Grocery Shopping in London, Ontario Comparison

Recently, I met a really nice person (I will call her Baranski since I generally do not use people's real names in blog posts. out of respect for their privacy) who happened to be in my local Giant Tiger doing some grocery shopping for their bar/restaurant business, looking for value to improve their service and try to keep their menu prices under control in this ever-changing, wildly out of control food market. I found it strange that she was shopping for iceberg lettuce and celery here, but she has obviously done her research on pricing and has driven more than a local walking distance to get the "deal" that works for her.

Produce is subject to seasonal variance in quality and price here at Giant Tiger. Generally, they sell what I call utility grade or sometimes standard grade. Still, never first grade since the head of lettuce is generally about the size of a softball (especially the usable part after you remove the wilted outer leaves). Now, if you check out, say, Farm Boy, you will find that yes, they are a higher price but for a much larger and more usable product all round, so your overall value can be greater than what is available at other stores.

I plan to start a weekly comparison of pricing in food stores in the London, Ontario area and post it with the date of measurement for several items that one would use regularly. It may require excluding supermarkets like Loblaws and Independent Grocers, since they fund their loyalty program through higher overall pricing, making them harder to compare because Optimum loyalty points cloud the issue. Also, from a quality level, I do not shop at Walmart, so they have low prices, but is that head of lettuce utility, standard or first grade? I am not going to travel to each store to check them out, but you can be a judge of that yourself, since there is hidden value in first-quality products that can't be easily equated against just price.

Where available, prices will be by kg since that gives a level measuring scale and standard package size, if possible. Buying in bulk only works if you use it up in a timely fashion, and that varies from family to family. I buy for one person only and often use Instacart, but I'm working on the formula that makes it work for me since I don't drive, would need to take a taxi (forget the bus service here; it is just horrible), and not many good stores are within walking distance. For many families or businesses, gas expenditures, time spent away from home or business, and order size all have values that make it difficult to make an across-the-board comparison. Each case is different; end of discussion.

I will start with a basic spreadsheet comparison here and fine-tune it before I actually do the final weekly version in this blog, which will have another name that I am still working on, so stay tuned if that has any value for you.

Y'all have a wunnerful day!