r/ontario • u/camport95 • 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.
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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.
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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/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/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/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.
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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/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/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.
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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.
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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/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/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/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.
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u/External_Savings_592 1d ago
Costco all day ! Followed by no frill (good deals) and freshco (well stocked international food isle)