Costco Canada tops the list once again as the number one grocery retailer in the country, according to a new study.
Shoppers love Costco Canada for its discounts, and it shows — the members-only warehouse retailer took the top spot for the second year in Dunhumby’s Retailer Preference Index (RPI) for Canada.
Dunhumby is a UK-based global customer science company that helps clients understand their shoppers better. Some of their clients include Metro, Coca-Cola, Unilever, Danone, and Tesco.
“Every day, Canadians are stretching their grocery budgets the best way they can, and making price-conscious choices feels more and more like a necessity,” reads the report.
This year’s study examined Canada’s $115-billion grocery market to see how the top 28 grocery retailers performed by analyzing customer and financial data. Overall, Canadians prioritized price as retailers with “strong savings and price are more favoured than ever to long-term success in Canada.”
With shoppers focused on cost, companies that scored the highest tend to be food discount, club, and supercenter format banners. Other important factors for customers include quality, speed and convenience, digital (online shopping, apps, and tech-enabled experiences), and operations (product availability and price consistency).
“Costco remains Canada’s number one overall brand, scoring above market average across all areas except speed and convenience, reinforcing its recognized consumer value,” reads the report.
While Costco retained its number one spot, Maxi jumped three spots from number five to the second spot. And despite Costco’s popularity nationwide, Maxi outpaced Costco in Quebec. No Frills also rose in the rankings from the eighth spot to the fifth place. And although Amazon Canada wasn’t included in the study, a simulation shows that Amazon would have ranked eighth nationally.
Here are the top grocery retailers in Canada this year:
dunhumby
Price will no doubt continue to be the main determining factor for Canadian shoppers going into 2026.
According to Canada’s Food Price Report (CFPR) 2026, an average family of four is expected to spend $17,571.79 on food in 2026 — an increase of up to $994.63.
Canadian shoppers may have clear favourites, but they’re still distrustful of supermarket chains.
“Consumers remain skeptical of grocery retailers, as they also hold them somewhat accountable for the increase in cost-of-living,” states the report.