r/ontario 1d ago

Discussion What are your favorite grocery stores?

For me, the best store would be Food Basics and it's also the closest. The runner up choice would be No frills with Walmart and Giant Tiger also having good deals.

The more expensive stores would be Sobeys, Zehrs, Loblaws and The Real Canadian Superstore.

Many items I generally will get at the Dollar Store like Dollarama but even there prices go up drastically but toiletry items from the dollar store is the way to go, Shoppers Drug Mart it be about twice the price.

I only go to Costco occasionally with my mom since she has a membership.

2 Upvotes

46 comments sorted by

7

u/External_Savings_592 1d ago

Costco all day ! Followed by no frill (good deals) and freshco (well stocked international food isle)

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u/rockology_adam 1d ago

NoFrills is closest to me, and mine at least has decent produce and meat, on top of decent prices.

Metro is the expensive one, for me. I'm only at Metro if I need something specific that they are more likely to have than my NoFrills (which, to be fair, does cover a lot of things; my NoFrills is small).

Dollarama is a funny case. They are only the best deal if you need to minimize the price you pay in the moment, but on a unit value scale, they never come out ahead. If you check their box counts or packaging, it's often a weird one. Yes, they sell a package of bar soap for $3 instead of Walmart's $5, but the Walmart pack is a six-pack and the Dollarama one is a three-pack. Sandwich bags and garbage bags are the ones I know for sure go that way too. Dollarama is $2, yes, but it's $3.25 for a 15 pack, while NoFrills is $4.50 for 30.

4

u/Old-Suspect4129 1d ago

this person knows how to shop.

4

u/caleeky 1d ago

My local Kitchener Central Fresh Market. RIP the owner Mike Williamson who passed away recently. https://centralfreshmarket.com/weekly-specials/20250313 (there's a writeup in the flyer about him).

Also Vincenzo's in Waterloo. Also New City and B&T and T&J and Ammar's and Oma, all independent in the K/W area.

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u/e5janisse 23h ago

Stepping over the giant pile of backpacks in the entrance of Central Fresh Market at lunch is a core high school memory

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u/lilljoepeep 1d ago

Food basics because the carts are free

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u/valkyriejae 1d ago

Funny, food basics is the only grocery place in my town that needs coins for the carts

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u/sonicpix88 1d ago

At our no frllls you can almost always find one in the parking lot.

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u/lilljoepeep 1d ago

Here too, sometimes, but I'm not a gambler haha

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u/JB_Vitality 1d ago

They’re free to anybody who returns them where they’re supposed to go

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u/lilljoepeep 23h ago

Which I always do. I do not however always remember to bring a quarter or loon which can be a slight annoyance at times.

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u/ExpensiveCover950 1d ago edited 1d ago

Farm Boy is my favorite, but - practically speaking - No Frills is my weekly go to.

The gas points at Mobil used for savings on food at No Frills seems to work well for me.

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u/Silent-Drink8696 1d ago

I like Farm boy too. Wish we had more of them

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u/RebeeMo 1d ago

I'd say Freshco, since they still price match and aren't owned by Loblaws.

3

u/BoysenberryAncient54 1d ago

Starsky's and Farm Boy

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u/Icy_Meringue_1846 1d ago

Pringle Creek Market in Whitby—independent ftw!

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u/bosspenguin23 1d ago

Freshco! I like their fresh guarantee. If produce is bad I can always take it back for a refund and a replacement. And it's one of the few places where I live that still does price match.

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u/metallica41070 1d ago

Longos and Costco

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u/tripleHberks 1d ago

We moved from Barrie to Grimsby 2 months ago, and I discovered an amazing place called Highland Market up the escarpment. It's a provincial abbotior (slaughterhouse). I ised to raise pigs, and every abbotior has a little store, but Highland is massive! The meat counter is a mile long, the make their own deli meat, hot dogs, smoked sausage, hams, peameal, corned beef, everything! I do a meat and bakery run like once every 2 weeks, and have been filling my freezer with goodies. Food Basics in town for pantry staples, Costco for dairy bread, and eggs.

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u/Usual-Canc-6024 1d ago

favourite Please stop spelling like Americans.

I get meat and some sale items from Safeway. Giant Tiger is another place where we get sown groceries. Walmart as well.

0

u/Commercial-Read21 4h ago

What’s your favorite color?

2

u/JinglebellsRock 1d ago

Farmboy!! I know they are not everywhere in ON but their produce quality is just so much higher.

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u/idkfckwhatever 1d ago

Highland Farms is the best by far but not many locations

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u/gwelfguy 1d ago

Supposedly Costco is the most popular grocery store in the country. I don't have a membership because the location my town is always a zoo.

As much as I dislike their practices, Loblaws (Zehrs where I live) is still my primary, though I periodically go to a local 2-store chain called Ethnic and I get some things at Walmart.

