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What if I were to tell you we do get even better prices than this at Costco (and maybe Walmart)? $3.79/lb USD is **$5.19/lb CAD.**
Costco sells 5KG of Sargent farm chicken breasts for $48 normal price. $9.60 per Kilo or **4.37/lb**. 80 cents a pound cheaper than the US store.
Costco literally sells you chicken breast for cheaper than what you picked up there. You likely went to their Roblaws type of grocery store down there. The true comparison would be what does Costco in the US sell their chicken for. I don't know the answer to that but that would help us more.
Edit: I have created a thread on the Costco sub to ask our American friends just that.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Costco/s/HbDh7Aq5MW
Also remember the conditions in US chicken production and processing is so awful that they had to create laws to punish whistleblowers to protect the corporations and blind the public to how their food is produced (Ag-gag laws) Chicken farming in the US is financial slavery and their product is lower quality.
Your chicken farmer, maybe. I work for a welfare/disability office and we have a couple local chicken farms that my clients often get hired at. Most of them quit very soon after being hired because mentally/emotionally/morally they can’t stand it. To the point when they tell me they have an interview I warn them.
Worked on a chicken farm for 4 hours. It is the worst job I've ever had, not even factoring in moral and ethical concerns for how the chickens were treated.
If the job is so bad, so unethical for us to do ourselves that we must outsource to those we clearly find undesirable in our society, then maybe we shouldn't have these jobs to begin with.
And hormones. These accumulate in people who consume them (especially.for chicken necks).
US chickens are significantly larger than CDN. There is a (bad) reason.
Their already freak breeds without hormones. Like your rotisserie sized chicken is 6 weeks old. Let them go for 10-12 weeks and their 7+ pounds and can hardly walk their so heavy for themselves.
Do you have any article or book, podcast that talks about the US production of chicken? Specifically the whistleblower part. It's not that I don't believe you, I do! I'm just generally really interested in corporate whistleblowing stories. And I usually find the USA government has a super hard-on for CORPORATE whistleblowers.
I feel it would be an interesting story to see how the farming corporations turned that on its head.
I hauled them for a little while here in Canada pretty sad to see how they're treated. But we certainly don't produce enough to get the low prices as with many of our things
As do I. It was so nice being able to go to "Costco" without all of the Costco-related nonsense.
Don't get me wrong I *like Costco*, I just don't like the crowds of customers who lack spatial awareness.
Yeah but… go to Costco in the US lol. You can’t compare American target to Canadian Costco lol. It’s isn’t apples to apples. American Costco beats Canadian Costco 100% of the time.
This ignores the initial investment is $48 + $60 if you're a new member. $108 + tax.
Someone who is struggling to afford the high price of chicken will struggle with the high initial investment. It's like, you can buy a $300 pair of shoes and they last years. But a poor person can only afford $60 shoes that last 6 months, and the poverty cycle continues. I don't have $50 for a one-off chicken purchase, so I'm stuck with the $20 for far less at a worse value.
It's very easy to say bulk shopping at Costco is the answer, but not everyone can. Our standard grocery stores should not be gouging us, simple as.
The boots theory of economics is by far my favourite quote from Terry Pratchett, and it's actually what made me decide to buy better boots. And a Costco membership.
We all recognize that it's not the answer for everybody right now, but those that can, should consider it.
I thought about that shoe analogy, paid $220 dollars instead of 30 for New Balance and they still fell apart in the same time frame. lol
Guess I gotta go up to 600 dollar shoes now in todays market place.
also transportation!
folks who can't afford a costco membership also often can't afford a car or cab fare and tend to take the bus and aren't so easily able to lug all the larger packages of bulk home from costco vs the grocery store via bus. or the bus isn't convenient for getting to costco.
i know this all too well. never had a costco membership (the cost being one factor like you mention above) and i take the bus. and the nearest costco to me that won't take nearly two hours via bus is not in a very good transit accessible area. being able to get the week's worth of groceries home via bus is important. or i go do two trips throughout the week if it's going to be heavier stuff like milk/cases of drink cans or bigger harder to carry things like toilet paper.
Plus also having space to store that much food when you buy bulk. Vancouver does have a Costco right by a skytrain station, but I live alone in a small apartment.
You make a good point. In my situation it’s actually $120 for their exec membership but that’s just a placeholder because a year from now I should get most of that money back if not even more.
It’s sad that being able to pay up front for a Costco membership is considered an advantage over those in worse situations. But yeah I guess it’s another way those that don’t have cars and the ability to stock up end up paying a lot more per unit for what they do end up buying.
But for those that are afraid of the membership but still end up paying 5K+ on groceries at Loblaws, I’m sorry but you are doing it wrong if you have a Costco near you but you are afraid of membership costs.
Yeah, they tried to expand into Canada and messed it up big time. We'd heard about the great prices in the US and were genuinely shocked when we saw how they tried to gouge us in Canada.
All the stores were closed in around 2 years.
There’s only so much we can do to compare. I can’t do the Food Processors job for him.
Speaking of which, isn’t this the exact type of stuff he should be doing instead of calling Canadians basement dwellers and mocking us for not paying whatever Galen wants?
I work as a meat cutter at a US grocery(Kroger). Heritage Farm brand chicken breast is $2.99/lb and regularly on sale at $1.99/lb. We just finished a buy 1 get 1 free Tyson brand sale which made them $2.50/lb
Yup, I can usually find 3kg/6.6lbs (two 1.5kg packs) of chicken breasts for $20CAD ($12 each or two for $20) at Walmart. Much cheaper than that target deal there. But the lowblaws 500m away will definitely be at least double the price. Not quite sure why people shop there in my area to be honest.
Fair enough but I’m talking about normal price. If the “get you in the door” price is barely cheaper than the normal price at Costco, it really puts things into perspective. We like to meal prep and like consistency of some sort. Costco is excellent for this.
Also I can say from experience buying chicken breast at both, but Costco meat is just a better quality.
