PR stunt

Imagine if a car dealership froze the prices of their cheap models for three months. Would that be newsworthy?

Loblaw (L.TO) is freezing prices on more than 1,500 No Name products until Jan. 31, as skyrocketing inflation continues to drive up grocery bills for Canadians.

Canada's biggest grocer announced Monday that it will freeze prices of all its private label No Name items until the end of January.

So, one of the largest grocery chains in Canada won't increase price of some products for three months. Since the beginning of 2020, I've noticed that the price of an average item in a grocery store goes up twice a year. So, basically, every six months, there's a price increase. Of course, they don't all go up at once but that's the general time frame. Freezing prices for three months doesn't sound that impressive.

All Loblaws has done is set themselves up for a huge price hike in February and informed us all about it in advance.