As the month-long boycott of Loblaw-owned companies continues, its subsidiary Shoppers Drug Mart drew the ire of consumers on social media last week when one of its stores posted a LinkedIn ad for a part-time volunteer.<\/p>\n
Brock University Assistant Professor of Marketing Joachim Scholz says the post, which drew swift backlash online, may have gone relatively unnoticed in the past \u2014 \u201cbut not in 2024.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reason for this is the wider economic situation, as well as the massive technological changes our society faces,\u201d says Scholz, who teaches marketing at Brock\u2019s Goodman School of Business and specializes in social media controversies. \u201cAfter years of high inflation, and with many consumers facing economic insecurity, we are all hyper-sensitive to price hikes and wage stagnation, let alone working for free.\u201d<\/p>\n
Scholz says the ongoing boycott coupled with the perception that the company is price-gouging its customers \u201cprovided the background embers, which fuelled the strong reaction to Shoppers\u2019 free-labour faux-pas.\u201d<\/p>\n
Consumers are also sensitive to shifts in the labour market in general, he adds, with Shoppers Drug Mart among the many companies to replace cashiers with self-checkouts in recent years.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany people are fearful about what innovations in artificial intelligence will mean about their own job prospects,\u201d says Scholz. \u201cAre humans being replaced? Is stocking shelves for minimum wage \u2014 or even for free \u2014 all that is going to be left for the average Joe, while companies get richer and richer thanks to AI and exploiting the many?\u201d<\/p>\n
The company has indicated the ad \u2014 posted by one of its Toronto pharmacists \u2014 was an error and that they do not hire volunteers. However, Scholz says a traditional crisis management strategy of simply \u201capologizing and moving on\u201d may not be good enough in today\u2019s climate.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe current cultural zeitgeist is like a powder keg, ready to be blown up by any fuse that seems to indicate the everyday Joe is stiffed by massive corporations,\u201d he says. \u201cCompared to even 10 years ago, marketers today must be much more tuned into the zeitgeist and societal issues in order to protect and grow their brands.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brock Assistant Professor of Business Ethics Francois Cote-Vaillancourt says major corporations are also bearing the brunt of evolving conversations around the future of volunteering and changing labour demands.<\/p>\n
Although he agrees the public should be pushing back against any abuses involving unpaid labour, rapid changes in technology and automation are going to decrease the need for human labour in the future.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s likely that for this generation, by the time they retire, there will be an economy that needs less people,\u201d he says. \u201cI think as a society, in the long run, we\u2019re going to have to talk about volunteering. We have to find a way to keep humans doing meaningful things with our lives and prevent people from falling into abject poverty when the economy is not needing them.\u201d<\/p>\n
As conversations around these issues intensify, the public is understandably looking for an outlet to voice their frustrations and uncertainty, Cote-Vaillancourt adds.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe blame the firm right now because they’re visible,\u201d he says. \u201cBut we cannot rely on corporations to solve the long-term problem. We need to ask: what do we owe to society, and what does society owe us? We might not be able to run forever on just the idea that, through your work, you earn your income.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the meantime, Scholz encourages the company to \u201ctake this seriously and use the current heat to position themselves as the ally of the average consumer.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSocial media firestorms carry the risk that they cast a long shadow into the future and are brought back from the ashes, over and over again. The internet does not forget.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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