uk vs canadian supermarkets

Back home in Ontario after seven years living in the UK, I went to Walmart hungry and very jet-lagged. I wanted to have a look round a Canadian supermarket, then show the shopping when we got home. Even in my own country, I felt some culture shock after getting used to British supermarkets.

I considered Walmart a budget supermarket, and this one was enormous. The car park alone was massive. A couple of hours later, we’d spent around C$250, but some of the shopping belonged to my mum, so that wasn’t the price of everything I showed afterwards. The prices here are from that visit, rather than a current comparison basket.

A little shelf of Britain

Inside the store, I found one small section of British food. There were Jelly Tots, Turkish Delight, Flake and Galaxy, along with quite a lot of Cadbury. Cadbury Fingers particularly caught my attention. I thought there was a good amount of snack food for such a little section.

There were also 40 PG Tips tea bags for C$5, golden syrup, pickle, pickled onions, HP sauce and Devon custard. Chip-shop-style mushy peas surprised me. I spotted Rich Tea biscuits further back and almost missed the squash. After looking round such a large store, this was the small shelf where those British things had ended up.

The chips I always want when I come home

My favourite part of the haul started with chips. Tostitos were my favourite tortilla-style chips, especially the lime ones, and I always got them when I came home. There was something about them I couldn’t quite explain. I also bought Lay’s salt and vinegar. They weren’t the thick kettle-style chips I loved, but I still thought they were amazing.

The Ruffles all-dressed chips were already open. Before I arrived, Mum had asked whether there was anything I wanted her to get, and that had been my answer. I’d started eating them before showing the rest of the shopping.

All-dressed was my favourite potato chip flavour. It was hard to explain the taste, but I described vinegar, red pepper and onion, a mix of everything. At the time, I thought Ruffles did the best version, while allowing that my opinion might change. I didn’t think anything in the UK came remotely close, so coming home meant stocking up.

Cheese made me miss the UK

I loved cheese, which made this part of the shopping disappointing. We had cheddar and pizza mozzarella, the latter because we were going to make pizza that week. The cheese came in those skinny bricks I associated with Canada, and the cheddar was bright orange.

I thought the cheese was about C$8. What bothered me was that I found Canadian cheese expensive and, to be honest, not very good compared with what I could get in the UK. In my opinion, Britain had some of the best cheese, and it was accessible at a reasonable price. Coming home for food I missed didn’t stop me missing that choice of cheese.

Milk in a bag, with a holder for pouring

We’d already opened the milk because we needed some. In Ontario, the milk we’d bought came in a large bag containing three smaller bags. This wasn’t how every Canadian province or territory did it, and I didn’t know the reason for the Ontario habit. It was just the way we’d had milk.

The smaller bag went into a milk holder, and we cut the corner so we could pour it. I knew it could look weird to someone unfamiliar with it, but it wasn’t something I’d questioned growing up. That was simply how the milk worked in our home.

Milk bag sitting in a blue plastic holder, with hands demonstrating it
The milk bag and holder from my Ontario grocery haul, cropped to show the pouring arrangement.

Popcorn and the juice I grew up with

I also bought microwave popcorn because I missed the buttery, salty movie-theatre style I’d had in Canada. In UK cinemas I usually chose mixed sweet and salty popcorn, and I liked that, but I still missed the proper buttery version.

Frozen juice concentrate was another familiar purchase. My family used it, though I knew other families might have done things differently. We’d mix a can with water in a jug to make juice. In the UK, I didn’t tend to have it, or much fridge space for a large jug, so I used squash in a glass instead.

I particularly missed grape punch, and had to decide whether to make that or fruit punch first. Probably grape. Alongside the chips, those were some of the things I was excited to have again, but lunch was going to be Heinz beans in tomato sauce with toast. I loved that easy lunch, even if I usually put the beans beside the toast rather than on it.

Watch my Ontario supermarket visit and grocery haul.