Big supermarket chains
 

Hi all

What is the equivelent to tesco and asda in Canada (mainly Ontario) or the big supermarkets?

Thank you

Louise

Re: Big supermarket chains
 

Wallmart is Asda :)

Re: Big supermarket chains
 

Cool ta x

Re: Big supermarket chains
 

There are two big supermarket-owning brands in Ontario - Loblaw and Sobeys - along with a smaller third major (Metro) plus a bunch of independents.

Loblaw owns (in approximately descending order of market segment - these are Ontario banners, others exist in other provinces) Fortinos, Loblaws, Real Canadian Superstore, Zehrs, No Frills. Superstores are gradually being rebranded as Loblaws Superstores.

Sobeys owns Sobeys, IGA, Foodland and Price Chopper, again approximately in descending order of "poshness."

Stocks in individual stores will vary depending on local customer needs, so there's no exact correlation in what is carried where.

Both the biggies have two private-label brands, roughly equivalent to Sainsbury's Taste the Difference/Tesco's Finest at one end and Value Basics/Basics at the other. For Loblaw these are President's Choice and No Name; for Sobey's they are Compliments and Compliments Value. Metro has Irresistibles, a single private label brand.

Walmart has only relatively recently introduced a full grocery line-up to Canada, with a few megastores carrying the full lineup of fresh and dry produce plus all the apparel and housewares that Walmart has always had. They're more like the big out-of-town Asdas now than they were a few years ago.

Both Loblaw (with President's Choice Financial) and Sobeys (with Compliments everyday banking - a fairly new venture) offer retail financial services. PC Financial is pretty much a full-service bank, Compliments not a great deal more than a credit card provider.

Depending on where you end up living, you'll probably find in the GTA at least two from the upper end and two from the lower end of these supermarkets within easy reach - if you're out of the metropolitan area you may find there's only really one option locally.

From my own experience, I'd put Fortinos as the closest approximation to Waitrose, Loblaw/Sobeys as close to Sainsbury or Tesco, and No Frills/Price Chopper as roughly equivalent to Lidl/Aldi. As I said, though, they will vary with the neighbourhood - try them all and see which one you prefer!

Apologies for the length of this post - I happen to have done some work-related research into food retail a little while back so thought I might as well recycle some of it here. It's a fast-changing business, so some of the detail here may be out of date.

Re: Big supermarket chains
 

walmart is like asda but it is less food orientated. loblaw/canadian superstore is like sainsburys, a+p is like tesco and then their is no frills which is ok for everything except fresh fruit and veg.

Re: Big supermarket chains
 

Great post by Oakvillian, leaving not much left to say....

My 2 cents worth - I find the supermarkets very similar to each other, although there's different chains, feels like deja vu everytime you go.... I'm grateful that I live close enough to the border so that I can go to Kroger, Meijer's, Target and US Wal-mart, otherwise I think I'd slowly go insane from seeing the same stuff week after week....

Re: Big supermarket chains
 

A&P is disappearing rapidly - they're owned by Metro, which is in the process of converting all A&P, The Barn, Dominion*, Loeb and Ultra stores to the Metro brand. Metro also owns Food Basics.

* Dominion was split up some years back - Ontario stores were bought by A&P, Atlantic Canada stores by Loblaw. Dominion in the Atlantic provinces is a Loblaws brand; it's all but disappeared in Ontario

Re: Big supermarket chains
 

I'll add Safeways to the list - that seems a fairly major player in my neck of the wood ....

With a few Co-Op's thrown into the mix too ...

Re: Big supermarket chains
 

Don't exist over this side unfortunately - just so the OP doesn't get too excited...

Re: Big supermarket chains
 

We've recently found that we can save at least half on the price of fruit/veg/pasta by NOT shopping at the usual supermarkets.

There's an independent store here in Edmonton- The Italian Supermarket, in Little Italy, which is able to blow the bigger stores away with their prices.

They dont sell fresh meat, but the fruit/veg and pasta (which is ridiculously overpriced here) is extremely cheap in comparison.

Re: Big supermarket chains
 

I'd also like to add that when on Holiday I noticed that Costco have lots of Locations across the Provinces but only three or four in Toronto.

Only problem is you have to buy in bulk but the savings can be great. I'm looking to move to Toronto in about 3 or 4 years.

Re: Big supermarket chains
 

Great tip.

I also agree - usually the best deals are found outside of large grocery stores.

I also think it's really important to stress that grocery stores do vary dramatically across Canada. The big chains that exist in Ontario don't exist in BC, and vice versa. There are also (at least here in BC) a lot of regional grocery chains, but even then, I find the best deals are had at smaller, independent shops. I rarely buy all my groceries under one roof.

Re: Big supermarket chains
 

Yup - M WITH LYCHEE ON THIS - ooh soz caps lox

I tend to buy fry=uit, veg ad deli stuff at the smaller independents like Santa Barbara Market on The Drive, then use Costco for the big box stuff like washing stuff . . .