Now then, there's an obvious question some of you may be asking - what about the other grocery stores like Sobey's and A&P and IGA. Let me answer that question by saying the point of this article was not to provide a thorough listing of every single item or price point, but rather to conduct a reliable comparison between Grocery Gateway and what I believe to be the lowest priced store in the land - No Frills - and then cross-reference that with a few other reasonable samplings from the grocery industry (ie. other ones I've been to). I think anyone who has shopped at No Frills would agree that shopping there is about one echelon away from eating straight out of your neighbor's trash cans, so it's pretty safe to say that if Grocery Gateway can come even close to it price-wise, we have a winner. Ultimately, I plan to present a clear and concise reasoning backed by cold hard facts as to why a thrifty, busy person such as myself should or should not use Ontario's only home grocery delivery service (well, it's not the only one - there's eGrocer.ca which apparently represents the whole Loblaws, Zehrs, President's Choice family, but they're quite new and only deliver to two areas, and the GTA is not one of them - blast!). COMPARISON: That being said, let's get to it. Below is my demo shopping list - feel free to browse the items that I like and/or ridicule me for my peculiar taste in food. I can already hear my friends now: "is that a package of silhouette mousse in your pocket or are you just happy to see me...". Alternatively, you have the option to just breeze right through to the bottom where I've tallied up the totals from the different store, and drawn some lofty, generalized conclusions from those scores. |
| |
| 
|
| | PRODUCT NAME | QTY. | SIZE | Grocery Gateway | No Frills | Price Chopper | Loblaws | |
|
|
 | Old South Orange Juice Pulp-Free
more info... | 1 | 355ml | $1.29 | $0.99 | $0.99 | $1.49 | |
| 
|
|
|
 | Minute Maid Peach Punch
more info... | 1 | 355ML | $0.79 | $0.67 | $0.67 | $0.99 | |
|
|
|
|
 | Kraft Macaroni and Cheese Dinner
more info... | 1 | 225g | $1.29 | $0.77 | $0.99 | $1.29 | |
|
|
|
|
 | Quaker Chewy Granola Bars Chocolate Chip
more info... | 1 | 8pk (210g) | $2.49 | $2.27 | $2.27 | $2.49 | |
|
|
|
|
 | Cereal Bar - Raspberry Low Fat: Kellogg's Nutri-Grain
more info... | 1 | 8pk (295g) | $3.69 | $2.97 | $2.99 | $3.49 | |
|
|
|
|
 | Cereal Bar - Apple Cinnamon Low Fat: Kellogg's Nutri-Grain
more info... | 1 | 8pk (295g) | $3.69 | $2.97 | $2.99 | $3.49 | |
|
|
|
|
 | Quaker Chewy Granola Bars Apple Crumble
more info... | 1 | 8pk (210g) | $2.49 | $2.27 | $2.27 | $2.49 | |
|
|
|
|
 | Fresh Family Size Chicken Garden Salad
more info... | 1 | 900grams | $8.99 | $1.47 | $1.47 | $2.49 | |
|
|
|
|
 | Kraft Light Done Right Dressing Ranchers Choice
more info... | 1 | 475mL | $3.49 | $2.57 | $2.57 | $2.99 | |
|
|
|
|
 | Cheddar Cheese - Mild:Black Diamond
more info... | 1 | 225g | $3.49 | $2.67 | $2.67 | $2.99 | |
|
|
|
|
 | Tostitos Scoops
more info... | 1 | 280g | $3.29 | $2.77 | $2.77 | $2.99 | |
|
|
|
|
 | Salsa - Mild :Tostitos
more info... | 1 | 430mL | $2.99 | $2.87 | $2.87 | $2.99 | |
|
|
|
|
 | Natrel Skim Milk Fine Filtered
more info... | 1 | 2L | $4.19 | $2.39 | $2.39 | $2.39 | |
|
|
|
|
 | Natrel 1% Milk Fine Filtered
more info... | 1 | 4L | $5.29 | $4.79 | $4.79 | $5.39 | |
|
|
|
|
 | Country Harvest Bagels - Original
more info... | 1 | 6 per pkg | $2.69 | $1.00 | $1.49 | $2.49 | |
|
|
|
|
 | General Mills Honey Nut Cheerios Cereal
more info... | 1 | 525g | $4.99 | $4.13 | $4.27 | $5.27 | |
|
|
|
|
 | Apples Ontario Macintosh
more info... | 1 | 3 lb bag | $1.99 | $1.97 | $1.97 | $2.49 | |
|
|
|
|
 | Garlic
more info... | 1 | pkg of 3 | $0.99 | $0.14 | $0.11 | $0.99 | |
|
|
|
|
 | Tomatoes Hot House
$6.59 per kg
more info... | 1 | 250 grams (each) | $1.65 | $0.67 | $0.67 | $3.12a | |
|
|
|
|
 | Carrots Mini
more info... | 1 | 908g Bag | $3.49 | $2.47 | $2.47 | $3.99 | |
