Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
Discover how Canadian supermarkets are taking inspiration from British stores.
Learn about PC Optimum points, coupon schemes, and their similarities to Tesco’s Clubcard program.
The Changing Face Of Canadian Supermarkets
Every year, I’m a resident in Canada, and it seems to me we’re getting more and more like the Britain I left behind.
The Supermarket is a prime example of the changing face that always seems to be behind the times.
But I notice a significant shift to emulating the old country and how we do things.
The Point Of Rewards Points
Canadian PC Optimum points and couponing caught my attention mainly because they are similar to Tesco’s Clubcard points program in the UK.
Every time you shop in most supermarkets, data is collected to determine what you buy most often, the amounts purchased, your average grocery budget, and other revealing facts.
This collected data is analyzed and used to send you offers and coupons more tailored to the individual rather than the masses through a flyer.
Tesco UK’s Clubcard rewards, launched in 1995 and, have been part of the success leading to the company’s phenomenal growth.
The highly personalized Clubcard vouchers or coupons and offers it generates for customers try to encourage more spending by targeting a specific part of their spending habits.
Delivering The Goods
I can’t say I’ve seen it yet, but seeing an online shopping and delivery service start here in Canada very soon wouldn’t surprise me.
I would imagine that for geographical reasons, the delivery service would probably be restricted to more densely populated areas.
Back home (yes, it is still considered home) in the UK, there was a growing trend in online grocery shopping combined with a delivery service before I left.
The idea is that those of us with hectic lives or those who don’t have a car can still do the weekly shopping without the hassle of actually going there.
There are Tesco groceries online, Waitrose online groceries, and Sainsbury’s online groceries, to mention a few.
There could well be many more that have since jumped onto the home delivery service bandwagon.
It sounds great, but it’s not something I ever indulged in.
I’m a much more tactile guy who likes to see what he’s buying and check the quality of the fruit and veg I will purchase.
I want to pick up products and compare them side by side.
You Don’t Get To Do The Grocery Picking
The problem is with the online experience is that you only click what you want to buy.
Someone in a picking and distribution warehouse does the shopping for you, and they’re not as picky as you.
I’ve seen online shopping results because my sister used the service on multiple occasions, and some of the products did not look pretty upon receiving the goods.
The other concern with online grocery shopping is that if the product is out of stock, nothing will be sent to you unless you have stated an alternative.
This leads to the question, How do I know that they ran out of stock and aren’t just pushing another product?
Supermarket Brands Finest Products
When you visit Walmart these days, you’ll notice they have introduced a range called “Our Finest” in snazzy silver cardboard packaging.
It looks pretty good, like an upmarket no, no-name brand.
Sorry, Walmart, but Tesco from the UK was there before you and for quite a number of years.
Strangely enough, Tesco’s Finest range is also presented in a snazzy silver cardboard presentation package.
Does this mean that Walmart is trying to emulate Tesco’s success?
Maybe, considering they already compete directly in the UK, with Walmart going under a different moniker than Asda.
Navigating Self-Checkout At Canadian Supermarkets
I’ve previously talked about self-scan checkout and how it was already used in the UK approximately 10 years ago.
It just seems we’re constantly a little behind the times here.
That being said I still enjoy the face to face experience you get with a cashier.
The friendly and sometimes not-so-friendly faces that serve you at the checkout can process your shopping faster than at the self-service.
The point of the self-scan, I’m guessing, is to get as many people through the exit with shopping in hand without having to pay out more wages.
Machines don’t need health benefits either and certainly don’t require breaks.
It makes me wonder what the face of the future supermarket will look like.
The British Invasion At Canadian Supermarkets
A few weeks ago, I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw Chef Jaime Oliver doing a celebrity endorsement for Sobey’s and promoting his new Jaime Oliver Discovered Canada range for the supermarket chain.
He’s probably one of the more likable TV chefs, possibly because he’s so down-to-earth and honest when he’s showing the audience that cooking can be fun and flavourful at the same time.
What worried me is that Mr Oliver always prided himself on the fresh ingredients in his cooking, but now he’s knocking out pre-made dinners in plastic tubs.
There are always many UK cooking shows on TV, mainly on the wife’s favourite “Food Network”.
Unfortunately, they haven’t got my favorite into the country yet, Nigella Lawson, but they do have Nigella Lawson recipes and her TV show.
Paying For Extras
Correct me if I’m wrong, people of the UK, but I could have sworn shopping bags were inaccessible when I left the country.
I believe you have to pay for plastic shopping bags just as we do in Canada, but yet again, I think we got stung for those first, too.
The going rate for a shopping bag in Canadian supermarkets is 5 cents, but it’s been so long that I don’t know how much it costs my fellow Brits to buy a bag.
