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Summary

We did the same shop at grocery stores for Thanksgiving dinner items to find the cheapest total

One store is $44 more expensive for these 13 items! 👀

exterior of loblaws store. right: shopping cart in the dairy aisle at a sobeys store

Loblaws store. Right: Shopping cart at Sobeys.

Paul Mckinnon | Dreamstime, Photokvu | Dreamstime
Senior Writer

We checked prices for Thanksgiving dinner staples at grocery stores in Canada to find the cheapest total.

One store is $44 more expensive when the cost of all the products is added up!

We chose Loblaws, Walmart and Sobeys since these chains have stores across Canada.

Then, we looked at the regular prices of more than a dozen products since sale prices can vary between stores.

That includes turkey, potatoes, herbs, butter, pies, and more Thanksgiving staples.

Let's get into the price breakdowns for each item and the total costs at each grocery store!

Turkey

Turkey is a classic Thanksgiving dinner item, so here are the prices at each grocery store.

Loblaws: $21.85 for a five-kilogram Butterball frozen turkey — $4.37 per kilogram

Walmart: $29 for a five-kilogram Butterball frozen turkey — $5.80 per kilogram

Sobeys: $46.20 for a five-kilogram Butterball frozen turkey — $9.24 per kilogram

Potatoes

If you're making potatoes for Thanksgiving dinner, here's how prices compare.

Loblaws: $7 for a 10-pound bag of yellow potatoes — $0.70 per pound

Walmart: $3.94 for a 10-pound bag of potatoes — $0.39 per pound

Sobeys: $5.99 for a 15-pound bag of russet potatoes — $0.39 per pound

Sweet potatoes

Here are the prices for sweet potatoes at each of these grocery stores.

Loblaws: $9 for a 2.27-kilogram bag of sweet potatoes — $0.39 per 100 grams

Walmart: $6.87 for a 1.36-kilogram bag of sweet potatoes — $0.50 per 100 grams

Sobeys: $7 for a 3.5-kilogram bag of sweet potatoes — $0.20 per 100 grams

Brussels sprouts

Not everyone likes Brussels sprouts, but if you're making them for Thanksgiving, here's what prices are like.

Loblaws: $8 for a 680-gram bag of Brussels sprouts — $1.17 per 100 grams

Walmart: $4.97 for a 340-gram bag of Brussels sprouts — $1.46 per 100 grams

Sobeys: $15.41 for a kilogram of Brussels sprouts — $1.54 per 100 grams

Onions

If you're using onions in any of your Thanksgiving dishes, here's how prices compare.

Loblaws: $4 for a 1.36-kilogram bag of yellow onions — $0.29 per 100 grams

Walmart: $1.58 for a 1.36-kilogram bag of yellow onions — $0.11 per 100 grams

Sobeys: $4.99 for a 1.36-kilogram bag of yellow onions — $0.36 per 100 grams

Fresh herbs

Fresh herbs can be used for a few Thanksgiving dishes.

Here are the prices for those herbs at each store.

Loblaws: $3 for a 25-gram pack of President's Choice poultry herb blend with parsley, rosemary, sage and thyme — $12 per 100 grams

Walmart: $1.97 for a 28-gram pack of Your Fresh Market poultry herb blend with rosemary, sage and thyme — $7.03 per 100 grams

Sobeys: $6.99 for three 20-gram packs of Compliments herbs (rosemary, sage and thyme sold separately) — $11.65 per 100 grams

Cranberry sauce

If you don't want to spend time making cranberry sauce from scratch, you can get it pre-made and here's how prices compare.

Loblaws: $3.29 for a 348-millilitre can of Ocean Spray whole berry cranberry sauce — $0.94 per 100 millilitres

Walmart: $1.57 for a 348-millilitre can of Ocean Spray whole berry cranberry sauce — $0.45 per 100 millilitres

Sobeys: $3.29 for a 348-millilitre can of Ocean Spray whole berry cranberry sauce — $0.94 per 100 millilitres

Butter

Quite a few Thanksgiving dishes call for butter.