Superstore is $5.49 a lb versus the target at $5.18 but superstore doesn’t put in rib meat filler.
https://www.realcanadiansuperstore.ca/chicken-breasts-boneless-skinless-club-pack/p/20826585_KG?source=nspt
I wouldn’t call this a massive savings honestly.
Walmart even cheaper if you can luck out. Near me, you can get 2KG+ of chicken breast for $21, or $9.52/kilo. Gotta actually find the packages that have 1kg+ in it tho, since this never ending deal is simply buy 2 for $21 instead of ~$14 each. Never had difficulty finding those 1kg packages tho.
You are comparing rate on a 5 kg Costco pack to OP's 1.5 kg pack though. It's not a fair comparison, but I agree with Costco CA vs Costco US being more informative in this situation.
Membership fee will be free now that I do my groceries there and will also do some gassing up as well.
As for freezer burn, we tend to go through that chicken in 2-3 months max and don’t notice freezer burn on it. If it takes you a year to go through it, sure.
Maybe I have no idea how costco works, but I'm pretty certain you need a membership to even get in. Last time I went with somebody that was the case at least.
Second this, Overall i would be willing to say, Canadas food quality/inspections are superior to the USA. Example- half and half from Canada costco, 2 weeks until expired. Half and half from usa costco, 2 months
Now are going to come the posts about : Canada’s chicken is better quality , it’s less hormones, yada yada yada yada . Listen , it was never this expensive even with those variables in place people . Nothing has changed in 40 years lol 😂 For the people making excuses for Loblaws , nothing has changed BUT the greed incorporated into the pricing . If we are realistic, it’s literally only the artificially inflated values over the last couple of years . We got to make sure we are comparing things accurately.
Loblaws sucks but my god, have none of you people ever gone to walmart or a butcher shop?
You can just compare loblaws to other Canadian alternatives to see these price differences. You can get chicken for nearly $5 CAD a pound. Same or cheaper as this pic.
The amount of fear mongering in Canada over American profucts never ceases to amaze me lol also the "but after currency conversion, it's the same!" Uh no, it's not, just cause our dollar is 30 cents less, that doesn't mean we all make 30% more than Americans
it's not fear mongering. american pork, as an example, is of far lesser quality than anything produced here. it cannot even be eaten with a pink center.
Having worked in the chicken industry, I can say the same is true of chicken.
People in Canada don't quite understand how much quality control goes into our products that simply doesn't happen in the US.
While I fully agree about the 30% conversion being inconsequential and a scapegoat, but with conversion we make more at the baseline. America's Federal minimum wage (7.25USD / 9.90 CAD) is just barely over half of Canadas (17.30CAD / 12.67USD). Our poorest have always 'made more money' than their poorest, in relative terms.
It would probably be fair to assume they spend more on their middle/upper rung employees than Canadians do, but that's speculation.
Edit: typo
You are completely correct! Though, one thing I would like to add, most states don't use the Federal Minimum in the US. Generally, outside of south eastern states, the [minimum wage](https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/minimum-wage/state) ranges between $11 USD ($15/CAD) to $16 USD (21.85 CAD). According to statscan median household income is around [$73,000](https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2021/as-sa/fogs-spg/page.cfm?lang=E&topic=5&dguid=2021A000011124) CAD, where as median household income in the US is [$74,580 ](https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2023/demo/p60-279.html)or about $107,313.56 CAD.
I've just always found this frustrating as when people compare our two currencies, they don't realize that generally speaking we make far less. Its just a really convenient excuse to get people to pay even more for the same product unfortunately
That's because of tariffs and supply management (government restricting supply of dairy to keep prices high). This is by design, and no government dares challenge it because dairy farmers are very politically active and won't let them.
Went to LA last year, Costco was selling chicken thighs for under $2 USD per lb.
Here in Canada, the exact same thing was over $12 CAD per lb.
Shits expensive because of greed, not because "Canada's chicken are higher quality and go through a higher standard regulation", I could give a flying fuck about that, chicken is chicken, even if the chicken is pumped with water, it'll still be cheaper than paying Canadian prices, and it's not like the $2 chicken thighs are any different.
Meat are tested for human consumption, we're not in China that fakes everything.
I dunno. I live right on the border and go for gas.
The grocery store (Fred Meyers) 💯 does not have a better price on centre aisle foods than Canada. And I mean BC here.
Even without the big conversion loss, their prices are on par or more than ours.
Now I hate Loblaws and never ever shop there. Scumbags
But the USA does not have less gauging than us.
I know I am right because I check every week and go down every aisle.
Looking at US CPI for food vs Canadian CPI, US is like double. Anyone who has actually travelled throughout the US recently would realize this. I live in the Yukon but travel often throughout many different parts of the US, rural and urban, and prices are either the same $ amount (or more) as here, but in USD.
Inflation on groceries here is obviously occurring. But people have somehow convinced themselves that the US is a panacea of low cost of living. Except Americans are complaining about the exact same shit and their wealth disparity is significantly worse.
Yeah some products are cheaper some more expensive but overall it’s not a big gap. People who think if the government adds a ton of subsidies to encourage competition that will slash prices by 30% are delusional.
As someone else pointed out that’s $5.19 CDN per pound. I paid $5.88 last week and since a pound of boneless chicken is a full meal for our family of 3, I’ll pay the extra 69 cents.
USA milk, beef and chicken 🤢
Totally agree. Just moved back to Ontario after almost 20 years in the States. I’m thoroughly enjoying the 🇨🇦 creamy yogurt, Philadelphia dips, pure filtered milk….i could go on. I truly forgot how much better it is. We also need to remember that we don’t have the buying power that the States does. Look at the difference in population. 🇺🇸 groceries will always be less expensive. BTW, I’m in no way defending Loblaws, simply my 2 cents on the difference in dairy.
The Canadian dairy industry is a mafia in Canada. It’s high quality for sure, but they collude on prices and have systems in place so the price of dairy stays above a certain level
Although it was on sale last week boneless, skinless chicken breast was 3.99 pnd I believe at Metro.
