Rose's Cantina

Update: Since this post was published, an internal memo from Loblaws, obtained by Canadian Press, revealed that French's ketchup was being pulled from stores to stop the "cannibalization " of the Loblaws' brand by the Canadian product. Loblaws denies this, of course. Maybe they're smarter, and dumber, than I gave them credit for. Loblaws had some 'splainin' to do yesterday after it pulled French's ketchup off the shelf because it wasn't a big seller. The people spoke, and the grocery chain had it back on the shelves before you could say, "Want fries with that?" Despite its claims that it sources local whenever possible, it's quite clear that the Westons don't give a rat's ass about where they get stuff. Either that, or they simply don't pay attention to the news. There was great uproar when Heinz took its act on the road and left Ontario throwing hundreds out of work. And yet, Heinz is still front and centre in L...

A few months back, Loblaw introduced a new program called PC Plus in Ontario. It is basically a loyalty program, the same as Air Miles, except all you can do is buy groceries with your points. But who doesn't like to get a free turkey now and again? And, on paper at least it is pretty sophisticated. Every week, you get an email giving you special offers based on your love of, say spinach or green onions. Buy these groceries and you get massive numbers of points, not one or two like Air Miles. Each 20,000 points nets the consumer 20 bucks worth of product and the purchase of a number of products can bring in more than 1,000 points. One weekend, Loblaws offered 2,000 points for the purchase of 80 bucks worth of groceries. That's 20 bucks worth of swag on an 80 buck order! Chaching. Unfortunately, the program has a few glitches. For one, good luck finding the products. Two weeks ago, there was an offer of 1,200 points for the purchase of Cascade bathroom tissue. So Sc...

Dear Mayor Watson: I have a bum knee, otherwise, I'd have tracked you down at one of the shopping malls where you've moved your office. I have a bone to pick, yessiree, Jimbo. And here it is. My dog park, located at Conroy Pit, has dog poo in nearly all of the trees these days. Some of it is low hanging, some of it is hidden away in tree crotches and some of it is speared onto branches to resemble piñatas. It's in festive blue and red bags, but most of it has Galen Weston's brand on it. President's Choice, the King of Poo. If you look in the bushes, there is poo there, too, on the mossy landscape. It's not laying there like the dogs decided to take a crap and the owners didn't pick it up (although there is some of that, too). Nope, the owners have been vigilant about wrapping their dogs' turds before hanging it up. But sometimes, they forget where they leave it. I believe this is the fault of your council. Perhaps it is the fault of th...