Canada's shopping for a foreign grocer. Can an international retailer succeed here?

With some Canadians struggling to afford groceries, and as frustrations with corporate profits boil over and manifest as boycotts, the federal government says it's trying to coax international grocers to set up shop in Canada.

During a Tuesday media conference, Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne told reporters that he continues "to look at whether there are foreign deep-discounters that would be interested in the Canadian market."

According to a July 2023 report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Canadian grocery industry was dominated in 2021-2022 by five chains that held nearly 74 per cent of the retail market share: Loblaw, Metro, Sobeys, Walmart and Costco.

Some Canadian independent grocers have criticized major domestic grocery chains for the power they have over suppliers, including charging them fees for things like shelf placement or packaging.

For Canada's 6,400 independent grocers, many of which operate in communities where big supermarkets don't have a presence, the government's efforts to woo an international chain are a bitter pill to swallow.

"We'd like them to sit down and talk about our list instead of trotting off to France or somewhere else in Europe to dangle some bells and whistles in front of some big chain," said Gary Sands, senior vice-president of the Canadian Federation of Independent Grocers (CFIG).