Grocery Shopping Online in Canada

Despite the vast size of Canada, with its population scattered far and wide, grocery shopping online in Canada seems to be off to a great start in the larger urban centers, and can only grow. (More Canadians per capita use the internet than in any other country).

Canadian Grocery Stores Online

To help you find the ones you could use, I'll list them here as I discover them.

CanadaGrocer.ca

CanadaGrocer - is located in Canada, (and has a site for Americans called CanadaOnly.ca) but all the prices, even for Canadians are in US dollars. (Huh? Why is that?) CanadaGrocer is prepared to ship overseas, but I found it odd that they mention starting and operating out of the golden horseshoe (the cities that ring around Lake Erie on the Canadian side) yet their head office is in Calgary. I suppose it's possible, especially as a business merger or buy-out, but they haven't explained that well enough to make sense.

(I don't like a site to confuse me, do you?)

As we explore these grocery shopping sites we soon learn that they do not all offer perishable produce like fresh fruits and vegetables. Some will only deal in packaged items - with some shelf life. One grocery online promised to send only the freshest and in new packaging; they also make use of Canada Post's parcel and XpressPost methods of shipping.

For sure there is value in doing your grocery shopping online in Canada, especially if you have lived in Canada, and you miss certain products that cannot be obtained where you are now. Or, if you know people living in a different country who dearly miss their favourite Canadian foods or brands.

I didn't do a thorough price comparison but I noticed that the molasses I buy for less than $2, is 4.99 on CanadaOnly.ca site. Ho-My!! So then this is not for me. But if price is not a major factor to you, you might consider sending a care package to yourself or someone outside of Canada with some goodies that they will appreciate. Remember, since you need to allow a number of weeks for delivery, you will need to start your grocery shopping online in Canada a couple of months before Christmas if your package is meant to be part of that season's treats.

E-ZGrocer.com

Another Canadian grocery shopping site which delivers to your door the following day. Fairly simple, easy to use site. This chain has stores in more than one province. Click your province on the map to see if they deliver in your area.

GreenGateway.com

My first search online led to this one, but I couldn't find a clue anywhere on the site as to what country or city they serve. Perhaps they expected only their local customers to look for them. Finally I spotted "Longo Brothers Fruit Market" in a tiny font in the footer of the pages. I did a Google search for that name, and was led to their site, where they mentioned that they also had this Green Gateway shopping site, so yes, you can go grocery shopping in Canada here - if you live in the greater Toronto area.

I got the impression this is a nice family business, but I would recommend they put some contact info on the Green Gateway site, and indicate what area it is to which they deliver groceries. (Take that as a bit of advice if you are starting up such a site).

This wiki page on Green Gateway gave me some background on the history of that business.

MetroGlebe.com

This site provides groceries in the Ottawa metro area, and offers to air-ship orders out to Nunavet up north. It does not look like the conventional shopping site, and doesn't provide photos of their products, but it IS up front about its location, and it has a place to enter your postal code to find out whether you are even in their grocery shopping delivery area.

I think, if I were in the Ottawa area, I would like to go see what kind of store it is and what their products are really like. They may know what they are doing, it might be a good store to use for grocery shopping online in Canada, but I'd like to make sure if I were in Ottawa.

NestersMarket.com

In British Columbia there is a chain of grocery stores called Nester's Market. It has a colourful website for it's stores, but only the one located in Whistler is online and offers to make deliveries to your door. The other stores show graphics of their flyers and provide a map to find their physical store location so you can shop in person. (Do you go skiing at Whistler? Keep this one in mind).

Safeway.com

Safeway is both an American and a Canadian chain of grocery stores. They deliver in most USA locations, but you will need to confirm you are in the right urban center to do your grocery shopping online in Canada - via Safeway.

Quality Foods

Quality Foods delivers to specific localities on Vancouver Island, (BC) and allows customers to pick up their order at certain stores. Customers from afar may order online for deliver to local addresses if the recipients-to-be are in the right postal code zones. Their site gives $9.95 +HST as the delivery fee, but again only to certain postal code areas.