There are alternatives to paying for bags, though.
Take your reusable shopping bags or use the free traditional cardboard boxes from the front of the store.
Shopping carts here in Canada take a deposit of 25 cents, which is cheap compared to the UK.
While shopping, trolleys in the UK usually take a £1 coin, converted to Canadian dollars, which is $1.68.
Would you pay that much for a shopping cart?
I know one thing: you won’t find many carts with the deposit left inside.
Expanding The Influence
Now I have seen a small number of these gas stations owned and operated I’m assuming by the associated supermarket they share the land with.
Grocery stores with Petrol filling stations combined in the UK are trendy.
All the big players in the UK have gas stations attached and usually combine deals to get more customers to spend more of their money at one store.
The main idea is when you spend “X” amount in-store, you’ll receive a discount or coupon for the filling station to get cheaper gas per liter.
That’s great, and I should know because I used to take advantage of that every time.
Now, I use the online application Ontario Gas Prices to check the local area and save myself some extra cash. Knowledge is power.
No doubt the face of the Canadian Supermarket will change over the coming years, but will it be Super?
Thanks for reading,
Mr. CBB
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…Great article…Thank You !!
Thank you very much, it’s nice to hear positive feedback.
I am loving the PC Plus rewards card, but boy does it creep my out a little bit. And apparently I only buy meat at Loblaw’s stores (it’s not my regular store, I just go there for sales).
The fuel stations linked to grocery stores actually work the opposite way in Atlantic Canada where when we fill up with gas we get money for the grocery store – they are forcing us the other way 🙂
Thanks for the comment Alicia. I’m assuming that once the PC Plus program gathers more and more data then the coupons and/or offers you receive will change. As for the filling station, that’s a new way of doing it. It’s good to be informed about the differing sales/marketing tactics across the country.
I think the copying of things from the old country might be that the company’s see it works there. Mind you there it’s a lot more people for the area whereas Canada tends to be a lot more spread out except in places like the GTA and around other large cities. As the saying goes…nothing succeeds like success!!! I don’t see the online grocery shopping going beyond the cities as it would cost in gas to deliver the product. The grocery stores here take phone orders from a number of the older and less mobile and will deliver in town for a small fee. There is also the Mobility bus to run folks to the stores and back.
I’ll be looking into the PC points deal to see if No Frills is included in the promo. I have a Sobey’s card and get online offers so I don’t see a big difference there. The coupons on the back of the receipt I have seen before years ago. Loblaws did it many years ago or something very like it. If you bought a box of cereal and some cookies along with everything else,for example, you could find a coupon on the back of the receipt for a different kind of cookies and another kind of cereal. Currently Target does the same thing now with coupons on the back of the bill. Any bets on Walmart trying that too??
I haven’t paid for a grocery bag in ages as I always have my own bags. I do get the odd one free if I’m getting meat and the cashier bags it so it won’t leak in my bags. I have a stockpile of extra grocery bags to replace the ones I’m using now as the bags wear out over time. We also keep a little change in the truck for parking and I make sure there are a couple of loonies as that is what the new NF takes in their carts in town. Yes, I make sure I get that loonie back when I take the cart back.
The gas station attached to a grocery store happens in Stratford at the Zehrs, buy gas and get a few cents off the grocery bill. It tends to be one of the cheaper places to get gas in town. I use tomorrowsgaspricetoday.ca myself to check the price in Stratford. I also remember reading somewhere that if you get gas first thing in the morning it can be more expensive than later in the day. If the price is going to drop they wait until after the morning rush hour. I have had that happen once when we had a medical appointment first thing in the morning but needed to get gas soon. There wasn’t time going in but on the way home I got gas and it was cheaper then than it had been earlier at the same place. Something I watch for.
Hey Christine, I’m glad to see I’m not the only one who watches the local gas prices. I hadn’t noticed the price change during the day but I do know you get more for your money when the ambient temperature is cold. The gasoline is more dense at colder temperatures and has to be corrected to 15 degrees Celsius at the meter/pump.
We do have on line shopping and grocery delivery here Mr. CBB. A couple of our smaller grocery chains (Thrifty Foods, recently purchased by Sobey’s, and Quality Foods, entirely BC owned) both offer ordering on their website, and free delivery within a 7 km radius of the store. The service is greatly appreciated by the seniors in our community.
I was somewhat amused by the new PC Plus Points program because Quality Foods has been doing this for years through a program called My Daily Specials. Seems the big guys are slow to catch on to ideas that little stores offer with regularity. I think it’s because the smaller merchants are more attuned to the needs of their communities.
Thank you for the information Beth, I hadn’t realised there was any delivery service. Not only did you prove me wrong but the wife did too, apparently smaller stores like Foodland do local deliveries as well. Just goes to show that supporting the local store gives you a better service than going to the big boys.