Whether you're using it while cooking the turkey, mashed potatoes and Brussels sprouts, or slathering it on a dinner roll, here's how prices compare.

Loblaws: $5.99 for a 454-gram pack of No Name butter — $1.31 per 100 grams

Walmart: $4.97 for a 454-gram pack of Gay Lea butter — $1.09 per 100 grams

Sobeys: $8.29 for a 454-gram pack of Compliments butter — $1.82 per 100 grams

Gravy mix

If you don't want to find a recipe for gravy and get individual ingredients, you can buy a gravy mix.

Here are the prices for that product at each store.

Loblaws: $2.49 for a 25-gram packet of Club House turkey gravy mix — $9.96 per 100 grams

Walmart: $1.27 for a 25-gram packet of Club House turkey gravy mix — $5.08 per 100 grams

Sobeys: $2.49 for a 25-gram packet of Club House turkey gravy mix — $9.96 per 100 grams

Rolls

Here are the prices of dinner rolls at each store.

Loblaws: $4 for a bag of 12 dinner rolls — $0.33 per roll

Walmart: $3.98 for a bag of 12 dinner rolls — $0.33 per roll

Sobeys: $4.29 for a bag of 12 dinner rolls — $0.35 per roll

Bread

Here's how prices compare for sliced bread that you need if you're making your own stuffing.

Loblaws: $3.29 for a 450-gram loaf of store-brand white bread — $0.73 per 100 grams

Walmart: $3.98 for a 400-gram load of store-brand white bread — $0.99 per 100 grams

Sobeys: $2.69 for a 450-gram loaf of store-brand white bread — $0.59 per 100 grams

Pumpkin pie

If you're not a baker or just don't want to spend time making dessert, you can get classic Thanksgiving pies that are baked in-store.

Here are the prices for pumpkin pies.

Loblaws: $7.99 for a 725-gram store-brand pumpkin pie — $1.10 per 100 grams

Walmart: $5.94 for a 900-gram store-brand pumpkin pie — $0.66 per 100 grams

Sobeys: $6.99 for a 650-gram store-brand pumpkin pie — $1.07 per 100 grams

Apple pie

You can also get baked-in-store apple pie, so here are the prices at each of these grocery stores in Canada.

Loblaws: $7.99 for a 725-gram store-brand apple pie — $1.10 per 100 grams

Walmart: $7.46 for a 1.1-kilogram store-brand apple pie — $0.67 per 100 grams

Sobeys: $6.99 for a 650-gram store-brand apple pie — $1.07 per 100 grams

TOTAL

Now, here are the total costs for the 13 items before tax at these grocery stores in Canada:

  • Loblaws: $87.89
  • Walmart: $77.50
  • Sobeys: $121.61

Walmart is the cheapest of the three stores, which you probably expected.

But might not have realized just how much of a difference there is between Walmart and the other two stores.

The total at Walmart is $44.11 cheaper than the total at Sobeys and $10.39 cheaper than the total at Loblaws.

There's even a pretty big difference between Loblaws and Sobeys.

It costs $33.72 less at Loblaws for all of these products than it does at Sobeys.

Since these stores have different sizes for a lot of the staple Thanksgiving items, we also broke it down by how much it costs relative to how much of each product you get.

Here are the "price per" totals for each store:

  • Loblaws: $34.39
  • Walmart: $24.56
  • Sobeys: $39.18

Sobeys is still the most expensive store, but the gap is much smaller.

The "price per" total of these Thanksgiving dinner products is just $4.79 cheaper at Loblaws and $14.62 cheaper at Walmart.

So, Walmart is the grocery store that has the cheapest total for a cart with more than a dozen items for Thanksgiving dinner!

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

This article's cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.

  • 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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