Donate to support the growth of this community initiative: Here
Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.

Built out of necessity to help Canadians find alternative grocers in their own communities.

Altgrocery.ca is a crowdsourced platform designed to help you
share and discover independent grocers, bakeries, country markets, international grocers, and local farmers' markets across Canada.
Utilize our interactive map to navigate through provinces or cities
and find unique shopping destinations in your area.

FAQs

As I appreciate all the emails I receive, here are the top questions I am being asked.

Email Us
Why are there no alternative grocery listings for my town or city on the map?

Launching a nationwide website right out of the gate is pretty bold—typically, websites start small and expand slowly from the big cities. But to quickly support Canadian grocery shoppers who are feeling the pinch, we dove right in. Now, we're relying on you to help us fill the map. Just fill out the 'Recommend an Alt Grocer' form to share your favourite local spots and help get your town or city on the map.

I filled out the form yesterday, why don't I see my listing online yet?

Since we rely on anonymous tips and not necessarily the owners, we need to carefully check that each submission is accurate—ensuring correct spelling, matching addresses with business names for geocoding, and avoiding duplicates by comparing it to our existing database. If you're submitting a photo, we also scale and optimize each one before it goes live on the site. Please allow 2-3 business days for processing, as we juggle this alongside our full-time jobs.

Are the stores you are posting on the website cheaper than the bigger grocery chains?

At this stage, we're simply adding businesses to the platform and organizing them by region and category to help you find all your options in one place. Our ultimate goal is to establish relationships with these businesses so we can offer additional features like price filtering and specialty options.

Why isn't the 'Top 5' grocers on your website?

If you're out of the loop, this website was inspired by the #BoycottLoblaws movement. We saw shrinkflation and unexplained price hikes at major Canadian grocers and decided to put our skills to good use. That led to the creation of this site. Please note, we won't post listings for any of the 'top 5' large Canadian grocers or their discount stores, unless they remarkably start to lower prices or increase transparency.

Why is "this store" on the website aren't they supplied or owned by one of the Top 5?

Some smaller grocers or restaurants might have supply chain deals with larger grocery chains. I won’t penalize these businesses or delve into every connection. If you claim a company is owned by one of the Top 5 brands, please provide solid evidence before submitting. We need proof to consider such claims.

Form submission is barely filled, with a store name and the address says "Lot's of stores".

That's great! Keep in mind, you won't see your listing on the site if the form isn't filled out correctly. I receive around 200 recommendations daily, so I can't do the legwork for you. Make sure "each store" and its street address are listed separately to ensure proper geocoding on the map. If the form isn't your style and you have multiple listings, feel free to email me a .CSV spreadsheet instead. 

I am the owner of "this store", I'd like to claim it, change the information, or photo.

Nice to meet you! We welcome store owners to connect with us because our goal is not only to spotlight your business but also to build ongoing relationships. This way, when we introduce new features to the site, we can offer them to our active business owners who can truly benefit from them. For now, feel free to email us to connect, but keep an eye out for our upcoming 'claim store' form.

The map doesn't work! 

The current version of our responsive website doesn't showcase the map on mobile devices. For the optimal experience, we suggest utilizing a desktop or tablet for accessing the map feature.

Tell us about your team? How is this project funded?

Well the "we" is actually "me". This is a solo project that I started as a passion project, and it's gradually becoming a full-time endeavor. Currently, funding
comes out of my own pocket, but with the incredible traction we've been getting, I'm excited to turn it into a scalable marketplace. I accept donations through my
Buy Me a Coffee. Funding covers monthly expenses from hosting, APIs, geocoding, but the ultimate goal would be to be able to expand the team and build a mobile app.