Lion Heart

Hi Guys!

Need some quick advice from people already in Canada, or at least with better knowledge than us

What are the main large chain stores for:

1) Food Shopping
2) DIY Supplies

East coast BTW. Ontario east through New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

I'm guessing food will be WallMart???

Basically what are their equivalents of Tesco/Asda, and B&Q/Homebase over there?

mikelincs

Walmart own ASDA, so there is one comparison.

Souvy

Most supermarkets are part of Loblaws, Sobeys or Metro (plus IGA). Those groups typically have different stores with different names. Loblaws, for example, operates stores as Loblaws (nice but expensive) and deep-discount stores (called Maxi here in Quebec). Walmart also sells food, as does Costco.

DIY stores are everywhere. Home Depot, Rona/Reno Depot, Lowes...., plus Walmart and Canadian Tire.

They tend to be big. There are over ten of them in my city of 250,000 people. The DIY market in Canada is much larger than it is in the UK.

Atlantic Xpat

Home Depot = B&Q. They are so much alike (Orange branding) that I expected them to be somehow linked but they are, AFAIK, different companies. For DIY also RONA & LOWES plus Kent in Atlantic Canada. Home Hardware is a national franchise of hardware stores that can be quite useful. Canadian Tire is a cross between Halfords and Millets.

Grocery shopping - Loblaws (Dominion in this part of the world) and Sobeys. I wouldn't consider food shopping at Walmart as local stores don't have the grocery focus that Walmarts elsewhere have.

By the way, describing Ontario as "East Coast" always raises a smile from those of us, actually on the East Coast. :-)

BristolUK

In my time in Quebec, Loblaws did seem the expensive one.
But here, Loblaws is called Atlantic Superstore and Sobeys is the more expensive one.

I find Walmart much improved since it went "Supercentre" but I still find their prices are not that great for frozen and packaged stuff and fresh meat. Fruit and veg (and fresh bread) is better.

Atlantic Xpat

Oh yes and COSTCO of course. I'd never have thought about going to Costco in the UK (which perhaps may have been more to having not had a family at that point) but Costco is insanely popular in these parts at least. Justifiably so as meat and veg are good quality and reasonably priced. We go to Costco probably every 2 weeks.

Souvy

B&Q was founded about a decade before Home Depot, which modelled itself on B&Q. There was talk some years ago of HD buying B&Q but it didn't happen.

Rona is owned by Lowes, BTW. Has been for a couple of years.

Lion Heart

Awesome info - thanks guys. Perfect!

What would be the equivalent of Lidl/Aldi there? And are they any good?

Atlantic Xpat

Didn't know that. RONA here bought out a locally owned chain called "Chester Dawes" 10 years or so ago. They have a particularly large store nearby that I refuse to ever shop at again due to the patronising and offensive way they treat non trade customers. I'll go to the local lumber yard that has the patience to deal with no-nothing-DIY'ers!

Atlantic Xpat

There is a Loblaws brand called "No Frills". A bit of a dire shopping experience (bring your own bags, pay a buck to use a cart etc) but cheaper on some things.

dbd33

In a thread unifying move, we're renovating the kitchen and will use a cooker hood purchased from Costco!

DandNHill

Giant tiger also has some good prices at times. They often do real good deals on bread.

Souvy

Yes. The deep discounters. I'll use the example of Loblaws. It operates flagship stores under that name. High-end and expensive. It also operates other stores (Maxi, Food Basics etc). Those carry the same products, although not the fancy stuff and are much cheaper. We do most of our shopping at Maxi or Super C (part of Metro). If we want something snazzy, we go to a flagship.

It's worth looking at Costco. You have to pay membership but you can get it back pretty fast. Their prices for the same stuff are very good, and they do really good meat.

Souvy

Yup. When Lowes moved into Canada, it tried to buy Rona. The owners were up for it but had a problem. A lot of the stores in QC were franchises and the franchisees were not up for it.

Just over a couple of years ago, I noticed that Rona had bought-out the franchises. I should have paid attention to that. It was clear what was going to happen.

Buying Rona shares would have been a better bet than buying RRSP. The day after I stuck 20k into RRSP, the announcement came out that Lowes had bought Rona at a 100% premium over the share price. I could have doubled my money in a day.

Atlantic Xpat

Coincidentally enough, we're building an addition that includes a new and rather sizeable kitchen. The gas stove has already been ordered online from Costco and is en-route to the Rock as we speak. Kitchen taps were ordered on special a month ago & when the first one failed to be delivered despite UPS saying it was, Costco dispatched a second. Two days later the neighbour came round with the package that had been delivered to his place in error. So I have two taps, although I suppose I'll be honest and take one back to the local Costco. A cooker hood is the next thing to order and that'll likely be from Costco as well. What did you go for?

To the OP - Costco offer excellent warranty on stuff bought there. The cooker, for example, comes with 2 years as standard vs 1 if bought elsewhere.