Every week, millions of flyers are printed and dropped in Quebec. Tons of paper advertising "deals", "regular prices" and "savings" that aren't always what they claim to be.
We built Circulaires Québec because we thought there had to be a better way — both for shopping, and for price honesty.
The problem we started with
This has probably happened to you: you open your usual store's flyer, spot a good deal, make your list… and never compare with the other grocery stores.
That's exactly what the flyers want. Every banner designs its flyer to make you believe its prices are the best — and to keep you from looking elsewhere.
The same product can cost 50% more from one store to another in the same week. Not an exaggeration — we measure it every week. Raspberries at $1.44 at Super C while Metro shows them at $2.99. Cauliflower at $1.88 at Maxi while it's $3.99 at Metro. Same product, same week, same city.
The "regular price" isn't always real
The more we dug, the more we found things that don't sit right. The "regular price" advertised in flyers is often an anchor — an inflated number that makes the discount look bigger than it is.
We scanned 57,000 shelf prices across 10 banners to check. Result: 72% of advertised "regular prices" were higher than the real shelf price. A product advertised "regularly $4.95, on sale for $3.47" actually sold for $3.97 at regular price nearby. The real discount: 13 to 18%, not 30%.
And while we were watching prices, we noticed something else: packages are shrinking. Shrinkflation — a smaller package at the same price — is a disguised price increase. We now track it week after week.
What we actually do
Circulaires Québec is:
- All of Quebec's deals, compared side by side. No need to open five flyers: we put them in one list, sortable by store, product or discount.
- The unit price, always shown. The price per kg or per L, not just the package price. It's the only honest number for comparing two sizes.
- A shrinkflation tracker. We compare package sizes over time to catch packages that quietly shrink.
- A basket index. We track the price of a fixed basket of 22 staples week after week, to see where prices are really going.
- Meal ideas priced on real prices. Recipes are generated from the week's actual deals, not imaginary prices.
The principle that guides us
One principle: the real price, for real.
No inflated anchor prices. No "save 61%" when the real saving is 1%. No shrunken package that goes unnoticed. We'd rather publish less data — but true data. We never invent a number we can't back up.
If one week the gap between prices is too thin to measure cleanly, we say so. If a product has no reliable unit price, we don't calculate it. It's harder, but it's what makes the site useful.
Why it matters to you
Shopping with good data isn't extreme couponing. It's simply not paying more than necessary for the same products.
- Comparing flyers before making your list takes two minutes.
- Looking at the per-kg price instead of the package price changes your choices without changing your habits.
- Knowing a package has shrunk keeps you from paying the same price for less product.
It's not about being cheap — it's about not being taken for a fool.
And this is just the beginning
The site evolves every week: new tools, new data, new ways to compare. We document our methods, publish our data, and own our mistakes when we make them.
If you want to see what it looks like, browse this week's deals — compared across every store, with the true per-kg price.
Circulaires Québec is an independent project with no ties to the grocery chains. We receive no commission from any banner: our only motivation is that the advertised price be the real price.