Kantar study: Target and Walmart competitively priced in Canada

Boston -- Walmart Canada and Target Canada are very competitively positioned from a basket price perspective, according to a recent report by Kantar Retail.



Based on the study’s results, Kantar Retail believes that Target’s “Pay Less” consumables prices will stack up well against its Canadian competition and that the retailer will prove to be a formidable challenge to Walmart Canada’s price position in the market.



“The retailers’ baskets were very competitive,” notes Robin Sherk, director of retail insights and contributor to the study. “We found that the price of Target Canada’s overall basket was within 25 cents of Walmart’s.”



Kantar Retail assessed a basket of 29 national brand items from edible grocery, non-edible grocery, and health & beauty aids (HBA) at nearby Walmart and Target locations in the Greater Toronto Area. Basket contents were pre-determined to achieve a diverse mix of categories that would represent the range of purchase options available to shoppers, and only identical SKUs from both retailers were included.



Other findings of the study include:

• Walmart’s edible basket drove its position, whereas Target’s was less expensive in non-edible grocery and HBA.

• On an item level, more than half of the items were priced within 3% of each other. However, sizable price differentials existed for select items at both stores. This suggests that certain items are being leveraged to drive each retailer’s pricing image.

• Five of the items in Walmart’s basket were on Rollback, with four of these deals in edible grocery while Target had three items on temporary price cut (TPC), with two of these in its non-edible basket.

• With 5% Rewards, Target’s basket would have been 4.8% cheaper than Walmart’s.