Foes of Loblaw are openly urging shoppers to steal food from its stores, as online ire against the Weston family grocery empire takes forms drawn from the pages of Victor Hugo. 

Wednesday—which happens to be International Workers’ Day, or May Day—marked the start of a month-long boycott against the supermarket giant, which has become the main target (and meme fuel) in the social media backlash to the cost-of-living crisis. 

Here’s how we got here: 

Profits soar: Food prices spiked over the past two years, with several months of double-digit inflation in 2022 and 2023. While inflation has slowed—prices rose just 1.9 per cent in March compared to a year earlier—groceries have settled at costs unaffordable to many Canadians. 

On Wednesday, as if on cue, the Brampton, Ont.-headquartered chain posted a 9.8 per cent profit in the first quarter of the year, compared to the same period in 2023, and raised its dividend payment 15 per cent to 51.3 cents per share. The results reflect a rise in grocery-store traffic but a drop in basket size, or how much shoppers buy per visit. Critics online say that’s because customers can’t afford to buy what they need. 

What does it all meme? The online masses have united in their contempt for the country’s largest grocery chain on a subreddit called r/loblawsisoutofcontrol. The forum, which has amassed 63,000 members, features a steady stream of boycott scheming, and riotous memes vilifying Loblaw president Galen Weston Jr. The campaign hit a creative height this week when Toronto-based parody troup Opera Review released a song in support of the boycott titled “Les MisérLoblaws,” a parody of Les Misérables piece “At the End of the Day.”

(Don’t) Steal from Loblaws Day: The official Loblaw shitposting channel is calling on Canadians to stop buying from Loblaw-owned stores, including No Frills, Real Canadian Superstore and Shoppers Drug Mart, for the whole month of May. But the group distanced itself from calls to pilfer from the chains. “This ‘steal from loblaws day’ has ZERO affiliation to our boycott, and we condemn the behaviour,” said a group moderator. 

“Nok er nok”: Protesters have co-opted the Danish slogan “Nok er nok”—which translates to “enough is enough”—from Loblaw’s Danish CEO Per Bank, who used the phrase in an April 22 memo to employees condemning the looming boycott. “This turn of phrase feels appropriate lately, as misconceptions about our role in the ongoing food affordability crisis continue,” wrote  Bank. Boycotters pounced. “Let’s make Per Bank eat his own words,” one Redditor responded. “NOK ER NOK, my starving Canadian friends.”