Canadian Retail Thread

[Changing City]

Originally Posted by acottawa

Scotties is currently owned by Kruger in Canada.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotties

Thanks. I got mixed up with their Canadian manufacturing in Huntsville of Scott towels (which is different to Scotties, now made by Kruger).

[esquire]

Reminds me of a dinner I had at Romano's Pizza in Saint John last summer, a charming Italian spot with a magnificent view of the Irving Tissue plant across the street where Royale toilet paper is made...

[jonny24]

Originally Posted by WhipperSnapper

I think there's a growing trend for artisan or boutique products as prices have risen closer to parity. A frozen pre-package medium pizza is now averaging $7. The not much smaller, made to order, stone oven bake pizza at my pub is $9. Esty.

My go-to pizza place has $7 medium walk-in special... however Metro usually has 2-for-8 or 2-for-10 deals.

Originally Posted by esquire

^ Who in their right mind would buy a frozen pizza for $7 when Little Caesar's exists? I get that Little Caesar's is not exactly Michelin star gastronomy, but it is when you compare it to any frozen pizza that I have ever had. I'm sure other local pizza joints have similar deals.

I like frozen pizza for when I don't want to pay for delivery and don't want to leave the house (or, sholdn't drive anywhere even if I felt like it). Also the 2-for deals make it more attractive again.

[Acajack]

A great mystery has been solved. It looks like frozen pizza is not taxed.

[niwell]

I enjoy the Dr. Oetker frozen pizzas or PC flatbreads for sometimes for lunch with a homemade side salad. When I'm working from home splitting one with my wife is a pretty good portion size and they are reasonably healthy. That being said I really only get them when on sale - never really made sense how they're either $7 each or 2 for $7. The latter is absolutely worth it.

I do most of my shopping at local greengrocers, butchers and other places on Roncesvalles, but when I do go to No Frills or Loblaws I mostly peruse the frozen section for deals like the above. Regular prices aren't far off from the quality boutique stuff!

[Wigs]

Yeah Dr. Oetker pizzas are only worth it *on sale*

The Westons have managed to turn No Frills from discount grocer into "we're just going to price items as high as we can and see what Canadians will pay"
greedflation bastards!

[WarrenC12]

Pizza Pizza is trying to invade BC but honestly they don't hold a candle to Domino's here for cheap and edible.

[manny_santos]

Originally Posted by acottawa

Scotties is currently owned by Kruger in Canada.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotties

Kruger, not to be confused with George Costanza's employer in the final season of Seinfeld.

[manny_santos]

Originally Posted by esquire

It feels like the presence of US consumer brands peaked around the time of Target (not coincidentally the last time the CAD was roughly at par with the USD) but since then it has been reversing somewhat.

Not the be all and end all of course, but it does not seem like a positive trend that these companies are dialing back their Canadian presence.

Originally Posted by J.OT13

Do we know what's causing this trend of U.S. producers pulling out of Canada?

I mostly don't care so far (Coca-Cola better not leave Canada ), but I do worry it may drive prices up due to the lack of competition.

It very well may have to do with corporate strategy and increasing focus on their most important market. For example if you're a US-based company with a 7% profit margin at home and also distribute to Canada but have a 5% profit margin there, but you want to increase the profit margin in the US, it may be necessary to shed the other market that has a lower margin in order to grow the home market margin. I deal with this situation in the marketing field on a regular basis; it is sometimes necessary to cut out lower margin efforts in order to grow margins on other efforts that are deemed highest priority, especially when there are limited resources.

Another brand that has pulled out of Canada this year is Newman's Own. There was a Twitter thread back in April where they confirmed they had discontinued distribution to Canada. I was able to buy some of their salad dressing recently in Bellingham at least - I think it's better quality than some of the other salad dressings on the market here.

[Djeffery]

Originally Posted by WarrenC12

Pizza Pizza is trying to invade BC but honestly they don't hold a candle to Domino's here for cheap and edible.

Pizza 73 is (or was) their western Canada brand, I'm surprised they don't expand it, as I only see 2 locations in BC.

[SpongeG]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

Do we know what's causing this trend of U.S. producers pulling out of Canada?

I mostly don't care so far (Coca-Cola better not leave Canada ), but I do worry it may drive prices up due to the lack of competition.

how much is a 12 pack of Coke out in Ontario? here in BC it is usually $6.99 - $8.99, if it's on sale you might get a get two for $10 or two for $12 kind of deal. I remember back in the 90's I moved from BC to Ontario for school and at that time we could only buy coke/pop in 6 packs or flats of 24. In Ontario
I discovered 12 packs and a 12 pack was about 2.99, a generic 12 pack was about 1.99, 1992 pricing.

a 6 pack of 500ml bottles is usually $6.99+ it will go on sale for $3.49 sometimes plus we have a bunch of fees on top of that. I will usually just get a 500ml at Dollarama for $1.25

I will add that the prices for pop have also risen in the States, with conversion you are better off buying it in Canada. Ditto chips, a bag of lays at Target is around $4.99 now, their current deal on Ruffles is buy 2 for $8, the other day at Superstore they were priced around $4.