It sounds like you’ve got a much more community spirited set of retailers out in BC than we have here in Ontario.
These changes all seem very similar to the big supermarket stores in the US. I do my best to shop locally and at the farmer’s market.
Yes Stefanie, you also have Tesco’s although they had a tough time of it in the US and Aldi supermarkets which are German I think. I’m a particular fan of Aldi. We have also started swapping over to more local retailers. I’m currently trying to find out where I can get local farm eggs, the ones with poo and feathers still stuck to them.
Very interesting to see the differences between Canadian, UK, and American grocery stores. Many grocery stores here (at least in the larger cities) do offer online and delivery services. Self-scan checkouts are becoming increasingly popular. On one hand, I admit that I like them, but I have noticed that means there are less cashiers. I’m sure it’s a cost-savings to the company. In some places, plastic or paper grocery bags are still free, but in California, they are increasingly becoming banned. You have to bring your own bag or pay 10 cents for a plastic bag. I generally used my own bags anyway so it wasn’t a huge change for me but I know some people grumbled. Mostly because they kept forgetting and ended up buying plastic bags. 🙂
Hey Shannon, thank you for the reply. All comments are always welcome, I love to be informed. I can understand why the UK has such a large home delivery network and it’s because of geographical reasons. I certainly never realised exactly how big North America is until I got here, it’s huge and presents a whole other world of logistical nightmares.
Just a gentle FYI, however in some areas of Ontario there is on-line grocery shopping and delivery. It has been around for more than 10 years….I assume it’s still in business as I see the website is still active. I first learned of it when I lived in Kitchener where they offered their service. A friend of mine used it, and it worked for her. It’s is called Grocery Gateway. Check it out =)
Thanks Jennifer I was not aware of this service. I see they don’t actually pick your order from a central warehouse but an actual local Longo’s store instead. That’s a great idea because now it removes the warehouse completely out of the equation. Thanks for the tip. Love it.
I really like the targeted coupons. I guess is is sort of big brotherish, but if it saves money, I really could care less if the store tracks what I buy. I had no idea all that stuff was around Europe before North America. I always picture European grocery stores as quaint and more mom and pop style.
Hi Kim, the giant that is Tesco’s is one of the main rivals of Walmart. It’s a juggernaut that owns an unbelievable amount of assets and land. I’m afraid the days of separate Green Grocers, Butchers Shop and Bakery have long gone unless you travel into continental Europe. Personally I love the little individual retailers of Spain and Portugal, it’s similar to the days of old.
We had an online grocery shopping here too but unfortunately the prices are a bit high. I prefer going out to the grocery and pick my favorite foods, vegetables and fresh meats.
Hey Clarisse, your shopping habits sound like mine. I prefer to actually see what I’m buying. As for the delivery service, there’s always extra to pay when convenience is involved.
Thank you for the info on PC extra points. I wasn’t aware of them…but I just signed up.
We’ve not long signed up for the PC Plus points scheme ourselves.
There are some small scale online shopping/delivery programs in Canada, but not like a bigger supermarket like Superstore or Safeway. One day, though.
Thanks, yes there are small scale delivery services so I have found out from information supplied by the fans. There is also one larger set up called Grocery Gateway that I had no idea even existed. I’m guessing one of the large retailers will eventually run an online grocery service, but the geographical coverage will probably be deciding factor of who gets it and who doesn’t.
great article! I love the pc plus program! especially since i prefer to only shop at zehrs or rcss due to their wider range of organic produce and free from meat. So this program for me is just a bonus! I hope that more stores catch onto this! 🙂
Nice article. I think the retailing landscape has gotten a lot more competitive in the last 10 years. But lower prices also mean less services. And who would’ve thought online shopping would’ve taken off? I’m seeing less people in the malls than I remember as a kid and not only that, less with shopping bags, meaning many are simply browsing. Companies are just trying to do whatever they can to get a competitive edge, throwing big dollars at celebrities for endorsements and yes, sometimes that means borrowing ideas from others. I remember I went to Italy about 15 years ago and then 6 years ago and saw a big change in their stores as well. Before you went to a grocery store in Italy to buy food or you went to a drug store and bought medicine. They were highly specialized. My cousins were always wowed when they came here and saw that our drugstores had everything. But last time I went there, it seems they’re started to do that too. It’s certainly changed everywhere. Amazon.ca now ships groceries. Nuts! Many retailers are now just trying to do everything and be everywhere at the same time to entice buyers.
Very interesting analysis of the supermarket evolution. I’m surprised though that Canada lags behind in online shopping when it comes to delivering the goods. It’s a big country and I’d have thought the pace of development in these areas would be comparable to that of USA.