If you’ve noticed that the weight listed on some of your grocery products is misleading, you’re not the only one.
Vancouverite Jacob MacLellan posted about his discovery on TikTok when he picked up a bag of No Name brand frozen vegetables earlier this week.
“So I went to the grocery store yesterday, and I just picked up some frozen vegetables because I was like, ‘They’re cheaper, they’ll last a while,’” states MacLellan in the video, which has amassed nearly 250,000 views.
@jmaclellan Loblaws, count your days @CBC @Globalnews.ca #shrinkflation #canada #inflation ♬ original sound – jacob
He said he noticed something peculiar about the 750-gram bag.
“I picked it up, and I was like, ‘750 grams? This is not 750 grams.’”
MacLellan decided to weigh the bag when he got home, and the results were shocking.
In his video, he shows his kitchen scale at zero and notes that he hasn’t opened the bag.
He places the bag on the scale, and the display shows it only weighs 434 grams, which is about 42% less product than the bag claims it contains.
“We are being screwed,” MacLellan says.
“I think that Canada needs to engage with our French side sooner than later and introduce Galen Weston to something that I call cake,” he says, referencing Mary Antoinette’s alleged infamous words during the French Revolution.
Return met with resistance from staff
MacLellan told Daily Hive that he purchased the vegetables from a No Frills location in Vancouver’s West End neighbourhood for $2.60. The No Frills website shows the vegetables selling for $2.59.
No Frills/Screenshot
MacLellan said he went back to the store to return the No Name item but was given a “tough time” by staff who claimed that the bag weighed 750 grams.
Luckily, he thought ahead and brought his kitchen scale with him to prove the bag was underweight. He said the cashier ended up using her own scale to weigh the bag and “found out [he] was right.”
At first, MacLellan said he was only offered an exchange.
“However, I worked at Loblaws as a teenager at the customer service desk and know that all No Name and PC products can be returned without a receipt and for no reason. When I flexed my 10-year-old training to the manager, he gave me my money back,” he claimed.
On No Frills’ website, it states that customers not satisfied with the quality of President’s Choice, No Name, or Teddy’s Choice products can “simply return…with receipt or original package for an exchange or refund.”
“Need to hold these people accountable”
Since posting nearly a day ago, the TikTok video has been flooded with hundreds of comments as fellow consumers shared their shock and disappointment with Loblaw and Canada’s grocery industry as a whole.
“How is this not a lawsuit?” asked one TikToker.
“That’s it, I’m bringing my food scale shopping from now on,” said another person.
Others said MacLellan’s video added to their reasons for participating in the Loblaw boycott spearheaded by an online Reddit community.
“So done. Haven’t shopped there this month or plan to going forward,” wrote one shopper.
Another person said boycotting the grocery giant wasn’t enough. “We need to protest.”
While MacLellan acknowledges the Loblaw boycott is well-intentioned, he has mixed feelings about it.
“Let it be noted that a boycott isn’t realistic for a lot of people, especially budget grocers like No Frills. A lot of us are stuck, and our money is going to very few, very rich people,” he said.
The Vancouverite noted that in his neighbourhood, he doesn’t have many options for where he grocery shops and No Frills is one of the cheapest stores. He also doesn’t have a car, limiting his ability to travel to different (and possibly less expensive) grocers.
However, MacLellan does feel that Canadians need to hold grocery companies and CEOs accountable.
He said he referenced Mary Antoinette’s “Let them eat cake” line in his video “because we live in a monopolized country, where the 1% get to live lavishly off of our struggles.”
“It’s time for a revolution, and boycotts just don’t do enough. We the public need to hold these people accountable, not just Loblaw, for what they’re doing to us.”
Loblaw responded to Daily Hive’s request for comment about MacLellan’s experience and said its team has reached out to him to “get information about the product so we can investigate as that obviously does not meet our standards.”
Loblaw added that “at any point if a customer is also not satisfied with a No Name product, they can return or exchange it.”
Shoppers noticing underweight No Name products
This isn’t the first time Canadian shoppers have noticed that the weight listed on food products isn’t always what it seems.
In September 2023, one TikToker posted a video of themselves weighing a bag of No Name chips. The package stated the bag’s net quantity was 200 grams.
However, when the bag was placed on a kitchen scale, it showed the contents were much less than what was printed on the label. The bag ended up weighing a mere 101 grams. At the time, Loblaw told Daily Hive it was looking into why the bags were underweight.
@tikytokytomy | Daily Hive
Others have posted their experiences with underweight products like No Name onion rings and Walmart Great Value croutons.
For customers who have experience with mislabeled package weight, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) states that they can report a complaint here. They can also reach out to the manufacturer or importer for information about a product.
“The CFIA uses a case-by-case approach to determine if a food is packaged in a container in a misleading manner,” the CFIA states.