This ranking reveals the grocery stores people don't shop at because prices are 'too expensive'

Many shoppers said all of Canada's grocery stores are pricey.

shopping cart in freezer section at sobeys store. right: exterior of metro grocery store in ontario

Shopping cart at Sobeys. Right: Metro store.

Photokvu | Dreamstime
Senior Writer

A new ranking of grocery stores in Canada has revealed which retailers Canadians don't shop at because prices are "too expensive."

You might expect Loblaws to be number one, but it was actually beaten by other retailers.

Narcity recently posted on Facebook and asked, "Which grocery stores in Canada do you not shop at because they're too expensive?"

Based on more than 800 comments from Canadians, we ranked almost 20 retailers, including national, regional, and local chains.

These are the top five most expensive grocery stores in Canada, according to shoppers:

  1. Sobeys
  2. Metro
  3. Loblaws
  4. Safeway
  5. Save-On-Foods

After that, Real Canadian Superstore is sixth, IGA is seventh, Zehrs is eighth, Whole Foods is ninth, and Longo's is tenth.

Then, Co-op is 11th, Foodland is 12th, Fortinos is 13th, Your Independent Grocer is 14th, Farm Boy is 15th, Thrifty Foods and Walmart are tied for 16th, and Costco is 17th.

Quite a few of these retailers aren't national chains, so you might be surprised that so many people named them as some of the most expensive grocery stores in Canada.

That includes Metro, which operates in Ontario and Quebec, IGA, which is mainly in Quebec, Thrifty Foods, which is only in B.C., and Longo's and Fortinos, which have stores in southern Ontario.

While No Frills, Provigo, FreshCo and Food Basics didn't have enough comments to make the ranking, a few people named them as some of the most expensive in the country.

Some shoppers commented that No Frills and Food Basics have higher prices now, despite being known as discount retailers.

A lot of Canadians told Narcity that all of the grocery stores in Canada are too expensive, so they have to shop at multiple stores, use coupons, and get items that are on sale to not spend too much money.

"I don't think there's a single store where everything is too expensive," someone else said.

READ NEXT: These grocery stores in Canada have the lowest prices, according to Canadian shoppers

  • Senior Writer

    Lisa Belmonte (she/her) is a Senior Writer with Narcity Media. After graduating with a Bachelor of Journalism from Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University), she joined the Narcity team. Lisa covers news and notices from across the country from a Canada-wide perspective. Her early coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic earned Narcity its first-ever national journalism award nomination.

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