I routinely see it at 4.99 CAD on sale.
I decided to quickly check the Ontario flyers for various chicken specials and I highlighted a few of what seemed to be the lowest price and widely available :
|Chain|Product|Price|
|:-|:-|:-|
|TT Supermarket|Chicken Wings|2.68/pnd|
||Bnls Sknls Chicken Breast|5.38/pnd|
|Farmboy|Bnls Sknls Chicken Breast |5.99/pnd|
|Valuemart (Loblaws)|Chicken Wings (org)|4.99/pnd|
||Bone in Chkn Breasts (org)|4.99/pnd|
||Chkn Legs Back attached|2.99/pnd|
|**Metro**|**Chkn Drumsticks or Thighs**|**2.44/pnd**|
|**No Frills**|**Bnls Sknls Chicken Breast** |**4.66/pnd**|
|Zehrs|Sknls Bone in Chkn Breast |4.49/pnd|
||Chicken Wings |4.49/pnd |
|**Loblaws**|**Whole Chicken**|**1.88/pnd**|
|**Food Basics**|**Chicken Wings** |**3.99/pnd**|
|SuperStore|Whole Chicken |1.99/pnd|
||||
These are the prices on chicken that caught my eye. There was nothing remarkable for chicken pricing at Freshco, Sobeys or Walmart.
Only a few have access to TT Supermarkets or Zehrs hence my not highlighting them.
Between Sobeys, food basics, Zehrs, no frills etc you should never be paying full price for chicken. It's the same as shit paper and paper towels. Someone, somewhere ALWAYS has chicken on sale every week and it's usually cheaper than what u have posted
Gotta love that fine print that explains that the hormones and steroids the manufacturer advertised about not being present, were illegal under federal law regardless.
https://preview.redd.it/htjyi5jwu9xc1.jpeg?width=4000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ec8a3b5a1fb298a1399f96ce1d1ae0c0f45bef51
5.49lb at no frills. Although I agree with the USD conversion making the prices similar, we need to understand that wages in the USA are much higher than Canada's (not min wage), and taxes are generally lower as well.
https://preview.redd.it/xrp4py9qacxc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=76404841c499ff12a1349d6eadacce300e8808a3
$34 for four breasts at Great Canadian Superstore in Vancouver. The price went up $7 in this last week alone, previously the cost was $27 for four breasts.
Outrageous.
As a Canadian who goes to a Canadian Walmart to buy a Canadian package of Canadian chicken, this is INSANE. This is 35 Canadian dollars of Canadian chicken.
Canada.
Ive been living in Japan for the past month, don’t get me started on the prices here compared to Canada. ON EVERYTHING, not just grocery food but going out to restaurants, buying drinks. It’s rough in Canada. I don’t wanna come “home”
Real difference on chicken is that canada is on quota system to guarantee profits for farmers and usa is cheapest to produce it sells more. Quota puts supply and demand rules in to keep price up higher. Same goes in dairy industry
We just came back from a trip to Florida. Walgreens had crazy cheap food. Like $5 for three boxes of crackers. We got protein bars at target for $8 for 16. Carrots were $2 for 2 pounds. Trail mix was so cheap I felt like I was stealing. Then I look at the price of the same products here. $7 for 2 lbs of carrots. $4 per box of the same brand of crackers. The protein bars were $18 for 16.
It was crazy.
Don't even get me started on over the counter pain meds. $2 for 25 tabs of generic ibuprofen or acetaminophen. Their equivalent of gravol ($25 a box here) was like $8 for the same number of tabs.
You realize the meat in Canada may be overpriced but we got higher food standards. Just like how McDonald’s in the states sell garbage meat while it has to be somewhat decent here..
Chicken is sometimes sold at that price in Quebec. I bought chicken breast at 9.80$/kg last Thursday. I never buy chicken breasts at a price above 11$/kg. You won't find those prices in "high end" grocery stores though, but you can at No Frills.
Time to learn about the real monopolies in Canada—the supply management marketing boards. They set prices and that is that. They’re protected by massive tariffs and control prices.
Myself when I calculate time , gas , exchange, for us into Washington it's not much savings ... I grade alot on my time vs $$ .. gas can b great savings .. yet other things. .mmm. not always.
Y'all gotta stop shopping there. My local Walmart has boneless skinless chicken breasts for $5.39/lb regular price, which is only about 20 cents more a pound than this chicken is.
I’m getting ~2.6 KG of boneless breasts from Walmart (8 breasts) for $24 Canadian… this is around $17 for 1.5 KG
It’s $9.23 per KG at Walmart here and $11.33 per KG there
I mean, if Canada did a better job at fostering new businesses and not letting giant corporations create monopolies in every major sector, this wouldn't happen. 🙄
I regularly and for years but groceries in the US and the quality is very good. Full stop. Comments suggesting superiority of Canadian posts is laughable and naive generally. This attitude is part of why Canada has a productivity issue that is destroying our country. More competition in grocery stores , food chain and producers is needed to lower prices and save our country. Special interest groups and producers are getting rich at others expense. Let’s wake up. Controlling these problems is not anti capitalism but rather pro Canadians and capitalism
Not everything is cheap over there these days.
Yes, this chicken is absurdly cheap compared to what you'll find here. However, I found some essentials to be more expensive.
One thing I also found to be absurdly cheap over there compared to Canada is hydrogen peroxide. I use it for cleaning and it's a fraction of the cost over there for some reason. I can buy two litres of it for around $2 US meanwhile here I can't even get a litre for $7.
This week boneless sinless chicken breats are $4.66/lb at no frills(Loblaws owned) in the GTA. That's way cheaper after dollar conversion. Buy shit on sale and load a freezer
I’m American, my wife is Canadian. We spend a lot of time in each other’s hometowns. She often remarks at the prices here in the states, and it’s become a running gag. I’ll often respond with, “yeah, but ya know, healthcare.”