TeleGrocer.com

TeleGrocer serves the area from Ottawa, through the Greater Toronto Area (GTA, which includes Etobicoke, Mississauga, North York, Scarborough, Toronto and points in between). This online grocery store has a smaller graphical interface, but seems to be quite up-to-date and efficient.

Their site explains that your online orders are forwarded to a fulfillment supermarket near you and there someone from a team of Personal Shoppers shops for your list and packs it for delivery to your door. That's when you pay the delivery person by cash or a debit car or a cheque (the latter only if you have arranged your credit approval).

If you expect same day delivery you need to place your order online before 7 a.m., and if you want delivery before noon, you must have done your online grocery shopping at TeleGrocer.com the night before.

TeleGrocer recognizes that people are different, and have different needs, so they have three different membership options.
Basic Internet Membership - allows you to place orders online and pay on delivery, with no membership fees.
Full internet Membership - allows you to place orders online, but you get a lower delivery charge, and you may pay by cash or cheque. This is their most popular choice.
Telephone Membership - (for those without computer/internet access) allows you to place orders by phone and pay by cash and/or cheque.
The shopping fees range from $9.95 (Full Internet) to $11.95 (Basic Internet). All memberships include a 5% surcharge on the retail cost of the grocery.

Since TeleGrocer partners with very large supermarket chains that buy directly from manufacturers or smaller independents who are part of a buying group and as such has competitive prices. This means that they have lower retailer prices than e-grocers operating from their own warehouses. This can result in retail prices that are 15% to 30% lower than the prices their competitors are charging for the same items. - When you know such facts you can calculate if these services are worth your money, or would you rather spend the time to do your shopping yourself?

Shipping Groceries Internationally

There are some online stores that are set up for international sales. A few will ship into Canada. Or, they are in Canada and are willing to ship outside the country. There may be more, or more will appear in the next few years. Do send a note to tip me off, if you know of a grocery shopping online in Canada site.

www.MrCase.com

Based in the Greater Toronto area, MrCase.com ships anywhere, and carries ovr 10,000 grocery products, sold by the case, and offers home and office delivery. The delivery fee is $3 for orders of $75 or more, and it is $6 for orders less than $75. They promise next day delivery for orders received before 11:30 a.m. (Incidentally, there is no HST charged on case purchases - nice to know!)

www./Spud.ca

Spud.ca appears to be a real leader and inovator in grocery shopping online in Canada - and in some larger metro areas in the USA on the west coast. They started out in the lower mainland of British Columbia, and now reach to these other delivery areas.

Spud will source your produce and groceries as local as possible to you, to support organic family farms and producers. Shopping with Spud.ca saves you time, gas, frustration, and also lowers your carbon footprint.

Delivery Areas for Canadian Locations include; Vancouver, Victoria, Vancouver Island, and Calgary.

They use local sources in these USA locations to provide the same kind of grocery delivery; Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles.

Others noted

ExPat was mentioned elsewhere, but I discovered that they don't really deliver groceries; just other hard goods. Their rates look rather expensive to me, but that's just my first impression.

How do you find online grocery shopping in Canada?

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More & Deeper on Grocery Shopping

Grocery Shopping Online - Discoveries about Grocery Shopping Online in the UK, USA and Canada, including short reviews of the first flush of such sites found.

Grocery Shopping Online in Canada - with some basic information on the online grocery stores listed here to get you started.

Grocery Shopping Online in USA with descriptions and reviews of some national and regional grocery shopping sites that can deliver groceries to your door.

Grocery Shopping Online in UK - and the results of my search for such online grocery sites in that country. At first I thought they had a corner on this novel idea.

Need to send a Personal Shopper for your groceries? - Tips to either arrange for a personal shopper to do it for you, or for you to offer to be a personal shopper for others.

A Power Shopper, - and how to become one in several stages as you develop your online shopping skills.

Suggestions for setting up your own personal shopper business, - where you use your skills on behalf of those who do not have time or otherwise cannot shop for themselves.

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