Service or Self-serving
Anyone who has tried grocery shopping on a weekend, and that counts in anybody who has a regular job and wants to eat, has run head on into the law that protects “the little guy”. The law that prohibits more than a limited number of employees in a supermarket after darkness or during the day of rest. The law that guarantees that the depanneur won’t be put out of business by the huge corporate monsters that feed all but a select few.
Well, the Couche-Tard group, with close to nine hundred small stores, have asked for a change in the law. They’ve started a campaign involving postcards and other attention-getters to convince the government to alter a law which goes back to 1992 and was put in place for their benefit. The group (in concert with other depanneur owners) would prefer a law which did not restrict the number of employees on the floor of their foe, up to 21h00 each day. That would be seven days a week, 359 days of the year. However, the hours of darkness would belong to the “little guy”, to sell whatever to whoever, until sunrise. Sort of a vampire period.
Pardon me if I see more than a little self-interest in this campaign. The reality is that the grocery stores have adjusted quite nicely to the restrictions currently in place. Sure, it takes a little longer to pay for my $200 of groceries, although not as long as it took me to make my choices. Sure, the butcher is gone by the time I get to the store, but since I only appeal to Mr. Bloody Hands about once a year, that’s not a big deal. Careful attention to logistics means that the shelves are full ANY time I go to a grocery store. I can buy food in the evening at fair market value.
The alternative would see me back in the hands of the guys who think a can of beans is worth $2.50, and who can sell me pop at three times the price of the grocery store with a smile.
I hope the government will see the wisdom of keeping a system that works in place. At least we don’t face the restrictions found in other provinces; no Sunday shopping, or no evening shopping, or…
The depanneurs may have to learn to adjust. After all, they can buy the beans at least as cheaply as me. Cut the greed out at the cash register and I might drop in for more than a popsicle on a really hot day.