|
|
|
|
 | Quaker Instant Oatmeal, Apple and Cinnamon
more info... | 1 | 325g 10 Pack | $2.99 | $2.37 | $2.37 | $3.49 | |
|
|
|
|
 | Peppers green
$4.39 per kg
more info... | 1 | 200g | $0.88 | $0.39 | $0.92 | $0.99 | |
|
|
|
|
 | Peppers Yellow
$8.80 per kg
more info... | 1 | 200g | $1.76 | $0.97 | $0.97 | $1.49 | |
|
|
|
|
 | Pepper Red greenhouse
$8.80 per kg
more info... | 1 | 200g | $1.76 | $0.97 | $0.97 | $1.49 | |
|
|
|
|
 | Green Beans
$6.59 per kg
more info... | 1 | 455g | $3.03 | $1.99 | $1.99 | $1.82 | |
|
|
|
|
 | Mushrooms : Stuffing
more info... | 1 | 397g Package | $2.99 | $1.47 | $1.29 | $3.29 | |
|
|
|
|
 | Haddock - Genuine Scottish: Jane's
more info... | 1 | 680g (5 fillets or more) | $11.99 | $6.99 | $6.99 | $10.99 | |
|
|
|
|
 | Stouffer's Lean Cuisine Meat Lasagna
more info... | 1 | 274g | $3.79 | $2.97 | $2.97 | $3.50 | |
|
|
|
|
 | Stouffer's Lean Cuisine Glazed Chicken
more info... | 1 | 225g | $3.79 | $2.97 | $2.97 | $3.50 | |
|
|
|
|
 | Stouffer's Lean Cuisine Chicken a L'Orange
more info... | 1 | 212g | $3.79 | $2.97 | $2.97 | $3.50 | |
|
|
|
|
 | Boneless Top Sirloin Steak
$15.41 per kg
more info... | 1 | 500 g | $7.71 | $6.40 | $6.50 | $6.50 | |
|
|
|
|
 | Chicken Breasts - Boneless Skinless: Prime
$17.60 per kg
more info... | 1 | 400g | $7.04 | $6.40 | $6.50 | $6.50 | |
|
|
|
|
 | Dempster's: Original 100% Whole Wheat Bread
more info... | 1 | 675g | $2.19 | $1.49 | $1.59 | $2.29 | |
|
|
|
|
 | Kraft Peanut Butter Crunchy
more info... | 1 | 1kg | $4.99 | $3.97 | $4.47 | $5.17 | |
|
|
|
|
 | Smuckers Raspberry Jam
more info... | 1 | 500 mL | $3.49 | $3.17 | $3.17 | $3.89 | |
|
|
|
|
 | Chapmans Ice Cream Dutch Chocolate
more info... | 1 | 2LT | $2.99 | N/A (we'll say $2.99) | N/A (we'll say $2.99) | N/A (we'll
say $2.99) | |
|
|
|
|
 | Jell-O Chocolate Fat Free Pudding
more info... | 1 | 4x99g | $1.99 | $1.77 | $1.77 | $2.19 | |
|
|
|
|
 | Chips Ahoy Cookies
more info... | 1 | 550g | $4.49 | $3.77 | $3.77 | $4.29 | |
|
|
|
|
 | Crackers - Triscuit 50% Less Salt: Christie
more info... | 1 | 250g | $2.99 | $2.49 | $2.49 | $3.17 | |
|
|
|
|
 | Ritz Crackers Original
more info... | 1 | 450g | $3.99 | $3.67 | $3.67 | $3.99 | |
|
|
|
|
 | Campbell's Chunky New England Clam Chowder Soup
more info... | 1 | 540 mL | $2.79 | $2.17 | $2.17 | $2.49 | |
|
|
|
|
 | Campbell's Condensed Tomato Soup
more info... | 1 | 284 mL | $0.99 | $1.07 | $1.07 | $1.19 | |
|
|
|
|
 | Organic Broccoli
more info... | 1 | EACH | $2.99 | $1.00 | $1.27 | $1.99 | |
|
|
|
|
 | Silhouette Mousse - Black Cherry :Danone
more info... | 1 | 4X95g | $2.99 | $2.77 | $2.97 | $2.99 | |
|
|
|
|
 | Silhouette Mousse - Peach :Danone
more info... | 1 | 4X95g | $2.99 | $2.97 | $2.97 | $2.99 | |
|
| |
|
|
| SUBTOTAL: CONCLUSION | $154.65 | $112.98 | $115.46 | $143.00 | |
|
|
|
|
|
| Assuming you would spend 2 hours longer from start to finish shopping in the grocery store than you would buying everything online, then you would have to value your spare time at greater than $20 per hour in order to justify shopping at Grocery Gateway instead of Price Chopper, which, unlike No Frills, does not require you to "pack heat" in order to feel safe on their premisis. Other considerations include costs for transportation, and levels of stress, but those are too subjective to consider for the purposes of this article. Thus, unless you are ok paying 40 bucks extra for 2 hours of time, I unfortunately must recommend not to use Grocery Gateway as anything other than a last resort. On the topic of interesting things to note - Price Chopper came out only a few dollars over No Frills - quite impressive. I guess we can take one more step up from our Neighbor's trash. And finally, as far as Loblaws patrons are concerned, you folks would be well advised to, well, get off your high horse. According to these results, you'd almost be better off staying at home regardless of how worthless your time may be. - Erik Neff |
| |
VS 
VS 
VS 
