We Bought The Same Groceries At Costco, Walmart & Dollarama To See Which Store Costs Less

With food prices on the rise in Canada, we decided to pit a few of the country's popular retailers against each other to end the debate on which store has the cheapest groceries.

So, we shopped for specific grocery staples — like pasta, tuna, Kraft Dinner and more — at Costco, Walmart and Dollarama.

Since the size of the products varies based on where you're shopping, we broke the price down to one standard unit to truly get to the heart of which store is giving you the best bang for your buck.

For this experiment, we opted to get the cheapest option sold at each retailer that wasn't on sale in order to give an accurate price comparison.

Now, if you're wondering which discount retailer will save you some money in the long run, take a look below!

Pasta

La Molisana pasta at Costco. Middle: Italpasta pasta at Dollarama. Right: Great Value pasta at Walmart.

Lisa Belmonte | Narcity, Sarah Rohoman | Narcity, Janice Rodrigues | Narcity

We compared La Molisana from Costco, Italpasta from Dollarama and Great Value from Walmart:

• Costco: $12.99 for 6 x 450 grams
• Dollarama: $1 for 540 grams
• Walmart: $0.97 for 410 grams

When it comes to how much bang you actually get for your buck, here's the breakdown:

• Costco: $0.48 per 100 grams
• Dollarama: $0.19 per 100 grams
• Walmart: $0.23 per 100 grams

Tuna

Kirkland Signature tuna at Costco. Middle: Pacific Pride tuna at Dollarama. Right: Great Value tuna at Walmart.

Lisa Belmonte | Narcity, Sarah Rohoman | Narcity, Janice Rodrigues | Narcity

We compared Kirkland Signature from Costco, Pacific Pride from Dollarama and Great Value from Walmart:

• Costco: $15.99 for 8 x 184 grams
• Dollarama: $1 for 135 grams
• Walmart: $1.27 for 170 grams

When it comes to how much bang you actually get for your buck, here's the breakdown:

• Costco: $1.08 per 100 grams
• Dollarama: $0.74 per 100 grams
• Walmart: $0.74 per 100 grams

Rice

Gelda Gold rice at Costco. Middle: Five Rivers rice at Dollarama. Right: Great Value rice at Walmart.

Lisa Belmonte | Narcity, Sarah Rohoman | Narcity, Janice Rodrigues | Narcity

We compared Gelda Gold from Costco, Five Rivers from Dollarama and Great Value from Walmart:

• Costco: $10.99 for 4.5 kilograms
• Dollarama: $2.50 for 850 grams
• Walmart: $6.47 for 2 kilograms

When it comes to how much bang you actually get for your buck, here's the breakdown:

• Costco: $0.24 per 100 grams
• Dollarama: $0.29 per 100 grams
• Walmart: $0.32 per 100 grams

Instant noodles

Nongshim instant noodles at Costco. Middle: BowlFull instant noodles at Dollarama. Right: Great Value instant noodles at Walmart.

Lisa Belmonte | Narcity, Sarah Rohoman | Narcity, Janice Rodrigues | Narcity

We compared Nongshim from Costco, BowlFull from Dollarama and Great Value from Walmart:

• Costco: $12.49 for 12 x 86 grams
• Dollarama: $1.25 for 2 x 65 grams
• Walmart: $3.97 for 6 x 64 grams

When it comes to how much bang you actually get for your buck, here's the breakdown:

• Costco: $1.21 per 100 grams
• Dollarama: $0.96 per 100 grams
• Walmart: $1.03 per 100 grams

Tomato sauce

Kirkland Signature tomato sauce at Costco. Middle: Hunt’s tomato sauce at Dollarama. Right: Great Value tomato sauce at Walmart.

Lisa Belmonte | Narcity, Sarah Rohoman | Narcity, Janice Rodrigues | Narcity

We compared Kirkland Signature from Costco, Hunt's from Dollarama and Great Value from Walmart:

• Costco: $18.99 for 3 x 860 millilitres
• Dollarama: $2 for 640 millilitres
• Walmart: $0.97 for 213 millilitres

When it comes to how much bang you actually get for your buck, here's the breakdown:

• Costco: $0.73 per 100 millilitres
• Dollarama: $0.31 per 100 mililitres
• Walmart: $0.45 per 100 mililitres

Olive oil

Kirkland Signature olive oil at Costco. Olioarte olive oil at Dollarama. Right: Great Value olive oil at Walmart.

