Jaspreet Singh looks at the price of snacks at Walmart at East Hills in Calgary on Monday, July1, 2024. Singh is an international student and is at Walmart for his weekly grocery run. (Photo by Uddamveer Singh/The Press)
There isn’t a straight and easy answer, but with a little research and investigation into how different stores are pricing these essential items, we’re getting to the bottom of things. Our research included Walmart, NoFrills, Real Canadian Superstore, Safeway and Amazon, and here’s what we found.
We made a list and compared the prices of these essential household items:
Milk
Toilet Paper
Bread
Cereal
Pasta
Rice
Canola oil
Cookies
Juice
Eggs
Peanut Butter
We went on to compare prices of these items in different retail stores to see if there’s any big difference in prices and if there’s a higher possibility of saving money when going to a particular store.
The infographic given below shows the comparison.
Upon seeing the infographic, it can be observed that out of 11 items compared, Walmart had four items for the lowest price among others. NoFrills had six items cheaper, Real Canadian Superstore had four. Although, the price at NoFrills and Superstore are almost identical with few exceptions, as both the stores are under Loblaws. NoFrills is branded as a ‘cheaper’ store than Superstore. Safeway was the worst performing of all with no items in the infographic being cheapest among others. On the contrary, it had eight out of 11 items as the most expensive out of the retail stores in the comparison.
We talked to Jaspreet Singh, an international student shopping at Walmart.
“I just got like six things and I had to spend like $30, That's crazy,” said Singh.
“So, take an example of Costco. You can get a lot of cheap things in there, but you have to buy more for the price. Also, we have no frills, we have wholesale club where you can get the best deals.” Singh shared his go to places to save money as a student.
“We have Sobeys and Safeway which is like at the top of the price line, So as I am a business student I can compare the prices of Walmart, Safeway and I find that Safeway and Sobeys are the currently most expensive stores out there.” Singh said, talking about Safeway and Sobeys as one of the pricier retail store options while going for groceries.
Generic Brands vs Name brands
While comparing the prices of the items mentioned above, we learned that generic brands were relatively cheaper than the brand names. We compared items from generic brands such as Great Value (Walmart’s brand), NoName (NoFrills/Superstore’s Brand) and Compliments (Safeway/Sobeys’ Brand) with brand name in the infographics below.
At the end, there is no retail store worth the crown of 'cheapest retail store' out there but by keeping up with their deals and flyers, an average consumer can hope to save some money for sure. Apps like Flipp, which makes it easier to access flyers and deals of not only big retail giants but also independent stores helps Canadians to navigate the cheapest options on products that they are looking to buy at good deals.
Two shoppers shopping for groceries at NoFrills in Calgary on July 1, 2024. (Photo by Uddamveer Singh/The Press)