Loblaw has announced it is adding some information to products affected by tariffs.
In a statement on LinkedIn, the CEO and president of Loblaw Companies Ltd., Per Bank, said the organization has created a tariff symbol (T) to help customers make choices on goods.
“Because of the tariffs imposed from the U.S., the Canadian government has been forced to put a range of retaliatory tariffs in place, on roughly $30B worth of goods,” Bank said in the statement, “things like poultry, dairy items, fruits and vegetables, and more. This will unfortunately have consequences.”
Bank said the reality is Canadians should be prepared to pay more for goods originating from the U.S. in the coming week and Loblaw will try to identify non-U.S. options.
“Canadians should not expect to see prices in our stores increase right away as a result of tariffs,” Bank stated.
“As you would expect, we have inventory of U.S. products in our distribution centres, which we purchased before the tariffs went into effect. That means the pricing of many products will not be impacted until we sell what we already have on hand.”
However, price increases could come within a few weeks for some products, such as fresh produce.
“It’s simple: when customers see a ‘T’ on the price tag they know it has been directly sourced from the U. S. and impacted by tariffs,” Bank said.
Customers shopping at stores such as No Frills, Real Canadian Superstore, Shoppers Drug Mart, Loblaws, Maxi and more will see these stickers.
Loblaw previously announced it will be putting a Canadian maple leaf sticker to show which products are produced in Canada.
Bank said that when the tariffs are removed, any tariff pricing changes will be removed.