A friend and I walked over to the No Frills in my neighbourhood to do some grocery shopping. Then the next day, I hopped the bus for the 30-minute ride to the local Supercentre. Would No Frills be cheaper than its sibling store both owned by Loblaws? The short answer is yes but by how much? There’s only one way to find out: I went shopping.
I created the list by focusing on basics that most of us would buy: bread, milk, especially the 4L bag, a dozen eggs, bananas and a pack of 2-3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts. I looked at the cheapest options and the house brands for both stores. No Frills has the famous yellow No Name brand while Supercentre, which does carry the No Name brand, also has the PC brand.
The shopping list was easy. I looked for deals and checked the flyers. When I went, there weren’t that many deals for the basics but there were some costs savings.
Before I get into the price breakdown and comparison, let’s talk taxes. HST/GST/PST, the sales tax, is usually applied to the majority of grocery items. However, there are certain food and beverages that are zero-rated as basic groceries. Zero-rate means you’ll be charged a rate of 0% tax.
Some examples of zero-rated groceries are fresh, frozen, canned and vacuum-sealed fruits and vegetables, breakfast cereals, most milk products, fresh meat, chicken and other poultry, fish, eggs and coffee beans.
Let’s look at the prices for the items. I looked for the identical items in both stores and if I couldn’t find them, I looked for the closest items in terms of size or number.
Price Comparison Table
I looked for deals but the week I visited both stores there weren’t that many sales or two-for-one deals for the items I was looking for. No Frills did have a sale on two chicken breast for $8, no matter the size. Though they were pretty small.
Other store factors
Both stores were relatively easy to get to, I walked about 15 minutes to the No Frills and the bus took about 25-28 minutes to get to the Superstore. Both were clean, easy to navigate and pretty busy. The Supercentre is significantly much bigger, but had more parking as it’s located in a more industrial area with more space.
The No Frills is smaller in size and doesn’t have a lot of parking. It’s built more for foot traffic than cars.
Price matching
Both stores will price match if you find the exact same item for a lower price in a different store. You just have bring in the competing store's current ad to get the price match.
Which store is cheaper?
After shopping, the conclusion is pretty plain. The Real Canadian Superstore cost $33.92 while the No Frills haul cost $22.05. That's an $11 difference! Plus, the No Frills was more convenient to get to compared to the Supercentre, so when considering what store to shop at, think about the convenience and whether you’d have to pay for parking.
Winner: No Frills.
