Price comparison
 

So I went around the supermarket and got some prices, I have to admit I thought candy would be easier to compare but anyway:

.............................................. Loblaw's ......Tesco.com...Notes

200g own brand instant coffee...$2.98...........$3.60
1 litre own brand orange juice*..88 cents.......96 cents
McVitie's choc. digestives (300g)$3.48..........$3.09..........Adjusted for weight
Aero* (95g)..............................$2.29.......... $2.05.........Adjusted for weight
Toffifee* (123g)........................$2.58.......... $3.41.........Adjusted for weight
Maltesers* (165g).....................$2.99...........$2.52.. ......Adjusted for weight
Back bacon rashers (250g).........$5.99...........$3.70
1 litre skimmed milk..................$1.96...........$1.85....... .Adjusted for size
1 dozen Grade A large eggs........$2.67...........$4.81.........UK are free range
1 loaf wholewheat bread (675g)..$2.98...........$1.56........Adjusted for weight

Exchange rate used was £1 = £1.85

Stuff marked with an asterisk is subject to GST/HST in Canada and VAT in the UK. Adjusted means I took the Canadian weight and worked out the UK price proportionately.

Couldn't really find anything to directly compare on the eggs, back bacon is obviously more exotic here. Also on the milk if you buy it in large quantities the savings seemed to be significantly more in the UK.

Not sure it tells me a lot other than bread is more expensive here by a fair distance. But the EU has the CAP to subsidize production so not terribly surprising - and Canada used to have the wheat board which forced prices up. Some candy might be a bit more expensive (because it's imported presumably) but you pay less tax on it so...

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Mixed bag of results.

Loblaw's charge more in Toronto than they do outside of the city.

It will be $2 to the pound again soon.

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It's obviously not statistically significant and the exchange rate and shop prices vary all the time but I do think we're getting ripped off on bread. I assume because people are used to paying more here because of the defunct wheat board. So now I think it was a good idea to get rid of it.

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1.96 for 1 liter of skim milk at Loblaws is pretty cheap, I got some today at Wal-Mart for 2.87, never seen milk under 2 dollars before in Canada.....

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1 gallon of milk is approx $8 in NS.
It's $5 in AB.

Would be interesting to see how fruit n veg compares not just between UK / Canada, but between Provinces also.

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FFS. Who cares?

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1 gallon of milk is $5.19 at Costco in Halifax and $5.87 at Giant Tiger in Bridgewater and yes I paid $2.40 for a liter of milk last week in a little country store because I didn't want to drive to town, but if you shop around you don't have to pay $8 for a gallon, if anyone cares ;)

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Selfishly I hope not :) $1.50 is a dream when buying.

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Should have thrown in some cheese, wine and beer.... :)

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A couple of pointer that I’ve noticed here
Is that broad band and comms stuff is cheaper and often seems more reliable
Rogers at 150mbs is around $100 and the equivalent from Virgin is £32
Mobile phones full package for a month, 1000 texts, 100mins, 250mb data, vodaphone is about £10
My previous package form Rogers ran in around $35

Not done a full year yet, and still working on the numbers but based so far, my leaky poorly insulated, badly plumbed rental with UK fuel prices seems cheaper than my almost air tight, above code insulated, state of the art Canadian forced air system, and I put that down simply to climate conditions and that you just need to heat for so much longer and so much harder in Canada

And the old baggage car insurance
Old soupped up classic mini (same car in both countries)
Canada approx. $1000 full no claims
UK without any no claims bonus £850 I’d estimate about £250-£300 with full no claims

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Loblaws can be expensive. All of those items are available for lwoer prices at other supermarkets.

And for something like milk it is cheaper to buy the bags than a 1 liter carton so it would help to compare the bags against a similar sized jug in the UK.

Finally, one has to take salaries into account to determine how much of one's weekly wage those groceries would take up.

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I'm just going on memory but I think the last time I was in Longos, a 4L package of 3 milk bags was $5.99... so 1L would be $1.49, making it cheaper than Tesco. (Each bag is 1.33L.) That was for the 1% Natrel Pur Filter stuff.

The bags are also cheaper if purchased at Costco.

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If you buy the bags you get 4 liters for $3.97 so, essentially, a buck a liter.

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That £850 works out to $1550 Canadian. And, as I mentioned above, salaries have to be taken into account to determine what percentage of your salary those prices eat up.

