2023-08-12 09:00:00
As proof, the Facebook group “Accros du Dollarama” brings together some 219,000 members. Karine Goupil Albert – one of the six administrators – welcomes around 100 new people a day. The one who frequently visits these dollar stores to buy food, among other things, is clear: there is no shame in doing some of her groceries in this type of business.
“It’s not taboo, but a lot of people judge, she describes. The more we talk about it, the more we share, the more normal it becomes. There are still judgments, but less than 10 years ago.
“I buy a lot at Dollarama,” continues Ms. Goupil Albert. When I see granola bars aren’t on special anywhere, I go there. There’s a kind of potato chips that I can’t find anywhere else. I also buy my sweets there.
In her column published in La Presse on February 1, Marie-Ève Fournier reports that the sale of grocery products has increased by 19% in the last year at Dollarama. According to her, crackers, salty snacks and sweets would have been particularly popular.
Karine Goupil Albert, however, warns people: Dollarama does not always have the best price. “[Les produits sont] cheaper than at Metro and IGA, but items are more expensive than Super C and Maxi when it falls on special, she says. You have to be careful what you buy. But at Dollarama, there are brands of food that you can’t find elsewhere. There are kinds of cookies that you can only find there. »
According to the findings of La Tribune, we must also be wary of quantities: several Dollarama products are less expensive, but the format is smaller.
The mother of the family, on the other hand, believes that canned foods, among other things, are worthwhile in dollar stores. “For people with less income, going to Dollarama is a good idea before going to the grocery store,” she advises, adding that salt and pepper, like spices, are profitable.
Ms. Goupil Albert has not noticed a marked increase in members of her group since the last inflationary surge. “Prices have also increased at Dollarama,” she notes. The most expensive product is listed at $5.25.”
thrifty market
“Dollarama is taking advantage of a much more economical market than before,” analyzes the full professor and principal director of the Laboratory of Analytical Sciences in Agrifood at Dalhousie University, Sylvain Charlebois.
“People looking for bargains will change their address and shop elsewhere for their food. Dollarama benefits from it,” he describes.
Today, the field of food is experiencing high inflation, adds the professor in the Department of Agriculture and Food Sciences at Laval University, Maurice Doyon. “When things get tighter, we cut into some luxury goods. We may be cutting expensive leisure activities and then monitoring the food item. We are reducing our expenses on this,” he describes, adding that dollar stores have substantially increased their food supply in recent years.
And according to him, the chain owned by the Rossy family is making “a big effort to try to keep prices low”. “There’s a lot of pressure from them, either in terms of sourcing or squeezing their profit margin,” he says, adding that people are now shopping in multiple places to buy their groceries.
Professor Doyon does not believe that Dollarama will launch into grocery products on a larger scale by acquiring refrigerators, for example.
“I believe they will always focus on the non-perishable. It is a whole other logistics and another distribution which is extremely expensive. These would be significant investments on their part. I’m not sure they want to go there” he analyzes, maintaining that these products also require a lot of turnover.
“If you have a tight budget, there are losses with perishable products. And fresh products are more expensive, as a general rule. Unfortunately, for some people, the quality of the diet declines as they consume less fresh produce, due to cost and the potential for waste. I don’t think Dollarama would gain much in terms of sales by offering fresh produce.”
For his part, Sylvain Charlebois thinks that the Dollarama will offer fresh food in the future. “We want to start following the trend of the United States like the Dollar General. They sell fresh,” he describes.
Although many have noticed that more and more rows are devoted to grocery products at Dollarama, the company’s communications team indicates in an email to La Tribune that “the food product offering at Dollarama – in terms of varieties and number of units – remains fairly stable from year to year”.
“Additionally, Dollarama does not sell perishable foods that require refrigeration or have a limited shelf life. The food offer is a sub-category of the range of everyday consumer products which has about ten sub-categories (such as cleaning products, paper, plastic, health and beauty, for animals, etc.) . The majority of Dollarama’s sales come from seasonal items and general merchandise.
Adaptation and pandemic
According to Prof. Doyon, grocery stores are adapting to dollar store prices through their house brands. “We are going up in quality. It goes from No Name to President’s Choice to the national brand like Heinz, for example,” he summarizes, adding that it is not impossible that the major grocery brands are launching into stores in the dollar, much like many have bought from pharmacies in recent years.
Maurice Doyon believes that the popularity of discount grocery baskets has been noticed “for quite a while”. “The growth of this trend has slowed down during the pandemic: we have seen a lot of interest in buying local for products with several added values. We saw that it was a marked interest, ”he says.
“Historically, in Canada, the percentage of our budget devoted to food is among the lowest in the world,” analyzes the expert. We were talking about 10 to 12% during the pandemic for a middle-income consumer. Clearly, during the pandemic, we increased this expense item. We were able to take residuals from other expenditure items to which we no longer had access.
With inflation and the return to activity, consumers cut back on their grocery basket and started shopping for prices again rather than local products, for example.
Tableau :
La Tribune lent itself to the game of comparisons. She visited four stores that are within a 400 meter radius: Dollarama, Super C and Pharmaprix which are all in the same shopping complex and IGA which is just across the street. To compare, the journalist used regular prices and ignored the discounts in effect at the time of his visit.
Honey Nut Cheerios
Dollarama: $3 for 292 grams
Super C: $4.79 for 430 grams
IGA: $6.99 for 430 grams
Jos Louis (box of 6)
Dollarama $3.50
Super C 4,49$
IGA : 4,79$
Canned Chief Boyardee
Dollarama: $1.75
Super C : 2,59$
IGA: 2,99$
Tostitos Sauce 418 ml
Dollarama: $3.75
Super C: 3,99$
IGA : 5,29$
Tide Simply All in one
Dollarama: $4 for 20 loads
Super C: $10.99 for 74 loads
IGA: $14.99 for 74 loads
Pharmaprix: $8.79 for 24 loads
Windex
Dollarama: $4 for 630ml
Super C: $5.49 for 765 ml
Pharmaprix : 6,79$ pour 765 ml
IGA: $6.79 for 765 ml
Colgate Cavity Protection Toothpaste
Dollarama: $3.50 for 120ml
Super C : 1,99$ pour 95ml
IGA: $2.19 for 95ml
Pharmaprix : 2,99$ pour 95ml
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