Sponsored Post: Grocery Shopping at Walmart plus a special offer for SPC readers
To market, to market
Have you ever seen that Natalie Portman movie, Where the Heart Is? It’s about a pregnant woman, who after being abandoned by her husband, lives covertly in a Walmart. I thought it was just a quirky but unrealistic plot device. Not so! I made my maiden voyage into Walmart recently and realized that a person could really live forever in one of the Supercentres.
I visited the store nearest to where I live in downtown Toronto, which is in The Dufferin Mall. Whoa Nelly, there’s a dry cleaner, a pharmacy, a vision centre, a hearing aid booth as well as the store itself ,which carries housewares, electronics, clothes, shoes, bicycles, barbeques, bedding and groceries. Say what? That’s right, groceries.
131 Walmart Supercentres currently sell groceries but that number will grow by 40 stores by the end of 2012. Although you can find all the usual grocery categories, each Walmart Supercentre is slightly different depending on the neighbourhood it’s in. I did my normal weekly shop at The Dufferin Mall location. True to their reputation, the prices were lower than I’m used to seeing, pretty much across the board. Their in-store brand, Great Value, in particular, delivers really great prices on basics like pasta, baking supplies, cereal and (the big hit at my house) animal crackers.
But it’s not just pantry items you might stock up on. The Supercentres feature a full range of dairy (milk, yogurt, cottage cheese, etc.), meat (everything from steaks, chicken breasts, pork chops to bbq ready, marinated skewers) and produce. I picked up strawberries, tomatoes, green beans, potatoes and fennel!
Walmart’s Felicia Fefer gave me a tour of the store and joked that a woman could come in and, “Pick up groceries for dinner, get her passport picture and buy a bikini.” The scenario where I need that particular combo may not be in my near future but I can foresee needing a couple summer dresses for my daughter, diapers for the baby, a fresh pair of yoga pants for myself as well as a week’s worth of groceries. In one location? Please. That’s a movie I’d like to star in.
The nice people at Walmart want SPC readers to have a chance to experience the grocery offering for themselves. We’ve got two $50 gift certificates to give away. Sign up for SPC’s weekly newsletter for your chance to win!
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We're Ceri and Laura, a couple of magazine-editors-turned-food-bloggers. Also, we're mothers obsessed with delicious, healthy, family food. We're constantly thinking of ways to make your time (and our own!) in the kitchen easier and more productive, but still nostalgic for the days when dinner was cereal eaten over the kitchen sink.
2 Comments
Rina
May 19, 12:19I love ur blog for the lovely recipes and the focus on whole healthy foods. But I have to say I’m very disappointed to see you promoting the nastiness that is Walmart. Yes, their prices are cheaper but at what cost? Bc of their buying power, they demand lower prices from wholesalers, freezing out other buyers but it just results in a race to the bottom for quality. And their labour practices are horrible – unions lockouts, institutional sexism, abuse of undocumented workers etc. Not to mention their bandwagoning on the “organic” tide but then supporting large corporations that seek to actually destroy the organic market – ie: Monsanto. I’m surprised that a great blog that you both run thAt focuses healthy eating and living would even think about sponsoring them. I’d stick with Feista Farms.
Ceri Marsh
May 19, 12:36Hi Rina,
I hear what you’re saying – big box grocery shopping is not for everyone. However, many Canadians don’t have access to farmers’ markets or independent stores such as Fiesta. In fact, food deserts exist in Canada in places you’d never expect, such as London and Montreal! Increased access to groceries is one part of improving the chances that families will be able to cook and eat together.
In this post we’re talking about one of the options that Canadians have when they’re feeding their families. But I really do appreciate your point of view and am glad you wrote in to share it with us. I hope you’ll stick with us!
Ceri