The GCBI grocery category tells two different stories depending on which brand you focus on. Longo's, Sobeys, and Metro are all competitive mid-performing national brands—all scoring above the national average, all with clear regional strengths. Sobeys improved its score in 2026 and rose 29 national positions. Metro held its Quebec-anchored position. Longo's led the category for the second consecutive year. Without Loblaws, the grocery category would rank 6th among all 12 GCBI industries, comfortably above the national average. With Loblaws, it ranks 10th. A single brand is dragging a competitive category to near the bottom of the Canadian brand perception landscape.
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. Its Millennial score of 56.45 is the lowest score of any brand for any generation in the entire GCBI. It ranks last or near-last in 12 of 13 demographic and regional segments tracked. Its Conservative–NDP political gap (8.55 points) is the largest of any grocery brand and among the largest in the entire dataset. It ranks 129th nationally in Ontario—near-last in the province where it has its deepest market penetration and longest heritage. The brand is most disliked in the market it dominates most.
The grocery report includes a dedicated section on Loblaws' segment-level data—a full table of national ranks by demographic showing the breadth and depth of the brand's perception challenges. It also examines Atlantic Canada's 2.12-point category decline—the largest single-region drop of any GCBI industry in 2026—and the political polarization dynamics that make the grocery category the most politically charged
The GCBI grocery category tells two different stories depending on which brand you focus on. Longo's, Sobeys, and Metro are all competitive mid-performing national brands—all scoring above the national average, all with clear regional strengths. Sobeys improved its score in 2026 and rose 29 national positions. Metro held its Quebec-anchored position. Longo's led the category for the second consecutive year. Without Loblaws, the grocery category would rank 6th among all 12 GCBI industries, comfortably above the national average. With Loblaws, it ranks 10th. A single brand is dragging a competitive category to near the bottom of the Canadian brand perception landscape.
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. Its Millennial score of 56.45 is the lowest score of any brand for any generation in the entire GCBI. It ranks last or near-last in 12 of 13 demographic and regional segments tracked. Its Conservative–NDP political gap (8.55 points) is the largest of any grocery brand and among the largest in the entire dataset. It ranks 129th nationally in Ontario—near-last in the province where it has its deepest market penetration and longest heritage. The brand is most disliked in the market it dominates most.
The grocery report includes a dedicated section on Loblaws' segment-level data—a full table of national ranks by demographic showing the breadth and depth of the brand's perception challenges. It also examines Atlantic Canada's 2.12-point category decline—the largest single-region drop of any GCBI industry in 2026—and the political polarization dynamics that make the grocery category the most politically charged
