While grocery delivery services were a necessary lifeline for many hunkered down during the most isolating months of the COVID-19 pandemic, they’ve also come a long way since then to provide shoppers with more choice when it comes to these services.
We decided to test three services available in the Greater Toronto Area and beyond to see how they compared. Read on to discover the pros and cons of each commonly available service, as well as what you can expect with your order.
While in each case, the products arrived in good condition, delivered by friendly and professional staff, with frozen items like ice cream still frozen, here are our key takeaways for each.
And while this was our experience, keep in mind availability and service may vary by location, and choice of store.
Related: We Rank the Tim Hortons Retro Donuts from Best to Worst
METRO Inc
Best for Produce: Metro
Zones of Delivery/Availability: Ontario and Quebec
Order Site/App: metro.ca/en and iOS/Android Apps
Delivery Fee: Express Delivery is $11.99 + HST, Same Day Delivery is $9.99 + HST and Next Day Delivery is $7.99 + HST.
Delivery Timeline: In as little as 2 hours, or 1-2 days.
Delivery Incentive Program: Metro Unlimited Delivery
Key Takeaways:
With 983 food stores under several banners including Metro, Metro Plus, Super C and Food Basics, Metro’s Delivery Services is an excellent grocery delivery option for those living in the Greater Toronto Area, Ontario and Quebec. This is especially true for those who are discerning with their groceries and who aren’t necessarily in a rush for that key dinner ingredient; Metro does offer a 2-hour express delivery to certain locations through third-party food delivery services (think Uber Eats or Instacart) for an extra charge, if you’re in a pinch for the latter.
But overall, we found that Metro offers a tonne of choice when it comes to fresh produce, including organic produce, and cheeses, proteins and pantry items. The site also makes it easy to browse flyers and promotions and has a more personalized, smaller-grocer feel.
Once we made our selection, and reviewed and adjusted our cart (very easy to do), we provided a 15 per cent pre-authorization on the estimated total, and followed the checkout steps.
The groceries arrived next-day ahead of schedule by an hour and were graciously brought to our door by a friendly and professional delivery person who also offered us two choices of a substitute for the hard-to-find bread that turned out wasn’t available in this Metro location either. Of the three delivery options, Metro’s produce was our top pick for its freshness and availability of organic options.
Metro makes it easy to view prior orders and re-order favourites in the future, making for an easy, stress-free delivery. Here are more details on how it works.
Available Promotions: Residents in the GTA, London, Ottawa and Windsor can get $0 delivery fees on all your online grocery orders for $0.99 per week on a six-month plan. Certain conditions apply.
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PC Express
Best for Speed and Grocery Variety: Loblaws (PC Express)
Zones of Delivery/Availability: Parts of Toronto, Mississauga, Scarborough, Kitchener, London, Montreal, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver, and Burnaby.
Order Site/App: PCexpress.ca/ and iOS/Android Apps
Delivery Fee: Priority Delivery is $13.99, Same-Day Delivery $9.99; Next Day Delivery $5.99 (For online delivery orders, the delivery fee includes a service fee).
Delivery Timeline: As little as 30 minutes to 2 hours or 1-2 days.
Delivery Incentive Program: PC Express Pass
Key Takeaways:
PC Express taps into the reach of the Loblaws umbrella of more than 2,400 grocery stores, including Loblaws, the Real Canadian Superstore, No Frills, Fortinos, Valu-Mart, City Market, Provigo, Maxi, Wholesale Club, Atlantic Superstore and more.
Our groceries arrived from a L0blaws and our selections were pretty common grocery items such as eggs, milk (including oat milk), brioche bread and some select proteins like PC brand bacon, lean ground beef and PC Blue Menu Kidney Beans. The service was exceptionally friendly and no grocery substitutions were required – everything ordered was available. If you’re a fan of PC Blue Menu products and collect PC Optimum points, this service is widely available and convenient for anyone who buys their weekly staples again and again.
Here are more details on how it works.
Related: Our Honest Review of the Our Place Wonder Oven
Walmart Canada
Best for Deals and Convenience: Walmart
Zones of Delivery/Availability: Nation-wide (12 provinces and territories)
Order Site/App: walmart.ca and iOS/Andoid Apps
Delivery Fee: Express Delivery Fee is $12.97, same-day delivery fee is $10.97 and the next-day delivery is between $6-7, depending on your time slots. Your order must be a minimum of $35 to qualify for Grocery Delivery.
Delivery Timeline: In as little as 2 hours, or 1-2 days.
Delivery Incentive Program: Walmart Delivery Pass
Key Takeaways:
With Walmart Canada, customers have access to over 400 stores in 12 provinces and territories. And because it’s a national retailer that offers many other items (making it an “Omnichannel Retailer”), and not just groceries, customers have the option for shopping many other additional household goods, like cleaning supplies, at the same time. Customers also have the choice to choose shipping, in addition to grocery delivery. This makes Walmart a convenient choice, even as we didn’t see the same selection of produce options in our particular store as with the other two services. Still, pantry and dry goods options were plentiful and we loved the convenience of adding in additional household essentials, knowing we’d get great value. Searching for products was easy, and the online shopping experience seamless, and likely already familiar to customers who are used to ordering from the site.
Walmart also makes it easy to identify all the ways you can save on your purchases, including its Rollback promotions, weekly flyer, Multisave, Groceries under $1 and more. The site also makes it easy and convenient to filter the items by your personal dietary needs (vegan-friendly, diabetes-friendly, etc.).
Here are more details on how it works.
Get your order brought to you from a store.
Available Promotions: You can get $15 off on the first four orders on $75 or more, with the code 60GROCERY. Certain conditions apply. Customers can also get 30 days of Delivery Pass free.