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How much is a pint of jellied eels now in the UK?

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http://www.mysupermarket.co.uk/tesco...prox_100g.html

That works out to about 5 quid a pound. I couldn't find a link giving the density of jellied eels so I can't convert to pints.

HTH

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Not enough difference there to warrant emigrating over, is there?

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Well, it'll all depend on the exchange rate.

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Actually I made a mistake, forgot to minus off the VAT and chocolate covered biscuits are subject to VAT in the UK but are NOT subject to GST/HST (so there is a difference).

.............................................. Loblaw's ......Tesco.com...Notes

200g own brand instant coffee...$2.98...........$3.60
1 litre own brand orange juice*..88 cents.......96 cents
McVitie's choc. digestives (300g)$3.48....... ..$2.47.........Adjusted for weight
Aero* (95g)..............................$2.29.......... $1.64.........Adjusted for weight
Toffifee* (123g)........................$2.58.......... $2.73.........Adjusted for weight
Maltesers* (165g).....................$2.99...........$2.02.. ......Adjusted for weight
Back bacon rashers (250g).........$5.99...........$3.70
1 litre skimmed milk..................$1.96...........$1.85....... .Adjusted for size
1 dozen Grade A large eggs........$2.67...........$4.81.........UK are free range
1 loaf wholewheat bread (675g)..$2.98...........$1.56........Adjusted for weight

Exchange rate used was £1 = £1.85

So does anyone know what a regular dozen Grade A large eggs cost from Tesco?

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reading isn't your strong point is it....

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If it's live eels then a yard of ale would be better than a pint.

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BC is more expensive though, I remember going into "Thrifty" foods which I think is owned by Sobey's and it was even more expensive than Sobey's which is saying something. People I know who live there tell me that Canadian Superstore is one of the cheaper places (owned by Loblaw's) so perhaps you should go there and compare.

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Yeah I should have done that, it's quite tricky though because what I'm finding is that when you buy something in Canada the basic quantity is much larger.

But anyway, comparing Dairylea and Kraft cheese slices (yes I know, not exactly cheese, but I've got to compare something) then:

1 Kg of cheese slices, Loblaw's = $12.88 and Tesco = $9.25

You're not going to get any argument from me that cheese is expensive here, I've always thought that.

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Such as?

I'm trying to compare like for like, you could say the same thing about Tesco. I suppose a more direct comparison would be Wal-Mart to Asda or Costco to Costco as they have the same parent companies but Tesco and Loblaw's are the largest supermarket chains respectively.

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Endlessly on here people say that groceries in Canada are more expensive but it's purely anecdotal.

I would expect Calgary say, to be slightly more expensive than anywhere in the UK purely because of logistics but facts are more useful than guesses.

What appears to be the case is that certain basic staple foods are more expensive in Canada but it's not across the board.

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I know because were eating so much now i'm putting on weight, even though I try to walk to work, use the stairs...

But cheap cheddar, red leicester, brie... along with the beer/cider choices here.... :unsure:

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So anyway to summarize, the reason things in the supermarket appear to be more expensive than in the UK is:

(a) some things are genuinely more expensive and they would be things you would notice like bread and cheese;
(b) there is a bit of an optical illusion caused by the exchange rate (bigger numbers);
(c) item sizes tend to be larger so you're buying more and thus paying more.

And all three things can apply to a single item like bread or cheese obviously.

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I don't need to compare what Super Store prices are, nearest one is over an hour away so no point in checking prices there since its not feasible to go there to shop.

We have 3 choices Save On Foods (generally best prices and selection) Nestors (owned by the same company as Save on) smaller, but still okay price wise, and Extra Foods (brand owned by Loblaws but its a franchised chain) but the selection is poor there, and prices on par with Save On for most things.

When I did live in an area with a Super Store, I found their prices to be basically on par with Save On, only a few cent difference on most things not on sale, and only way their price comparison worked to save money was if you bought No name, national brands were no cheaper.

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But you have the Cost Cutter option in Blaine option anyway. If I lived there I think I would do most of my shopping at the Fred Meyer's in Bellingham.

Hmmmmm.... 675g loaf for $1.20

Actually I didn't think about Heinz ketchup, they sell that everywhere, so 1080g at Fred Meyer's is $1.99 and at Tesco it's US$6.55.

Worth the trip.

