This month, people across Canada are boycotting Loblaw and its affiliated stores, thanks to momentum from a popular sub-reddit. It’s a sweeping revolt but it isn’t just about sticker shock, bread fixing and Galen Weston’s folksy image. It’s about how your friendly neighbourhood grocer turned into Amazon, and why Canada is struggling to adapt to the new competitive era.

Our guest is Denise Hearn, a researcher who looks at how economic power shapes our world. Hearn is a resident senior fellow at the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment, and she coauthored The Myth of Capitalism: Monopolies and the Death of Competition. She and Vass are the 2024 McGill Max Bell Lecturers and will publish their book on corporate power in Canada this fall.

Also, Vass and Katrina talk about crowdsourcing the title of the aforementioned book in progress.

This is Lately. Every week, we take a deep dive into the big, defining trends in business and tech that are reshaping our every day. 

Lately is a Globe and Mail podcast.

Our executive producer is Katrina Onstad.

The show is hosted by Vass Bednar and produced by Andrea Varsany. 

Our sound designer is Cameron McIver.

Subscribe to the Lately newsletter, where we unpack more of the latest in business and technology.

Find the transcript of today’s episode here.

Survey alert! We want to know about you and what you’d like to hear on Lately. Please go to latelysurvey.ca to fill out a brief survey (less than five minutes, we promise!) and we’ll enter your name to win one of three gift cards you can use to shop online. We’d love to hear from you.