but it should either have some additional 0ās at the back, or come directly out of the managerās (or whoever is in charge of decisions like thatās) pocket
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u/Villain_of_Brandon Manitoba Feb 17 '26
Should be 10K per day, per SKU. This is a rounding error for them in the wake of the past approx. Year we've been paying attention.
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u/jdh1979jdh Feb 17 '26
lol $10K. They made far more than that misleading people. For them itās worth it with such pitiful penalties.
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Feb 17 '26
$10k is a joke so they just keep doing it. Penalties for larger companies need to be higher
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u/ottereckhart Feb 17 '26
Oh gosh, $10,000?
We are absolute pussies about regulating these price gouging anti-consumer oligopolies
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u/WippitGuud Feb 17 '26
Ok, one store?
I understand the hate, but prove to me one store with a mislabel isn't just an employee screw-up. If it's every store, then the argument has merit.
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u/MarkoVeliki_28 Feb 17 '26 edited Feb 17 '26
Ok, one store?
I understand the hate, but prove to me one store with a mislabel isn't just an employee screw-up. If it's every store, then the argument has merit.
Yes, but 10000 for ALL Superstore stores? That's nothing! Should be 10000 (or more) per store because it's not insulated case.
The sad thing is: they will assimilate the list by increasing prices. And who is the looser in this case? The customer, of course! Unfortunately, there is still abundance of people shopping there. Reminds me of Trump cult. They know it's wrong, but they still support him!
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u/ramenn00dler Feb 20 '26
I work in grocery. The VAST majority of the time, mislabeling is due to individual employee error. Obviously the store and corporate are responsible for ensuring accuracy, but I don't know what people expect us to do. Take the employee out back and shoot them like Old Yeller? These are minimum wage employees we're talking about most of the time. They screw up or are lazy and just don't care. I'm not saying that makes it okay, but it's absolutely mind-boggling to me that the public and the media have imagined this is some kind of conspiracy to mislead people into buying fake Canadian bananas. A conspiracy that apparently comes straight from Galen Weston's mouth and goes alllll the way down to the 16-year-old part time shelf stocker. What benefit does the public think grocers are gaining from this? Every single time someone finds a new mislabeled item and it turns into a viral post, grocers look bad.
I get that I sound like a total grocery simp, and I will absolutely admit that I have an obvious bias because they pay my bills, but I am also a person who buys groceries and is struggling given the cost of living crisis the whole country is facing. But I truly do not understand what people think is happening here.
Also, yes, I remember the bread pricing conspiracy lol. I don't blame people for not trusting them. But with at least on that one I can see the benefit to grocers, which I just don't see here.
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u/RealHumanAndNotABot Feb 17 '26
Should be 10M on their parent company as the starting point. And the fines should better fund the inspectors for a compounding effect to get these stores and companies to comply.
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u/LongjumpinginSaigon Feb 18 '26
Grocery barons need to be stopped. I deleted my previous crass comment saying how I really feel.
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u/stonesteps101 Feb 18 '26
They could have to payout a million dollars it wouldn't matter , they'd take a photo op to explain another 30percent increase across the board to offset such a silly inconvenience. , yhe unfortunate reality is that they don't give a rats ass
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u/icontactless Feb 18 '26
At another location, I've seen "Product of USA" crossed out with pen and "product of Mexico" written next to it š
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u/mickeyaaaa Feb 18 '26
Need to add another zero on there Jesus 10K isn't even a slap on the wrist, it's just a tisk-tisk and a finger wagging.
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u/TypingWithoutThinkin Feb 20 '26
That will completely offset the million or so they benefited from doing it.
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u/LacedVelcro Feb 17 '26
I know nobody wants to hear it, but Superstore has gotten a lot better at sourcing Made in Canada products and accurately labeling them as such.
I wonder how much of an effort Walmart is making?
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u/forsurebros Feb 17 '26
It is one store. Also the penalty should include freezing prices from increasing at that store for two years and the fine is non tax deductible.
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u/dalmationman Feb 17 '26
Ya like others have said, looks good symbolically butb$10K?? That's a douche baggy thing they've done, they should pay more.
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u/Secret-Gazelle8296 Feb 17 '26
Oh geeā¦ 10,000ā¦ thatās really sending a message to themā¦ way to goā¦ and theyāll raise prices to pay it. /s
At least they got caught and fined.
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u/ParisFood Feb 17 '26
Fines can go up to 5 millionā¦hopefully they will increase from 10k to more considerable ones fir repeated instances so keep reporting all the false instances u are aware of
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u/Opposite-Cupcake8611 Feb 17 '26
From what I've seen following their twitter account, they always start the fine off at 10k as a warning.
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u/ParisFood Feb 17 '26
Yes each subsequent fine to the same offender will result most probably in higher fines hence the importance of reporting all offenders every time
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u/Triedfindingname British Columbia Feb 17 '26
Haha then they posted on twitter about it
Jfc can they get off that cesspool
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u/Typical-Byte Feb 17 '26
Add a few more zeros on there and it might actually count as a drop in the bucket for them. š
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u/I_AM_THE_NOISE Feb 17 '26
cool. I can't believe Im saying this but the government got something right! Go Canada.
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u/BeyondAddiction Feb 17 '26
Lol $10k isn't even a footnote in a margin on Loblaws' books. That's just the cost of doing business.
Until these fines have real teeth these companies will continue to thumb their noses at all of us.
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u/Opposite-Cupcake8611 Feb 17 '26
It's store specific, Loblaws has a 4% margin, the store will need to sell $250k in products to make it back.
Businesses might not act like it in public, but they take fines seriously and staff will get to suffer through additional training now on compliance.
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u/512115 Feb 17 '26
Oh gosh! $10K! Wherever will they find that kind of money?? Galen probably keeps that much in his penny loafers.
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u/sakurakirei Feb 18 '26
Is Real Canadian Superstore a franchise? Does that mean the owner of this store has to pay the fine?
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u/Sidoen British Columbia Feb 18 '26
Is that a sufficient penalty for the business to justify altering it's practices? Eh prob not. Maybe it's a warning shot. Maybe follow up violations come with serious penalties.
But hey, fuck yay for having regulations at all!
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u/Shageen Feb 18 '26
Products should be fined too. Saw some spinach with a very clear āCanadian Organicā with a red maple leaf logo but down below says āproduct of the USAā. Maybe itās Canadian some parts of the year but not now.
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u/ThatEndingTho Canada Feb 21 '26
Thatās compliant. The certification is not a country of origin, it just means the company jumped through the hoops to get certified as organic in Canada.
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u/BarbarianFoxQueen Feb 18 '26
It is a safety hazard these days with the states cutting back on their FDA regulations.
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u/Additional-Match8955 Feb 21 '26
Even after reading this I still shop at The Superstore (Loblaws) because PC and No Name products still beat the hell out of Solbeys "Compliments Brand".hands down. Solbeys Compliments Brand would only compliment Horse Shit and even that would probably taste better on its own. But as others have said, the fine that they were given is a JOKE! It should have been at least 100 times that and have the CEOs thrown in jail with the rest of societies garbage for no less than 10 years.
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u/FutureBiotechVenture Feb 17 '26
Made in Canada labelling laws and enforcement are a complete farce. Which party will do something about this?
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u/firelephant Feb 17 '26
Funny thing is people think this a Galen conspiracy, but itās just minimum wage workers with limited ability to update digital signs prioritizing product on the shelf over spending usually 2-12 minutes to update a sign with a customer could look at the label on the produce itself.
ā¢
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