I tracked which Ontario grocery stores won on price week over week for 4 months. No single store dominates.
I'm one of the founders of SAVR, a free Canadian grocery price comparison tool. I wanted to share some data from our platform because I think it's relevant to anyone trying to actually cut their grocery bill right now.
From January 1 to May 12, 2026, our users ran 1,357 grocery list comparisons. The interesting finding is what happens when you look at who's actually winning on price each week.
We tracked which store had the lowest price most often, by category, week over week. Here's the short version:
Produce (apple, banana, lettuce, tomato, carrot, broccoli, onion, pepper, etc.): No Frills leads most often but their win rate swings from 21% to 52% depending on the week. FreshCo, Foodbasics, and Walmart all take the top spot in multiple weeks. This category is essentially unpredictable.
Dairy & Eggs (milk, cheese, yogurt, butter, eggs, etc.): No Frills and Walmart trade the lead almost every week. FreshCo won outright one week. Fortinos showed up in second place one week in March, ahead of No Frills.
Meat & Seafood (chicken, beef, pork, salmon, shrimp, etc.): The widest spread of any category. No Frills is the most frequent winner but FreshCo, Walmart, Foodbasics, and Metro all take first place in multiple weeks. Even Loblaws appeared in the top 3 one week.
Pantry (pasta, rice, bread, oil, peanut butter, canned goods, etc.): Walmart's strongest category, but they still lose to FreshCo, No Frills, Foodbasics, and Metro in multiple weeks. FreshCo won this category outright one week at 44.3%.
The point isn't that one store is better than another. It's that the winner rotates constantly, and with grocery costs one of the most talked-about financial pressures facing Canadians right now, this data clearly illustrates the need to be diligent. Any given week, defaulting to your usual banner out of convenience could mean leaving a meaningful deal on the table.
Full week-by-week breakdown by category here: https://savr.app/blog/which-ontario-grocery-store-actually-wins-on-price-it-depends-on-the-week
Happy to answer questions about the data or methodology.