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And then of course there's
(d)paying $1.49 a lb for seedless grapes instead of $3+; $3.49 for steak rather than $6.49; a doz oranges for $4.99 instead of $6.99; $3.98 for cracker barrel cheese rather than $7.99; Chickens for $1.49-$1.99 a lb instead of $2.99-$3.49; Bread for $2 or less instead of $3+ etc etc

No alternative/inferior/economy products/brands or coupons involved. :)

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Source? I said bread and cheese were more expensive here. I've got back bacon down as more expensive as well, although the regular awful bacon at Loblaw's is $3.98 (for 375g) and at Tesco their back bacon (250g) is $3.70. I've got chicken wings for $7.40 at Tesco and $8.77 at Loblaw's for the same amount.

Haven't got oranges to compare but the strawberries I quoted in the other thread were way cheaper in Canada. $3.88 for 900g and the cheapest ones I can find on Tesco.com work out to $7.29 for the same amount. And I already compared orange juice.

A pack of three cucumbers from Loblaw's is $2.28 and the equivalent from Tesco.com works out to $2.72

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Hope so mate, but seems to have stalled at 1.85!

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We have Superstore, Walmart, Safeway and Save on. If i am not on a budget then Save on has nice stuff but is way overpriced in comparison to Walmart.
Just as a quick example the same brand name pasta sauce can be bought in all 3. Walmart is always $3.77 but sometimes on offer, Superstores is usually $3.95 but was on offer at $2 last week, Save on want a whopping $4.99 for the exact same product and to add insult to injury any discounted prices shown are only for club card holders something that doesn't occur at the other 2, the price is the price for every shopper. I don't shop in Safeway enough to make any comparison with that store.

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oh what the heck it varies all over Canada, between nearby towns too, as do wages. It's all well meaning waste of time

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The flyers.

They are, of course, special offer prices and one could argue a fairer comparison would be with the offer prices in the UK. It's just that the UK doesn't seem to do so many different things for so much less than their normal prices.

And the Canadian special offer prices seem to come around so often as to actually be more the norm. Those lower prices I mentioned are what I typically pay.

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If we had a Super Wal-Mart I'd likely go there, but our Wal-Mart is a normal one, and the food selection is very small and mostly just junk foods with no fresh foods, and no meat or anything of that sort. Not worth the time to go just for a couple items.

Save On for this town is the cheapest, but as I said we only have 3 options for groceries, and 2 of the 3 are owned by the same company, and the 3rd is a Loblaws owned brand but a franchised location and the selection and pricing is poor.

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We certainly don't see the flyers, but the offers are there and they're displayed in store...
And in a similar way they tend to come round on an almost regular baisis.. a good example that we take advantage of in sainsbury has been legs of Lamb at 1/3 normal price, comes around about 1 week in 4...

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Trouble is that (a) Tesco's is quite an expensive supermarket these days (Aldi/Lidl/Asda are cheaper) and (b) you're not comparing the cheapest things or taking in to account special offers. For example, the Tesco value back bacon works out as $2.98 for 300g. So your comparisons aren't what most on a budget would buy anyway, I tend to buy 'value' (if at Tesco) or 'smart price' (if at Asda) products unless it's meat (except for the bacon which I find fine).

My wholemeal loaf is 45p, which converts to $0.81 and it's bigger (800g) than the price you've given above, because I buy the 'value' one rather than the Tesco's standard loaf.

Bottom line is that I spent around £80 a week feeding my family of 4 plus several pets, and we eat very well for that (everything is fresh, no ready meals, lots of lovely cheeses/continental meats/salads etc), plus it includes alcohol.

I could never have done that in Canada, so for me personally groceries would be much more expensive, but obviously every family eats and shops differently.

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I can add in that we used to spend around $1100 a month in Canada, we now spend £600 in the UK and I think/feel that we eat better

Meal sizes haven’t changed, but more variety in the diet and we eat lamb much more than we used too, we have a roast dinner most weekends, we have greater selection of cheese, much better selection of breads, (and for some bizarre reason I have a mountain of chocolate)

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You will drive yourself crazy comparing prices all the time, personally I found I spend less on groceries in Canada. Our eating habits have changed however, we never eat lamb anymore because it's so expensive, we also don't by any premade food only raw foods, we bake our own bread and we do huge shops at Costco ever 4-6 months.