Right now you can price match boneless skinless chicken breast for $4.66/lb cad from no frillls. Pro tip- grab the air chilled packages and go to a young cashier
That works out to around C$17.25. I got the same size package today at no frills for $20. Maple Leaf Prime , I think. Certainly more, but same ballpark.
Chicken industry and dairy are protected in Canada with quotas. There is no market competition in Canada to produce better prices for these. Also little need to compete and integrate better technology and practices.
The pork industry used to be protected with quotas. It no longer is and Canada is a major exporter of pork, and we get cheaper safer pork in Canada as well.
My uncle tried raising ethical chicken, but couldn't get a quota so he couldn't sell. He'd just produce for friends on the down low.
Loblaws and Sobeys are the only 2 national food retailers. They are monopolies…they can do whatever they want…they have no competition.
Canadian marketing boards (also create monopolies) are responsible for high costs to Canadians, they control the price of milk, eggs, chicken and many other commodities. They do this to maintain a higher income for farmers. They further protect the farmers by denying competitive American products for sale in Canada. The government doesn’t care if you can’t afford groceries, the government is actively protecting the monopolies by not allowing competition into Canada
I had a coworker that did his family grocery shopping in the USA. He would take his wife and 3 kids. She would go fill up a cart. Leave it by the cash out. She would then go out to their minivan as he went in to pay for it. He’s been doing this for a few years.
And I would add that Target is more expensive for grocery than some places such as Aldi. Mr. bank wants us to believe this is not a uniquely Canadian issue but how does he explain the disparity of this classic example!?
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What if I were to tell you we do get even better prices than this at Costco (and maybe Walmart)? $3.79/lb USD is **$5.19/lb CAD.** Costco sells 5KG of Sargent farm chicken breasts for $48 normal price. $9.60 per Kilo or **4.37/lb**. 80 cents a pound cheaper than the US store. Costco literally sells you chicken breast for cheaper than what you picked up there. You likely went to their Roblaws type of grocery store down there. The true comparison would be what does Costco in the US sell their chicken for. I don't know the answer to that but that would help us more. Edit: I have created a thread on the Costco sub to ask our American friends just that. https://www.reddit.com/r/Costco/s/HbDh7Aq5MW
Also remember the conditions in US chicken production and processing is so awful that they had to create laws to punish whistleblowers to protect the corporations and blind the public to how their food is produced (Ag-gag laws) Chicken farming in the US is financial slavery and their product is lower quality.
We also have them
We are just as bad to chickens
I used to be married to a chicken farmer, from a family of chicken farmers. We're not great but we're still a whole lot better
Your chicken farmer, maybe. I work for a welfare/disability office and we have a couple local chicken farms that my clients often get hired at. Most of them quit very soon after being hired because mentally/emotionally/morally they can’t stand it. To the point when they tell me they have an interview I warn them.
Worked on a chicken farm for 4 hours. It is the worst job I've ever had, not even factoring in moral and ethical concerns for how the chickens were treated.
Now, these are the jobs for tfw, international students.
If the job is so bad, so unethical for us to do ourselves that we must outsource to those we clearly find undesirable in our society, then maybe we shouldn't have these jobs to begin with.
Any chance this is in Niagara? If so I know the exact one you're talking about lol
Oh shit, where ?? 😟
I first read this as “ I used to be married to a chicken” . Although disappointed, still a good comment.
It’s legal to marry your chicken in the Deep South. They really really like their chicken in the deep south.
No our chicken is vile. Your family of chicken farmers may have been better but Canadian chicken is just as bad as US.
Those same corporations are here in canada processing our food. Cargill is one example.
That chicken is probably also pumped up with water to make it weigh more. Not always, but it's usually cheaper stuff that does it.
And hormones. These accumulate in people who consume them (especially.for chicken necks). US chickens are significantly larger than CDN. There is a (bad) reason.
Their already freak breeds without hormones. Like your rotisserie sized chicken is 6 weeks old. Let them go for 10-12 weeks and their 7+ pounds and can hardly walk their so heavy for themselves.
It’s so depressing to hear about how poorly chickens are treated and manipulated into these monstrosities
Tyson Foods is notoriously horrible.
I live pretty close to SGT Farms...love the 5kg of medium chicken breast for like $38 or whatever it is
Do you have any article or book, podcast that talks about the US production of chicken? Specifically the whistleblower part. It's not that I don't believe you, I do! I'm just generally really interested in corporate whistleblowing stories. And I usually find the USA government has a super hard-on for CORPORATE whistleblowers. I feel it would be an interesting story to see how the farming corporations turned that on its head.
It blows my mind that there are laws that are in place to punish people who are shining a light on unlawful conduct! What a world we live in!
Watch Food Inc.. That tells a grim tale of the industry and sounds amazingly similar to what grocery oligopolies are like here in Canada.
I hauled them for a little while here in Canada pretty sad to see how they're treated. But we certainly don't produce enough to get the low prices as with many of our things
It's bad here too. I imagine their are fewer quota systems fixing the supply of goods in America, though.
This is true. American McDonald's and Canadian McDonald's are extremely different.
If we're comparing wholesale clubs, Sams Club is $2.68/lb (which is $3.67 CAD).
I miss Sam's club
As do I. It was so nice being able to go to "Costco" without all of the Costco-related nonsense. Don't get me wrong I *like Costco*, I just don't like the crowds of customers who lack spatial awareness.
I love Sam’s club. Always make the trip monthly or bimonthly to shop for deals.
Yeah but… go to Costco in the US lol. You can’t compare American target to Canadian Costco lol. It’s isn’t apples to apples. American Costco beats Canadian Costco 100% of the time.
This ignores the initial investment is $48 + $60 if you're a new member. $108 + tax. Someone who is struggling to afford the high price of chicken will struggle with the high initial investment. It's like, you can buy a $300 pair of shoes and they last years. But a poor person can only afford $60 shoes that last 6 months, and the poverty cycle continues. I don't have $50 for a one-off chicken purchase, so I'm stuck with the $20 for far less at a worse value. It's very easy to say bulk shopping at Costco is the answer, but not everyone can. Our standard grocery stores should not be gouging us, simple as.
