The GCBI Grocery Industry Report covers four Canadian supermarket and grocery chain brands: Longo's, Sobeys, Metro, and Loblaws. Data reflects national consumer perception surveys conducted in both 2025 and 2026.

Download the full industry report free, non-gated, only via this URL. See bottom of this page.

This report is based on proprietary data from the Great Canadian Brand Index (GCBI).

The 2026 GCBI is based on a national survey of 3,441 Canadian adults (18+) across Canada's ten provinces (territories excluded). The sample was designed to be nationally representative of the adult population, using 2021 Census benchmarks with quotas and weighting applied across age, gender, race, and political affiliation. Respondents rated Canadian brands they were familiar with across seven core value dimensions—Friendliness, Niceness, Respectfulness, Honesty, Tolerance, Adventurousness, and Sustainability—using standardized measures transformed to a common 0–100 scale.

Brand-level estimates were generated using Bayesian shrinkage estimation to improve stability, particularly for brands with smaller respondent samples, and each brand's overall GCBI score is a composite index averaging performance across the seven dimensions. The result is an independent, nationally benchmarked measure of how Canadians perceive leading Canadian brands on the values that shape trust, reputation, and institutional standing.

Data access is available on a subscription basis. If you are interested in custom brand-level reports, please contact us for all enterprise queries.

• Without Loblaws, the grocery category would rank 6th among all 12 GCBI industries. With Loblaws, it ranks 10th.

• Loblaws scored 58.31 in 2026—the second-lowest brand score in the entire 130-brand GCBI dataset—and ranked last nationally for the second consecutive year.

• Loblaws' Millennial score (56.45) is the lowest score of any brand for any generation in the entire GCBI—and Millennials are Canada's primary grocery shoppers.

• Sobeys improved (+0.29 points) and rose 29 national positions—the only grocery brand to gain in 2026.

• Atlantic Canada recorded the grocery category's sharpest regional decline (−2.12 points)—the largest single-region drop in any GCBI industry in 2026.

The grocery category cannot be meaningfully analyzed without separating Loblaws from the other three brands. Longo's, Sobeys, and Metro are mid-performing national brands—all above the national average, all competitive. Loblaws is in a category of its own, defined by sustained and deepening perception failure across every demographic segment, every region, and every GCBI dimension.

Sobeys' 29-position national rank gain is the most significant positive movement in the grocery category in 2026. Its Atlantic Canada strength, improving scores among women, and balanced political profile position it as the grocery brand with the best trajectory. Metro held its position with particular strength in Québec, where its regional heritage gives it a perception advantage that no other Grocery brand can match.

The full report includes a dedicated section examining Loblaws' segment-level data in detail—including its ranking among Millennials, NDP voters, low-income Canadians, and in BC and Ontario—with a national rank table that shows how broadly and deeply the brand's perception problems run.

• Complete brand rankings table—all 4 brands, 2025 vs. 2026, with national rank context

• Special Focus: Loblaws—a dedicated segment analysis table showing national rank by demographic, with signals.

• Dimension profiles: brand-by-brand breakdown of all 7 GCBI dimensions.

• Regional breakdown: the Ontario improvement, Atlantic Canada collapse, and Québec dynamics.

• Demographic breakdown: the Millennial crisis, gender patterns, income profiles, and political polarisation analysis.

• Five strategic implications including Sobeys' momentum and the Loblaws recovery question.