There are a million stories behind the 30-year campaign of the Loblaws chain to extend its private brand, President’s Choice, into a household term representing thousands of products. In the process, Loblaws went from being merely a bunch of grocery stores in the 1980s to a huge manufacturer and creator of many of the items on its shelves. Amanda House and her complaint that Loblaws failed to deliver on buying her yogurt treat is just the latest tale. She says that Loblaws didn’t carry through on undertakings it made to buy and sell her pro-biotic product. Loblaws then produced a product of its own which Ms. House says looks a lot like hers. Her $20-million lawsuit with Loblaw Companies Ltd., and an especially sad plea on YouTube for Loblaws to do the right thing, have earned her a meeting with the Loblaw chief this week.
Trader Dave
Ms House said no settlement offers came out of the hour-long meeting with Loblaw executive chairman Galen Weston Jr. But she was hopeful that communication will remain open between her company YoPRO Treats Inc. and the supermarket chain. “It was a step in the right direction,” said 35-year-old Ms. House, who attended the meeting at Loblaw headquarters in Brampton with her lawyer. The thing is, Loblaws can readily argue that it has done nothing wrong here. It just decided not to buy the YoPRO product and instead do what it’s been doing since the day of the fabled Loblaws President, Dave Nichol, and make its own. It was Nichol, kindly known by many customers as Trader Dave, who engineered the first jaw-dropping scheme to make Loblaws very own soft drinks.
A million stories
In the process, he kicked Coca-Cola to the back of the store. Did we say there are a million stories about President’s Choice? You have to know that every big brand name firm from Kraft to Maple Leaf got indigestion over Loblaws private label program. In the end, however, success sells. The public has embraced this concept even though some customers continue to complain that time-honoured brand names have been removed from Loblaws shelves for good. In the meantime, we can only hope that there is sympathy at Loblaws for Ms House and her colleagues. They seem like decent people.