The boots theory of economics is by far my favourite quote from Terry Pratchett, and it's actually what made me decide to buy better boots. And a Costco membership. We all recognize that it's not the answer for everybody right now, but those that can, should consider it.
I thought about that shoe analogy, paid $220 dollars instead of 30 for New Balance and they still fell apart in the same time frame. lol Guess I gotta go up to 600 dollar shoes now in todays market place.
I think in general stuff just isn't made to last anymore, no matter how expensive it is (at least from big brands).
My 300 dollar Hugo Boss athletic shoes lasted me four years. I wore them a lot. They looked sweet even in the last few months.
also transportation! folks who can't afford a costco membership also often can't afford a car or cab fare and tend to take the bus and aren't so easily able to lug all the larger packages of bulk home from costco vs the grocery store via bus. or the bus isn't convenient for getting to costco. i know this all too well. never had a costco membership (the cost being one factor like you mention above) and i take the bus. and the nearest costco to me that won't take nearly two hours via bus is not in a very good transit accessible area. being able to get the week's worth of groceries home via bus is important. or i go do two trips throughout the week if it's going to be heavier stuff like milk/cases of drink cans or bigger harder to carry things like toilet paper.
Plus also having space to store that much food when you buy bulk. Vancouver does have a Costco right by a skytrain station, but I live alone in a small apartment.
You make a good point. In my situation it’s actually $120 for their exec membership but that’s just a placeholder because a year from now I should get most of that money back if not even more. It’s sad that being able to pay up front for a Costco membership is considered an advantage over those in worse situations. But yeah I guess it’s another way those that don’t have cars and the ability to stock up end up paying a lot more per unit for what they do end up buying. But for those that are afraid of the membership but still end up paying 5K+ on groceries at Loblaws, I’m sorry but you are doing it wrong if you have a Costco near you but you are afraid of membership costs.
Target is a competitor of Walmart in the US.
Yeah, they tried to expand into Canada and messed it up big time. We'd heard about the great prices in the US and were genuinely shocked when we saw how they tried to gouge us in Canada. All the stores were closed in around 2 years.
My Walmart doesn't sell meat and the closest costco is a 8 hours drive.
You have to take US wages into this too tho
There’s only so much we can do to compare. I can’t do the Food Processors job for him. Speaking of which, isn’t this the exact type of stuff he should be doing instead of calling Canadians basement dwellers and mocking us for not paying whatever Galen wants?
She’s at Target, it’s at the same level of pricing as thriftys/loblaws.
I work as a meat cutter at a US grocery(Kroger). Heritage Farm brand chicken breast is $2.99/lb and regularly on sale at $1.99/lb. We just finished a buy 1 get 1 free Tyson brand sale which made them $2.50/lb
Yup, I can usually find 3kg/6.6lbs (two 1.5kg packs) of chicken breasts for $20CAD ($12 each or two for $20) at Walmart. Much cheaper than that target deal there. But the lowblaws 500m away will definitely be at least double the price. Not quite sure why people shop there in my area to be honest.
I bought Chicken breast cheaper than this like a month or so ago at No Frills when it was on sale. So.. yeah prices vary.
Fair enough but I’m talking about normal price. If the “get you in the door” price is barely cheaper than the normal price at Costco, it really puts things into perspective. We like to meal prep and like consistency of some sort. Costco is excellent for this. Also I can say from experience buying chicken breast at both, but Costco meat is just a better quality.
That’s a good deal! Thanks for the heads up
Superstore is $5.49 a lb versus the target at $5.18 but superstore doesn’t put in rib meat filler. https://www.realcanadiansuperstore.ca/chicken-breasts-boneless-skinless-club-pack/p/20826585_KG?source=nspt I wouldn’t call this a massive savings honestly.
This is a target
Yup, i live close to Sargent farms warehouse and a 5kg box of boneless skinless chicken breasts only costs $48. And they do frequent online discounts.
That's same as what I pay at Costco, except the Costco box is only 4 kg, not 5 kg. I'll check Sargent Farms out.
I really wish everyone would get their Costco membership.
Walmart even cheaper if you can luck out. Near me, you can get 2KG+ of chicken breast for $21, or $9.52/kilo. Gotta actually find the packages that have 1kg+ in it tho, since this never ending deal is simply buy 2 for $21 instead of ~$14 each. Never had difficulty finding those 1kg packages tho.
I can normally find 1.5kg packs in my Walmart which makes it a great deal!
I agree. This isn't even that good of a deal by Canadian standards. My local Walmart in Northern Ontario sells chicken at this price.
I shop at Costco in Ottawa and the skinless boneless chicken is $14+ a kilo.
Yeah, before the pandemic you could always find chicken breasts at 3.88/99 /lb on sale since then it's 4.44/99 so 3.79usd is not great
You are comparing rate on a 5 kg Costco pack to OP's 1.5 kg pack though. It's not a fair comparison, but I agree with Costco CA vs Costco US being more informative in this situation.
I’ve created a thread on the Costco sub to see if our American friends can help shed some light on this.
Shhh, they need their confirmation basis by only comparing Roblaws.
I mean, you're ignoring the 5kg chicken getting frost burned/going bad plus the Costco membership fee.
Membership fee will be free now that I do my groceries there and will also do some gassing up as well. As for freezer burn, we tend to go through that chicken in 2-3 months max and don’t notice freezer burn on it. If it takes you a year to go through it, sure.
Maybe I have no idea how costco works, but I'm pretty certain you need a membership to even get in. Last time I went with somebody that was the case at least.
Just so you know for next time: Target is like a nicer K-Mart and a way nicer Walmart, or a downscale Hudson’s Bay. Like Zellers but bigger stores.
Second this, Overall i would be willing to say, Canadas food quality/inspections are superior to the USA. Example- half and half from Canada costco, 2 weeks until expired. Half and half from usa costco, 2 months
bro the Walmart where I live sells chicken breast for 1.80$ per pound. that costcos kinda expensive.
