A Maxi sign in Quebec. Right: The interior of a grocery store.
Maxi or Super C, Super C or Maxi? That is the question, and to answer it, I sat down to order the same fake groceries from both stores to figure out which is cheaper — or at least, better value for your buck.
Super C, headquartered in Montreal, doesn't exist outside of Quebec, although its parent company, Metro, serves Ontario as well. Maxi is a division of Loblaw's, specifically, the Quebec retail version of the No Frills chain available elsewhere in Canada. Let's see which one wins!
Methodology
I drafted an example shopping list based on my household's personal shopping habits for two people, including a few treat items because you should get something nice, not just things that are "healthy."
The items can be seen on the left hand side of each table, but I'll list them for you here just because I care.
- olive oil
- bag of yellow onions
- jar of minced garlic
- 1 can of chickpeas
- 1 head of broccoli
- a bag of oranges
- 3 tomatoes
- 1 head of iceberg lettuce
- 1 thing of unsalted butter
- 1 loaf of sliced white bread
- ~400-450 grams of ground beef
- ~400-450 grams regular tofu
- ~400-450 grams of chicken (breast)
- 2 litres of 2% milk
- 1 box of Krave cereal
- 12 eggs
- ~680 ml original plain tomato sauce
- ~450-500 grams of spaghetti
- 1 ~400-450 ml can of black beans
- 2 kg white rice
- 3 avocados
- 1 big bag of Lay's ketchup chips
Super C
A table showing a list of Super C products, with prices per kilogram, litre or unit.
Willa Holt | MTL Blog
Item total: $97.32
Total with fees: $97.83
* some items were heavier than our target weights, but still remained cheaper than alternatives.
Maxi
A table showing a list of Maxi products, with prices per kilogram, litre or unit.
Willa Holt | MTL Blog
Item total: $87.45
Total with fees: $89.20
* some items were heavier than our target weights, but still remained cheaper than alternatives.
Verdict
A table showing a list of products and their prices per unit at Maxi vs. Super C.
Willa Holt | MTL Blog
Maxi's prices were better than Super C's for 14 of the 22 total products tested. Super C beat Maxi only five times, with tied prices on three items: white rice, Krave cereal and a 250 ml jar of minced garlic.
Overall, Maxi was noticeably cheaper than Super C for comparable products, even though Super C had more applicable ongoing sales.
The $8.63 difference between each completed cart may seem pretty small, but those numbers add up over time, and our final comparison shows that Maxi provides the better value per unit than Super C despite a relative lack of sales items.
This article's cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.