Lisa Belmonte | Narcity, Sarah Rohoman | Narcity, Janice Rodrigues | Narcity

We compared Kirkland Signature from Costco, Olioarte from Dollarama and Great Value from Walmart:

• Costco: $22.49 for 2 litres
• Dollarama: $2.75 for 250 millilitres
• Walmart: $6.97 for 1 litre

When it comes to how much bang you actually get for your buck, here's the breakdown:

• Costco: $1.12 per 100 millilitres
• Dollarama: $1.10 per 100 mililitres
• Walmart: $0.69 per 100 mililitres

Kraft Dinner

Kraft Dinner at Costco: Middle: Kraft Dinner at Dollarama. Right: Kraft Dinner at Walmart.

Lisa Belmonte | Narcity, Sarah Rohoman | Narcity, Janice Rodrigues | Narcity

We compared Kraft Dinner from Costco, Dollarama and Walmart:

• Costco: $14.99 for 12 x 340 grams
• Dollarama: $1.50 for 225 grams
• Walmart: $1.57 for 225 grams

When it comes to how much bang you actually get for your buck, here's the breakdown:

• Costco: $0.36 per 100 grams
• Dollarama: $0.66 per 100 grams
• Walmart: $0.69 per 100 grams

Microwave popcorn

Orville Redenbacher microwave popcorn at Costco. Middle: Act II microwave popcorn at Dollarama. Right: Great Value microwave popcorn at Walmart.

Lisa Belmonte | Narcity, Sarah Rohoman | Narcity, Janice Rodrigues | Narcity

We compared Orville Redenbacher from Costco, Act II from Dollarama and Great Value from Walmart:

• Costco: $10.99 for 24 x 80 grams
• Dollarama: $2 for 234 grams
• Walmart: $3.27 for 492 grams

When it comes to how much bang you actually get for your buck, here's the breakdown:

• Costco: $0.57 per 100 grams
• Dollarama: $0.85 per 100 grams
• Walmart: $0.66 per 100 grams

Peanut butter

Kraft peanut butter at Costco. Kraft peanut butter at Dollarama. Right: Great Value peanut butter at Walmart.

Lisa Belmonte | Narcity, Sarah Rohoman | Narcity, Janice Rodrigues | Narcity

We compared Kraft from Costco and Dollarama and Great Value from Walmart:

• Costco: $10.49 for 2 kilograms
• Dollarama: $3.50 per 500 grams
• Walmart: $2.97 per 500 grams

When it comes to how much bang you actually get for your buck, here's the breakdown:

• Costco: $0.52 per 100 grams
• Dollarama: $0.70 per 100 grams
• Walmart: $0.59 per 100 grams

Ketchup

French’s ketchup at Costco. Middle: French’s ketchip at Dollarama. Right: Great Value ketchup at Walmart.

Lisa Belmonte | Narcity, Sarah Rohoman | Narcity, Janice Rodrigues | Narcity

We compared French's from Costco and Dollarama and Great Value from Walmart:

• Costco: $6.49 for 2 x 1 litre
• Dollarama: $2.25 for 500 millilitres
• Walmart: $2.97 for 1 litre

When it comes to how much bang you actually get for your buck, here's the breakdown:

• Costco: $0.32 per 100 millilitres
• Dollarama: $0.45 per 100 millilitres
• Walmart: $0.29 per 100 millilitres

If you're wondering which retailers had the greatest number of lowest-priced items, Costco had four — peanut butter, microwave popcorn, Kraft Dinner and rice.

Dollarama had four — tomato sauce, pasta, tuna and instant noodles — which included a tie with Walmart.

Then, Walmart had three — ketchup, olive oil and tuna — which included a tie with Dollarama.

Now, let's look at the total price of all the items for each grocery shop:

• Costco: $136.90
• Dollarama: $19.75
• Walmart: $31.40

While these three stores have pretty different total prices for these staple grocery items, when the "price per" for each is added up to see what you have to pay for how much you get, those numbers are actually quite similar.

Here's the breakdown of the "price per" totals:

• Costco: $6.63
• Dollarama: $6.25
• Walmart: $5.69

Hopefully, this will help you out the next time you need to buy groceries in Canada and can't decide where to go to save the most money.

These prices are confirmed at the time of publishing, but they can change at any time. Taxes and fees may not be included.