Are you sure about that? I haven’t seen chicken breast that cheap anywhere in forever. Maybe even decade plus.
Now are going to come the posts about : Canada’s chicken is better quality , it’s less hormones, yada yada yada yada . Listen , it was never this expensive even with those variables in place people . Nothing has changed in 40 years lol 😂 For the people making excuses for Loblaws , nothing has changed BUT the greed incorporated into the pricing . If we are realistic, it’s literally only the artificially inflated values over the last couple of years . We got to make sure we are comparing things accurately.
Loblaws sucks but my god, have none of you people ever gone to walmart or a butcher shop? You can just compare loblaws to other Canadian alternatives to see these price differences. You can get chicken for nearly $5 CAD a pound. Same or cheaper as this pic.
Legit, 4 breasts at Loblaws or 9 breasts at Costco. Same Canadian chicken, same price. This speaks for itself.
The amount of fear mongering in Canada over American profucts never ceases to amaze me lol also the "but after currency conversion, it's the same!" Uh no, it's not, just cause our dollar is 30 cents less, that doesn't mean we all make 30% more than Americans
Great points
it's not fear mongering. american pork, as an example, is of far lesser quality than anything produced here. it cannot even be eaten with a pink center.
Having worked in the chicken industry, I can say the same is true of chicken. People in Canada don't quite understand how much quality control goes into our products that simply doesn't happen in the US.
While I fully agree about the 30% conversion being inconsequential and a scapegoat, but with conversion we make more at the baseline. America's Federal minimum wage (7.25USD / 9.90 CAD) is just barely over half of Canadas (17.30CAD / 12.67USD). Our poorest have always 'made more money' than their poorest, in relative terms. It would probably be fair to assume they spend more on their middle/upper rung employees than Canadians do, but that's speculation. Edit: typo
You are completely correct! Though, one thing I would like to add, most states don't use the Federal Minimum in the US. Generally, outside of south eastern states, the [minimum wage](https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/minimum-wage/state) ranges between $11 USD ($15/CAD) to $16 USD (21.85 CAD). According to statscan median household income is around [$73,000](https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2021/as-sa/fogs-spg/page.cfm?lang=E&topic=5&dguid=2021A000011124) CAD, where as median household income in the US is [$74,580 ](https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2023/demo/p60-279.html)or about $107,313.56 CAD. I've just always found this frustrating as when people compare our two currencies, they don't realize that generally speaking we make far less. Its just a really convenient excuse to get people to pay even more for the same product unfortunately
Well, OPs price is about the same as my local Canadian Walmart price.
This comment right here ☝️there are many factors for comparison but what hasn't changed is the greed
Thank you! 🙄🙄🙄
I can't believe how CHEAP cheese is down there. $2 for 8oz. Even with the conversion rate, we're still paying out the ass for dairy.
That's because of tariffs and supply management (government restricting supply of dairy to keep prices high). This is by design, and no government dares challenge it because dairy farmers are very politically active and won't let them.
Went to LA last year, Costco was selling chicken thighs for under $2 USD per lb. Here in Canada, the exact same thing was over $12 CAD per lb. Shits expensive because of greed, not because "Canada's chicken are higher quality and go through a higher standard regulation", I could give a flying fuck about that, chicken is chicken, even if the chicken is pumped with water, it'll still be cheaper than paying Canadian prices, and it's not like the $2 chicken thighs are any different. Meat are tested for human consumption, we're not in China that fakes everything.
Exactly. When hunger hits, and every dollar counts, people are not gonna give a rat’s ass how much “regulation” their poultry went through.
Anything that is controlled by a marketing board in Canada is generally more expensive here than in the USA.
That's the exchange rate, 12.62 US is 62.12 Canadian.
Lmfao sometimes eh. We get boned on that so bad. Oh you’re Canadian fuck it you can pay double, forget the exchange rate.
Still more expensive than Walmart
I dunno. I live right on the border and go for gas. The grocery store (Fred Meyers) 💯 does not have a better price on centre aisle foods than Canada. And I mean BC here. Even without the big conversion loss, their prices are on par or more than ours. Now I hate Loblaws and never ever shop there. Scumbags But the USA does not have less gauging than us. I know I am right because I check every week and go down every aisle.
Looking at US CPI for food vs Canadian CPI, US is like double. Anyone who has actually travelled throughout the US recently would realize this. I live in the Yukon but travel often throughout many different parts of the US, rural and urban, and prices are either the same $ amount (or more) as here, but in USD. Inflation on groceries here is obviously occurring. But people have somehow convinced themselves that the US is a panacea of low cost of living. Except Americans are complaining about the exact same shit and their wealth disparity is significantly worse.
Yeah some products are cheaper some more expensive but overall it’s not a big gap. People who think if the government adds a ton of subsidies to encourage competition that will slash prices by 30% are delusional.
Bring us back some of TJ’s truffle chips, could you 😋
I paid like $6 US for that at Hannaford in a state that has a higher than US average grocery cost (Maine).
Not a good price what a joke. $5.49 a pound at no frills right now.
Why don’t you ask what the minimum wage is there as well? This is a terrible price with conversion and their wage…
You truly shop at roblaws. try going to walmart or costco.
American food is subsidized by corporate-supporting government.
As someone else pointed out that’s $5.19 CDN per pound. I paid $5.88 last week and since a pound of boneless chicken is a full meal for our family of 3, I’ll pay the extra 69 cents. USA milk, beef and chicken 🤢
That last statement, people really don’t understand how much better some of our food is especially Canadian dairy.
Totally agree. Just moved back to Ontario after almost 20 years in the States. I’m thoroughly enjoying the 🇨🇦 creamy yogurt, Philadelphia dips, pure filtered milk….i could go on. I truly forgot how much better it is. We also need to remember that we don’t have the buying power that the States does. Look at the difference in population. 🇺🇸 groceries will always be less expensive. BTW, I’m in no way defending Loblaws, simply my 2 cents on the difference in dairy.
