Grocer Sobeys Inc. is cutting its fresh food prices in Western Canada as it feels the pressure of low-cost rivals touting their discounts in oil-struck markets and stealing away business.
Sobeys is being hit with fewer customers coming to its stores and eroding profit margins and sales, especially in Alberta and Saskatchewan, company executives said on Thursday after posting disappointing third-quarter results. Sobeys is also struggling with a troubled integration of its newly acquired Safeway chain.
“We’re not dealing with the same customer psyche that we were dealing with even a year ago,” Marc Poulin, chief executive officer of parent Empire Cos. Ltd., told analysts. “The behaviour of the customer has changed in Western Canada, and we have to acknowledge that.”
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