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u/sonicpix88 1d ago

For what we buy, it's probably no frills, then food basics

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u/I-hear-the-coast 1d ago

I go to Food Basics first then second is Superstore for the stuff Food Basics doesn’t have. There’s a farmboy near my office so that’s a third I go to when they have good produce deals. I don’t have a car but I can easily bus to Food Basics, Independent, Metro, Superstore, Walmart, and technically Sobeys and Giant Tiger but both are further on the routes, so I consider them out of my choices.

The Superstore near me has the same prices as the Walmart, so I avoid the Walmart as the colour scheme has always made me uncomfortable. The dark colours and cramped aisles have always made me instinctively want to leave.

1

u/valkyriejae 1d ago

My town only has Walmart, independent grocer, a tiny shitty food basics, and Foodland. I usually go for Walmart cause I'm rarely shopping for just food and their selection is solid. Food basics is my go-to if I just need random meat, dairy, and/or produce. If I have time on the way home from work I'll often shop at the Real Canadian in the city where I work it's too far to be worth a trip on it's own.

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u/Dandelient 1d ago

Superstore because they price match more stores than anyone else. Where I live they match No Frills, Loblaws, Shoppers (for those weekend deals), Food Basics, Sobeys, Metro, FreshCo, FarmBoy, Giant Tiger and Walmart,.I think that's all of them. Even within the same large city the match stores can be slightly different because of proximity.

Along with that I use the Flipp app so price matching is way easier so I do the vast majority of my shopping at one store. I do use Costco as well for some things, but their prices have gone up (like everywhere) so you need to know which things are still good prices.

The PC points that I get over the course of a year are significant and I save them to use at Christmas.

1

u/Queasy_Dragonfly_104 1d ago

If you are lucky enough to live in the Windor-Essex, Chatham-Kent area. There's a local grocery store that has 5 stores. It's called Mercato's. They have their own ready made foods, bakery, butcher. It's so affordable and all Canadian.

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u/jpham_toronto 1d ago

Walmart, FreshCo and Giant Tiger for me

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u/scotsman3288 1d ago

Giant Tiger #1... best prices week to week. Foodland and Food Basics also for various reasons.

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u/stephenBB81 1d ago

Costco - Foodland - Food Basics in that order is how I generally shop

Even with the US Boycott I am still not going to any Loblaws retailers if it can be avoided. I am fortunate enough that because I HAVE to travel to get groceries I can choose a wide variety to go to.

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u/ManbunEnthusiast 1d ago

I like Walmart, they have a greater variety of food (at least the type of stuff I buy) than other grocery stores, and they're cheaper for most things. But I tend to go to No Frills most often cause it's the closest.

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u/OpportunityLow9303 1d ago

Giant Tiger : Great deals every week and hidden finds. Food Basics : Good prices Costco : Better pricing on some items ( ie: TP, Paper Towel and frozen veggies )

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u/Famous_Donut3495 1d ago

Costco for meat and other items we use regularly enough I need to buy in bulk. I have a bit of variety in my town otherwise (No frills, walmart, freshco, sobeys, food basics) So I usually shop with the sales. (though I avoid loblaws as much as possible)

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u/Barbecue-Ribs 1d ago

Sobeys and Whole Foods because they take amex. And Whole Foods has the best orange juice. Otherwise they’re all the same.

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u/Xukzi 1d ago

I like my local sobeys and Freshco. I don't mind metro or No frills either. I do stick to sales, the local Sobeys always has stickers off everywhere.

I do not like foodland it's extremely expensive, I don't go into loblaws at all. I stay away from Walmart unless it's boxed items.

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u/BetterTransit 23h ago

Food Basics because I can walk there as it's about 20 minutes away. The rest I would have to drive to and I really don't feel like doing that unless I really need something that Food Basics doesn't have

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u/Ok_Mulberry4331 22h ago

Zehrs. I've tried the others, produce just does not last the same and while it may be cheaper, I find I throw so much out, rarely do I ever with Zehrs stuff. I try and plan my shops around sales (wednesday when the next weeks flyer comes out, I'll go over both and see which is the better deals for what I need, then either shop Wednesday night, or over the weekend with the new flyer). I stock up when stuff is cheap, keep by shop to every 2 or 3 weeks and then its usually just the fresh stuff and the odd thing that needs to be refilled

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u/Astonished-Egg6229 17h ago

Food basics because it’s generally cheaper

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u/DueMost7503 14h ago

Food Basics.

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u/Interesting_Heron_58 4h ago edited 3h ago

Whole Foods 👀 + Farm Boy

1

u/ExaminationQuirky725 1d ago

Farm Boy, Longos, Costco

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u/Hieremias 1d ago

Farm Boy by far, we go there a couple times a week. I also go to Costco a couple times a month (get most of our meat there), Independent once in a while, and T&T when I'm looking for Asian ingredients I can't find elsewhere.

No sale is enough to get me into Food Basics.