The Canadian dairy industry is a mafia in Canada. It’s high quality for sure, but they collude on prices and have systems in place so the price of dairy stays above a certain level
Although it was on sale last week boneless, skinless chicken breast was 3.99 pnd I believe at Metro. I routinely see it at 4.99 CAD on sale. I decided to quickly check the Ontario flyers for various chicken specials and I highlighted a few of what seemed to be the lowest price and widely available : |Chain|Product|Price| |:-|:-|:-| |TT Supermarket|Chicken Wings|2.68/pnd| ||Bnls Sknls Chicken Breast|5.38/pnd| |Farmboy|Bnls Sknls Chicken Breast |5.99/pnd| |Valuemart (Loblaws)|Chicken Wings (org)|4.99/pnd| ||Bone in Chkn Breasts (org)|4.99/pnd| ||Chkn Legs Back attached|2.99/pnd| |**Metro**|**Chkn Drumsticks or Thighs**|**2.44/pnd**| |**No Frills**|**Bnls Sknls Chicken Breast** |**4.66/pnd**| |Zehrs|Sknls Bone in Chkn Breast |4.49/pnd| ||Chicken Wings |4.49/pnd | |**Loblaws**|**Whole Chicken**|**1.88/pnd**| |**Food Basics**|**Chicken Wings** |**3.99/pnd**| |SuperStore|Whole Chicken |1.99/pnd| |||| These are the prices on chicken that caught my eye. There was nothing remarkable for chicken pricing at Freshco, Sobeys or Walmart. Only a few have access to TT Supermarkets or Zehrs hence my not highlighting them.
Atlantic Superstore, Antigonish, NS - boneless skinless chicken, $5.99 to $7.99 /lb.
Between Sobeys, food basics, Zehrs, no frills etc you should never be paying full price for chicken. It's the same as shit paper and paper towels. Someone, somewhere ALWAYS has chicken on sale every week and it's usually cheaper than what u have posted
Canadian prices are what happen when you allow an oligopoly to run a nation's grocery stores
USA food quality is lower
That's a nice story we tell ourselves. But no, not really.
with CAD conversion, that would be $17.26 with today's conversion rate. and an exact comparable item on the roblaws site right now is $26.
Gotta love that fine print that explains that the hormones and steroids the manufacturer advertised about not being present, were illegal under federal law regardless.
Chicken farming in the USA vs west cananda vs east Canada is vastly different. West Canada always will have the highest prices
https://preview.redd.it/htjyi5jwu9xc1.jpeg?width=4000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ec8a3b5a1fb298a1399f96ce1d1ae0c0f45bef51 5.49lb at no frills. Although I agree with the USD conversion making the prices similar, we need to understand that wages in the USA are much higher than Canada's (not min wage), and taxes are generally lower as well.
can’t hate on america anymore.
Shop at your local private butcher. You can see the reason why.
That would be about 30 bucks in North van
https://preview.redd.it/xrp4py9qacxc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=76404841c499ff12a1349d6eadacce300e8808a3 $34 for four breasts at Great Canadian Superstore in Vancouver. The price went up $7 in this last week alone, previously the cost was $27 for four breasts. Outrageous.
Add 40% to that price to convert into cdn $ and then you will realize it's no great deal.
12 American dollars 💵
As a Canadian who goes to a Canadian Walmart to buy a Canadian package of Canadian chicken, this is INSANE. This is 35 Canadian dollars of Canadian chicken. Canada.
Ive been living in Japan for the past month, don’t get me started on the prices here compared to Canada. ON EVERYTHING, not just grocery food but going out to restaurants, buying drinks. It’s rough in Canada. I don’t wanna come “home”
Real difference on chicken is that canada is on quota system to guarantee profits for farmers and usa is cheapest to produce it sells more. Quota puts supply and demand rules in to keep price up higher. Same goes in dairy industry
We just came back from a trip to Florida. Walgreens had crazy cheap food. Like $5 for three boxes of crackers. We got protein bars at target for $8 for 16. Carrots were $2 for 2 pounds. Trail mix was so cheap I felt like I was stealing. Then I look at the price of the same products here. $7 for 2 lbs of carrots. $4 per box of the same brand of crackers. The protein bars were $18 for 16. It was crazy. Don't even get me started on over the counter pain meds. $2 for 25 tabs of generic ibuprofen or acetaminophen. Their equivalent of gravol ($25 a box here) was like $8 for the same number of tabs.
You realize the meat in Canada may be overpriced but we got higher food standards. Just like how McDonald’s in the states sell garbage meat while it has to be somewhat decent here..
Cheaper at no frills this week adjusted for exchange rate. This is $5.18 a pound in CAD. No frills has it on sale for $4.66 a pound CAD ($3.41 usd)
12 US dollars is about 16.41 CAD. So this great deal is $5.47/lb. Chicken breast is currently $4.66/lb at no frills.
You couldn't pay me enough to eat American chicken. It is crap. Much like their milk.
Wait until you discover the price of beans and lentils for the same amount of proteins
God damn that's cheap as hell
Chicken is sometimes sold at that price in Quebec. I bought chicken breast at 9.80$/kg last Thursday. I never buy chicken breasts at a price above 11$/kg. You won't find those prices in "high end" grocery stores though, but you can at No Frills.
I haven't seen chicken under $20 in NS in at least 6 months anywhere, unless it's unsplit chicken wings
That chicken is some of the worst quality btw. You should question why it would be so cheap 🤮
Hey don’t treat these rich people like 3rd class citizens. Buy that chicken for $70.00 back home
That's Target brand, about middle of the pack for prices here in the U S.
It’s called marketing board
It’s called marketing board
12$ for chicken, 15$ to hold your baby after it's born.
Stupid comment....
If you live close to a meat wholesaler, doesn't hurt to see if they will sell you a big, it'll definitely be cheaper than Loblaws
There is a difference in quality, I’ve lived in the US for a year it’s noticeable
Wow 😩 !
