Four companies control two-thirds of Canada's grocery market. In the US, a third.
opendatacanada.ca
Loblaw, Sobeys, Metro and Costco sell about 67% of Canada's groceries by a USDA estimate. The top four in the US sell 34.7%. See the market share gap.

Loblaw, Sobeys, Metro and Costco sell about 67 cents of every dollar Canadians spend on groceries, by a USDA estimate. The four biggest US food retailers sell about 35 cents.

  • GodofLies@lemmy.ca
    5·
    20 hours ago

    This is simply the result of Canadian cities with overly anti-small business policies. The fact that you can’t just run a business anywhere, or that you require to have a license from the municipal/city, or even have a permit for a sign out on the street, have a permit for x style of signage, etc. all for the sake of the look-and-feel of a city… is anti-business. It puts barriers in front of lower budget mom/pop stores.

    Go out of North America, and you’ll see that when overbearing policies are removed, small businesses thrive, cost of goods go down , and more variety are available to the consumer.

    This extends beyond just the grocery market.

    • usualsuspect191@lemmy.ca
      4·
      19 hours ago

      Those are all reasonable and necessary restrictions though, not sure why you think they’re burdensome. Things like accessibility, traffic, public safety, etc are part of operating a business.

      • GodofLies@lemmy.ca
        1·
        1 hour ago

        Please read what I wrote again. I never said to discount accessibility, traffic, public safety, etc. It is the less obvious fees/policies that cities impose. Some are triggered only when a business changes hands.

        But it also tells that many have no idea how much upfront money is required for these upgrades to get aging buildings into compliance and that’s when you haven’t even started selling anything. You need at least 500k of liquidity to just ‘start’ (if it’s anything like a small cafe as an example) and that amount won’t even last past 6 months given the nature of how consumer habits work in North America.

        Add in the lack of trades in Canada, the price skyrockets - I mean, that’s a whole other story.

        The silver lining in there is that people should be claiming tax credits/breaks where applicable. Many provinces and federal taxes for business have built-in incentives.