In Canada, retail sales of supermarkets and other grocery stores amount to nearly 100 billion Canadian dollars. The three leading grocery retailers had a large presence with their numerous store locations throughout the Canadian territory. Loblaws for example had a total of 2,438 stores in 2021. Sobeys’s presence numbered more than a thousand stores through its various banners, while Metro, Inc. operated 1,612 stores . Although mostly drugstores, Metro was also relevant in the food retail industry in Canada with its 323 supermarkets. Among the leading retailers are also American supermarket chains Costco, and Walmart. With over one hundred warehouses across Canada, Costco, a membership-only warehouse club, saw a 22 percent growth in net sales in 2021.
Canadian consumers are faced with a wide variety of choices when it comes to where to purchase their groceries. A recent survey on where Canadians regularly purchase food and products for everyday use found that 87 percent of Canadians tend to shop at supermarkets. Despite the current growth in online grocery shopping, only about 17 percent of respondents appear to regularly purchase food and products through this channel. Among these, the preferred channel for online food purchases was traditional grocery stores that offer home delivery.
