I paid a visit to one of Loblaws' Atlantic Superstore locations looking for frozen cranberries. 

My interest in cranberries stems from the fact that, eating cranberries is one of the easiest and most effective ways of detoxifying the body; cranberries prevent bacterial growth, they help the body detoxify naturally by cleansing the lymphatic system (responsible for neutralizing waste products and detoxifying cells).

To my surprise, there were no cranberries in the frozen food section !  bagged mango slices yes, bagged strawberries yes but no cranberries (presidents choice brand).  This surprised me because I had purchased frozen cranberries from this location before and never had a problem with the store running out.  My first thought was, perhaps the people who stock the shelves hadn't gotten to the cranberries yet.  There was a worker nearby and so I asked him if there were any bags of frozen cranberries in the back.  That's when he told me the news....

"We stopped carrying frozen cranberries" ..... Atlantic Superstore employee

This came as a shock to me because I had come to appreciate that both Sobeys and Superstore sell the product --> competition always kept prices in check.

Nearby, No Frills did have frozen cranberries in stock and the employee there that I spoke with wasn't aware of any hold on the product.  One way of determining whether or not a product will be available in the future is by checking to see if the acronym DCN shows up on the price tag; if it does, then the product is being discontinued.  Superstore is managed directly by Loblaws itself while No Frills, Wholesale Club, and more than half a dozen other banners representing 45% of the company's 1100+ locations.

Cranberry Production

*In 2011 Canada was both the US's biggest cranberry customer (imported the most) and seller (leading source of US cranberry imports).  The United States produces about 700 million pounds of cranberries on annual basis, valued at nearly $500 million.

*95% of cranberries consumed are processed (Juice company Oceanspray accounts for 80% of all raw cranberries consumed in the USA).  Per person consumption is 2.7 pounds.

* Growing season is March to October (pH 4.0 TO 5.5).