Number of grocery and convenience retailers in Canada by employment size 2022

As of December 2022, there were 15,872 grocery and convenience retailers in Canada. Micro grocery stores, which employ between one and four employees, were the most widespread type of grocery store in Canada. There were 5,630 micro grocery and convenience retailers located across Canada at this time.

Why are there more smaller grocery stores?

One explanation for the prominence of small and micro grocery stores in Canada is the rise of convenience shopping. Time is increasingly important to consumers, and therefore, offering a quick and easy shopping experience is key to capturing customers. Sixty percent of Canadians make micro-trips to grocery stores at least once a week. A micro-trip is defined as an in-store trip lasting less than five minutes. Stores must continue to optimize their size and layouts to accommodate for such shoppers.

The Canadian grocery market

Retail sales of supermarkets and other grocery stores amounted to around 99.35 billion Canadian dollars in 2020, an increase of about 30 percent since 2020. Loblaws was the leading grocery retailer in Canada in 2019, commanding around 27 percent of the total market. Sobeys was their biggest competitor with a 21 percent share.