The Canadian grocery landscape is increasingly very competitive, with traditional supermarkets battling for market share with discounters, mass merchandisers, warehouse clubs and even drug stores. Field Agent Canada just completed a mobile survey about the grocery shopping habits of Canadians in order to determine which retailers are Canada’s Favourite Supermarkets 2015. Until now there has not been a widely published study that looks at how supermarkets are performing in the eyes of the shopper.

The survey was conducted between Sept 15 and Sept 23 with 974 Canadians, coast-to-coast. The study looked at overall perceptions on both a national and regional basis, as the grocery landscape is unique from one region to another.

“When we asked respondents to rate the two retailers that they shop at most for groceries; the retailer with the highest overall score is Farm Boy, an independent grocery chain based in Ottawa with 19 stores across Ontario” says Jeff Doucette, General Manager of Field Agent Canada. “This is an up and coming retailer that is definitely one to watch!”

Rounding out the Top Five scores were Longo’s (Ontario), Loblaws (Ontario / Quebec), Save-on-Foods (BC / Alberta) and Your Independent Grocer (National, excluding Quebec). Three of the five are independent chains, while Your Independent Grocer is a franchise chain from Loblaw, which also counts its namesake banner in the Top Five.

“It is interesting to note that all retailers in the Top Five are ‘full-service’ supermarkets and all of the banners have been growing their number of stores in the past couple of years”, noted Mr. Doucette. “These are the operators that other supermarket executives should have their eye on.”

While Canada’s Favourite Supermarkets fared better, the average grade for the overall score of all retailers is only a “B”, making it clear that Canadians want their supermarkets to do more and be better.

Beyond uncovering Canada’s Favourite Supermarkets, the study also investigates the performance of key areas of the store such as Produce, Meat and Seafood and takes a look at various elements of the shopping experience including customer service, store cleanliness and checkout speeds.

“Each retailer has specific strengths and weaknesses and this data will be interesting both to industry executives and the average Canadian grocery shopper”, stated Mr. Doucette. “We are excited to have completed the most thorough study into Canadian perceptions about Supermarkets in recent memory, ” he said.

In addition to national results, the full study highlights the best performing grocers in each category for six regions across Canada (BC/North, Alberta, Manitoba/Saskatchewan, Ontario, Quebec & Atlantic).

Full results can be downloaded at http://fieldagentcanada.com/final-report

Field Agent is the first mobile app that pays Canadians to collect data and complete surveys while they shop. Retailers and vendors can use Field Agent to conduct shopper research right in the store or gather information on promotional compliance, pricing, on-shelf availability and much more. Its unique crowd sourced platform allows this data to be collected very quickly, and for a fraction of the cost of traditional methods.

Canadian Retail News From Around The Web: September 30, 2015