[Djeffery]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

how much is a 12 pack of Coke out in Ontario? here in BC it is usually $6.99 - $8.99, if it's on sale you might get a get two for $10 or two for $12 kind of deal. I remember back in the 90's I moved from BC to Ontario for school and at that time we could only buy coke/pop in 6 packs or flats of 24. In Ontario
I discovered 12 packs and a 12 pack was about 2.99, a generic 12 pack was about 1.99, 1992 pricing.

a 6 pack of 500ml bottles is usually $6.99+ it will go on sale for $3.49 sometimes plus we have a bunch of fees on top of that. I will usually just get a 500ml at Dollarama for $1.25

I will add that the prices for pop have also risen in the States, with conversion you are better off buying it in Canada. Ditto chips, a bag of lays at Target is around $4.99 now, their current deal on Ruffles is buy 2 for $8, the other day at Superstore they were priced around $4.

No Frills is showing 6.99 for a case of 12 cans, and 5.49 for a 6 pack of 710ml bottles. Back when I drank pop I used to buy it at Shoppers on sale and stocked up.

[manny_santos]

Originally Posted by Djeffery

Pizza 73 is (or was) their western Canada brand, I'm surprised they don't expand it, as I only see 2 locations in BC.

I always thought Pizza 73 was an Alberta thing more than anything.

[Coldrsx]

Pizza 73 was started in Edmonton by two (iirc) local businessmen, who sold it for $70mil to Pizza Pizza in 2007.

[Loco101]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

how much is a 12 pack of Coke out in Ontario? here in BC it is usually $6.99 - $8.99, if it's on sale you might get a get two for $10 or two for $12 kind of deal. I remember back in the 90's I moved from BC to Ontario for school and at that time we could only buy coke/pop in 6 packs or flats of 24. In Ontario
I discovered 12 packs and a 12 pack was about 2.99, a generic 12 pack was about 1.99, 1992 pricing.

a 6 pack of 500ml bottles is usually $6.99+ it will go on sale for $3.49 sometimes plus we have a bunch of fees on top of that. I will usually just get a 500ml at Dollarama for $1.25

I will add that the prices for pop have also risen in the States, with conversion you are better off buying it in Canada. Ditto chips, a bag of lays at Target is around $4.99 now, their current deal on Ruffles is buy 2 for $8, the other day at Superstore they were priced around $4.

Pop has always been cheapest in Ontario of everywhere I've been in Canada and the U.S.. And there is no deposit on cans and bottles here.

I just took a look at the prices of a 24 pack of Pepsi and Coke 355ml cans at Your Independent Grocer and they are both $10.49. It's $10.00 for 24 cans of President's Choice cola. Pop was super cheap in the 1990s for sure and even well into the 2000s. I buy less of it now so I don't know when prices started to really rise. I know that sales of pop aren't like what they used to be so there isn't the competition like before.

[Loco101]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

Do we know what's causing this trend of U.S. producers pulling out of Canada?

I mostly don't care so far (Coca-Cola better not leave Canada ), but I do worry it may drive prices up due to the lack of competition.

Equivalent items can be produced cheaper in Canada right now. Labour costs and the cost of most goods are cheaper in Canada. And American products are more expensive here so sales of them will naturally fall meaning less profit for the American companies from Canadian sales.

Many American and multinational companies are starting to produce more things in Canada rather than having them just shipped here. And of course many Canadian companies are doing better against foreign ones due to cost advantages.

Some examples: Heinz ketchup is being made in Canada again in Quebec. Hershey bought back their previous plant in Smiths Falls ON and will be producing many items in Canada again for Canadians. Rustica Pizza based in Anjou QC is moving into shelf space where Delissio (mostly made in USA) pulled out. The company that owns Rustica actually made some of the Delissio pizza for Canada under contract and they jumped on the opportunity.

Groceries in Canada today on average are cheaper than in the U.S. and inflation has been somewhat lower here.

[J.OT13]

Good to hear some Canadian products are taking over shelf space vacated by the American brands. Maintains competition while giving us more "buy local-ish" options.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by esquire

Reminds me of a dinner I had at Romano's Pizza in Saint John last summer, a charming Italian spot with a magnificent view of the Irving Tissue plant across the street where Royale toilet paper is made...

Actually Irving's Majesta/Royale toilet tissue plant is located in Moncton (Dieppe). The Saint John plant makes newsprint.

When the Avenir Centre in Moncton was looking for a naming sponsor after it was constructed about five years ago, the idea was floated to sell the rights to Irving and call the new arena the Majesta Centre, until local wags pointed out that in short order the nickname for the new arena would become the Toilet Bowl."

[manny_santos]

I visited one of the Zellers locations over the weekend for the first time, at Guildford Town Centre in Surrey. It's located in a corner of the lower level.

You can tell it's built for the Instagram/TikTok crowd, there's a couple of Zeddy backdrops with ample space to take selfies.

Also, there were a bunch of Texas Hold'em poker sets on display, which I'm assuming were pulled out of Zellers' old inventory from 15 years ago. The packaging was quite faded, and Texas Hold'em reached its peak 15+ years ago. Are they going for late 2000s nostalgia? That was hardly Zellers' peak years.

If they want to evoke nostalgia from their peak years, they should add Cabbage Patch Kids and a Zeddy Wheel ride.

[esquire]

^ Yeah, the one time I walked through Zellers at St. Vital Centre it seemed very curated and staged, as if they were expecting a bunch of 20-year olds to come in there and fill their Instagram and TikTok feeds with Zellers content...