Government-run grocery stores？
Episode Stats
Words per minute
148.94449
Summary
In this episode, we talk to Gary Sands, Senior VP of Policy and Advocacy for the Canadian Federation of Independent Grocers, about grocery stores, government-owned and operated grocery stores in Canada, and why they should be rolled out across the country.
Transcript
00:00:00.000
Today is Gary Sands, Senior VP of Policy and Advocacy for the Canadian Federation of Independent
00:00:06.600
Grocers. Welcome, Gary. Glad to be here. Thanks for having me. Well, we've heard proposals now,
00:00:12.140
actually more than just proposals. I mean, Toronto City Council has approved a pilot project for
00:00:17.140
grocery stores, government operated, owned and operated. And now we have Abby Lewis, the new
00:00:23.740
leader of the NDP saying this is such a great plan. We should roll it out nationally. What do you
00:00:29.140
thing? I think it's a case of they don't know what they don't know. You know, I think
00:00:36.420
governments should stick to what governments should be doing, what people have voted and
00:00:42.560
elected them to do. But in the grocery industry, I think what they're doing is they're pandering
00:00:52.260
to people who are looking for some sort of magic bullet solution to, you know, the rising price of
00:01:00.660
food, which is a global issue. And there just is no simple magic bullet solution to it. If there was,
00:01:08.540
I'm sure there'd be a host of countries ahead of Canada and the city of Toronto,
00:01:13.900
implementing those magic solutions. But, you know, for independent grocers, we know what's
00:01:20.080
involved in starting up a grocery store and the challenges and let me tell you there's a lot of
00:01:25.680
expertise needed you need to have a very entrenched uh deep relationships uh embedded in the supply
00:01:33.840
chain and uh there's overall for an independent grocery in canada your margin is overall about two