Grocery prices have been a hot topic in Quebec (and throughout Canada) for a few years now. With inflation eating into everything, including the weekly supermarket run, everyday staples like eggs, milk, cheese and butter have climbed to the point where you actually feel them on the receipt.
Butter in particular, has had a rough stretch. According to Statistics Canada figures, the average price of a 454-gram block rose about 41% between 2019 and 2025, and as of April 2026 it was still sitting around $5.99 nationally. For something that used to be an afterthought in the cart, that adds up fast.
So we decided to see how that shakes out for the average Montreal grocery shopper.
To keep things fair, we priced the exact same product, a 454-gram block of Lactantia Country Churned unsalted butter, at six grocery chains around the city: IGA, Maxi, Metro, Provigo, Super C, Supermarché PA, and Walmart. The gap between the cheapest and the most expensive was a little wider than we expected.
Here’s what that Lactantia block was going for at each store (as of June 30, 2026), from cheapest to priciest:
- Walmart: $7.47 (salted, the only Lactantia they had in stock)
- Super C: $7.49
- Maxi: $7.50
- Supermarché PA: $7.99
- IGA: $8.99
- Metro: $8.99
- Provigo: $8.99
The same block was $7.49 at Super C and $8.99 at IGA, Metro and Provigo. That’s a buck fifty apart, or about 20% more, for the exact same butter sitting on shelves a few kilometres from each other.
PA was right in the middle. Meanwhile, Walmart came in with the cheapest at $7.47, though the only Lactantia they had that day was the salted version.
There’s a clear pattern here. The three stores asking $8.99, IGA, Metro and Provigo, are all full-service supermarkets. The two cheapest, Super C and Maxi, are the discount banners. Super C is Metro’s budget arm, and Maxi belongs to Loblaw, the same company that runs Provigo.
So in a couple of cases you’re buying the same butter from the same parent company, just paying a dollar fifty less for shopping the cheaper version of the chain.
While we were at it, we also looked for the cheapest unsalted 454g block of butter at each store. The difference was less dramatic:
- Walmart, Great Value unsalted: $5.96
- Maxi, No Name unsalted: $6.00
- Provigo, No Name unsalted: $6.00
- PA, Beatrice unsalted: $6.49
- Metro, Selection unsalted: $6.49
- IGA, Compliments unsalted: $6.99
- Super C, Selection salted: $6.19 (cheapest house block we found there, though only salted)
The house brand knocked a couple of dollars off just about everywhere. At IGA, going from Lactantia to the Compliments block dropped it from $8.99 to $6.99. At Metro, the Selection version was $6.49 next to Lactantia’s $8.99, a $2.50 gap for what’s basically the same thing once it’s in your cookies.
None of this is life-changing on a single trip. But butter is just one line on a long receipt, and these same gaps show up across plenty of other staples if you shop at different stores.