Hi,

I arrived in Ontario on Sunday with my partner and am still trying to get used to everything. In England we would normally do our food shopping in Asda or Tesco and I thought Walmart would be the Canadian equivalent, but the fresh food seemed to be of poor quality. Would anyone be able to recommend a good supermarket to shop in that is reasonably priced (food seems quite expensive, but I'm not sure if it's because I having been looking in the right place)?

Thanks!

Not sure where you are in Ontario. Options (in my part of Ottawa) for supermarkets are:

Farm Boy
Sobies
Metro
Loblaws
Superstore
Freshco

The most expensive is Farm Boy then Sobies. We shop at Metro and find quality good and price reasonable.

We shop at:

- the St. Lawrence market, has everything, quality varies between great and not depending on the stall, costs a lot

- Costco, has limited range, high quality, low price per unit but you have to buy three dozen of everything

- Loblaws, somewhere inbetween in terms of quality and price but conveniently located.

Thanks for the replies. We're in the Waterloo/Kitchener area so I'll take a look and see if any of your suggestions are near by.

We're northeast of Guelph so not that far away. You might also want to look at Caudle's Catch, a fish warehouse in Kitchener. They also have a stand at the market at St. Jacobs (not a very good market except for plants, lots of good deals on plants).

There will be some variety of Loblaws/Superstore & Sobeys nearby, trust me. They are the rough equivalent of Tesco/Sainsbury in UK. Walmart is not a place one should shop for food.

Oh, Loblaws trades as Zehr's in the K-W area.

My missus would tend to disagree with you. Our local WMs are selling some pretty decent fresh produce at good prices. And they stock Marmite. In the wrong place, obviously.

On a related note, we were in a Loblaws in Ottawa recently. I cleared out the stock of Marmite and Branston. I took the opportunity to berate the poor girl in charge of the aisle on the subject of where Marmite should properly be displayed. The missus giggled. The girl was nonplussed. If however, Marmite starts showing up next to the peanut butter, where it belongs, I have achieved something in life. I'm not holding my breath.

Oh, those exotic Quebecois Walmarts. Here in Newfoundland, there is nary a fresh vegetable or piece of fruit to be seen. No, your foodstuffs are limited to packaged & processed gunk of all varities. So, not a place where anyone who cares about what they eat wouold ever want to purchase food.

That sentence is two words too long.

I think WM is staging an all-out attack on the competition here. It is probably no coincidence that my local Loblaws got converted to a Maxi (their deep discount store brand here) and a decent fresh produce shop closed down a couple of months ago.

Which Loblaws was that? We've been stocking up on Branston Pickle at Price Chopper in the States, but not seen it in supermarkets here.

Why not shop there? We're else would you buy printer ink, or garden stuff, or household items and electrical goods, all the same make and models as Best Buy or other more expensive stores for cheaper.

Im sorry Novo but Price trumps snobbery every time for me.

Vanier & McArthur.

Cheers, I work 5 mins from there. May venture over at lunch time.

Was it with the pickles / gherkins?