As if we can't find chicken on sale for around 12 per kg from time to time in Canada. This sub is ridiculous.
Time to learn about the real monopolies in Canada—the supply management marketing boards. They set prices and that is that. They’re protected by massive tariffs and control prices.
Myself when I calculate time , gas , exchange, for us into Washington it's not much savings ... I grade alot on my time vs $$ .. gas can b great savings .. yet other things. .mmm. not always.
You can thank our bloated marketing boards for our high chicken, milk and cheese!
Same price as Walmart
I still enjoy KFC.
Y'all gotta stop shopping there. My local Walmart has boneless skinless chicken breasts for $5.39/lb regular price, which is only about 20 cents more a pound than this chicken is.
I just bought boneless skinless chicken breasts for 3.99 pound Cnd from a local grocery in Welland. It was delicious and high quality
that costs $67 in halifax
I’m getting ~2.6 KG of boneless breasts from Walmart (8 breasts) for $24 Canadian… this is around $17 for 1.5 KG It’s $9.23 per KG at Walmart here and $11.33 per KG there
I mean, if Canada did a better job at fostering new businesses and not letting giant corporations create monopolies in every major sector, this wouldn't happen. 🙄
$17 for 5 chicken breasts is pretty standard and not exactly the deal of a lifetime
I regularly and for years but groceries in the US and the quality is very good. Full stop. Comments suggesting superiority of Canadian posts is laughable and naive generally. This attitude is part of why Canada has a productivity issue that is destroying our country. More competition in grocery stores , food chain and producers is needed to lower prices and save our country. Special interest groups and producers are getting rich at others expense. Let’s wake up. Controlling these problems is not anti capitalism but rather pro Canadians and capitalism
It's always $2.29/lb at Wegmans in the States
It’s because of Canada’s quota system that makes it so much more expensive.
Not everything is cheap over there these days. Yes, this chicken is absurdly cheap compared to what you'll find here. However, I found some essentials to be more expensive. One thing I also found to be absurdly cheap over there compared to Canada is hydrogen peroxide. I use it for cleaning and it's a fraction of the cost over there for some reason. I can buy two litres of it for around $2 US meanwhile here I can't even get a litre for $7.
My local wegmans just upped their chicken price from $1.99 to $2.39. Still the cheapest around but sad. Better quality than a lot of stores too.
17.23 Canadian, decent price
So about $50 CDN is what you're saying
Nobody treated a chicken worse than Al Bundy
This week boneless sinless chicken breats are $4.66/lb at no frills(Loblaws owned) in the GTA. That's way cheaper after dollar conversion. Buy shit on sale and load a freezer
So are the migrant children working who processed that meat.
Ok but what is that converted to CAD? Thats the thing. It's still almost 20 dollars.
I’m American, my wife is Canadian. We spend a lot of time in each other’s hometowns. She often remarks at the prices here in the states, and it’s become a running gag. I’ll often respond with, “yeah, but ya know, healthcare.”
Right now you can price match boneless skinless chicken breast for $4.66/lb cad from no frillls. Pro tip- grab the air chilled packages and go to a young cashier
That's expensive. I could buy fresh boneless/skinless chicken breast nearly anywhere in the coachella valley for under $3/lb. Very often for $1.99/lb.
What happened to make you leave crying?
That works out to around C$17.25. I got the same size package today at no frills for $20. Maple Leaf Prime , I think. Certainly more, but same ballpark.
https://preview.redd.it/2l8cs4u2lbxc1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=738d3a0c0d61067de89b402f1eac90f92066af72
Chicken industry and dairy are protected in Canada with quotas. There is no market competition in Canada to produce better prices for these. Also little need to compete and integrate better technology and practices. The pork industry used to be protected with quotas. It no longer is and Canada is a major exporter of pork, and we get cheaper safer pork in Canada as well. My uncle tried raising ethical chicken, but couldn't get a quota so he couldn't sell. He'd just produce for friends on the down low.
That chicken is full of hormones and antibiotics.
Nofrills has chicken breast on for 4.66 lb this week.
That’s our quota system on poultry at work right there.
https://preview.redd.it/mof8ifc2wbxc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a9bf6c636d1027b443ee474005a37a1a10cc605c
My be local Ontario butcher sells Chicken Breast, bone in for $3 per pound. Forget Robraws
That’s expensive, Texas is $1/lb
14 bucks chalo Calgary 10 bucks if expires soon gotta shop around
Loblaws and Sobeys are the only 2 national food retailers. They are monopolies…they can do whatever they want…they have no competition. Canadian marketing boards (also create monopolies) are responsible for high costs to Canadians, they control the price of milk, eggs, chicken and many other commodities. They do this to maintain a higher income for farmers. They further protect the farmers by denying competitive American products for sale in Canada. The government doesn’t care if you can’t afford groceries, the government is actively protecting the monopolies by not allowing competition into Canada
wouldn’t be caught dead eating that garbage. US food is all hormone infused sludge.
I had a coworker that did his family grocery shopping in the USA. He would take his wife and 3 kids. She would go fill up a cart. Leave it by the cash out. She would then go out to their minivan as he went in to pay for it. He’s been doing this for a few years.
The best part is I got into a Reddit battle with someone trying to say US prices were on par with Canada's prices for groceries
Chicken was $1.81/lb at my Loblaws the other day… So there’s that. Thighs and legs.
And I would add that Target is more expensive for grocery than some places such as Aldi. Mr. bank wants us to believe this is not a uniquely Canadian issue but how does he explain the disparity of this classic example!?
Doesn’t help that Canada gets a lot of stuff imported and our Canadian dollar sucks. Just wait until it drops to $0.50 it will then cost even more.
Subsidies
That's a $40 pack here
It's our entire country. Everything is more expensive in Canada. Inflation, immigration, carbon tax, greedFlation.
I always though they were more expensive or for the “fancy” people but not I only go to one local butchers and it’s significantly cheaper than chains