Canadian Brands I Found at Costco & Superstore

When I first moved to Victoria, BC, I didn’t think twice about where my groceries came from. I just wanted things to be cheap and easy to find. It took me a few years — and a lot of trips to Costco and Real Canadian Superstore — before I started actually looking at where things were made.

Once I started paying attention, I couldn’t stop. Some of my favourite everyday items turned out to be Canadian companies I’d never heard of. Others had “Canada” written all over the packaging but were made somewhere else entirely.

So here’s what I’ve learned from years of reading labels in the checkout line: which Canadian brands you can actually find at Costco and Superstore, and how to tell a real “Made in Canada” claim from a marketing trick.

Why I Started Looking for Canadian Brands

I’m not going to pretend I do this for some big patriotic reason. Honestly, it started because a friend told me a specific honey brand at Costco was made by a Canadian beekeeping co-op, and I wanted to see if that was true.

It turned out to be true. And once I found one, I started noticing them everywhere — in the cheese aisle, the coffee section, even the clothing racks near the front of the store.

If you’re newer to Canada, this is genuinely one of the more fun parts of settling in. You get to learn a whole new set of brand names, and figuring out which ones are “really” Canadian becomes a bit of a game.

What “Made in Canada” Actually Means

Before I list any brands, I want to explain something that confused me for a long time. In Canada, the words on a label aren’t random — they’re regulated. But the two most common phrases don’t mean the same thing at all.

According to the Competition Bureau’s official guidelines, a “Product of Canada” claim requires that almost all of the costs of making the item — at least 98% — happened in Canada. A “Made in Canada” claim is a much lower bar: at least 51% of the direct production costs must be Canadian, and the label has to include a qualifying phrase, like “Made in Canada with imported parts.”

Food labelling works a little differently. Per the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s guidance, a food product using a “Made in Canada” claim must always be paired with a qualifier such as “from domestic and imported ingredients,” even if none of the actual ingredients are Canadian — as long as the last major step of processing happened here.

Label	What It Really Means	Example
Product of Canada	98%+ of ingredients, processing, and labour are Canadian	100% Canadian honey, harvested and packaged domestically
Made in Canada	At least 51% of production cost is Canadian, plus a qualifier is required	“Made in Canada from imported ingredients”
Prepared / Roasted / Packaged in Canada	Only describes one step of the process, not the whole product	Coffee beans grown abroad, roasted and bagged in Canada

None of these terms are required by law — companies choose to use them voluntarily. But once they do, the claim has to be truthful, and government agencies can act on complaints if it isn’t.

Canadian Brands I Found at Costco

Costco doesn’t just sell its own Kirkland Signature label — a lot of those Kirkland products are actually made by well-known Canadian suppliers behind the scenes. Here’s what I’ve found, either under the Kirkland name or on its own shelf tag.

Product	Brand / Supplier	Notes
Maple syrup	The Maple Treat / Citadelle	Kirkland Signature syrup is sourced from Quebec producers
Honey	Bee Maid	A farmer-owned co-op of 300+ Canadian beekeepers
Lasagna	Zinetti Foods	A BC-based supplier for Kirkland’s meat lasagna
Organic snacks / trail mix	PRANA	Quebec-based organic snack company
Sparkling water	Clearly Canadian	Made with Canadian spring water; appears seasonally
Coffee	Rocky Mountain	Roasted in the Rocky Mountains, sold as beans, ground, or pods
Loungewear	Lazypants	Canadian-made fleece joggers and crewnecks
Activewear	Lolë	Canadian athletic and lifestyle brand

A tip that took me a while to figure out: clothing brands like Lazypants and Lolë come and go depending on the season and the location. If you spot them, that’s usually a “buy it now” situation, not a “come back next week” one.

Canadian Brands I Found at Real Canadian Superstore

Superstore belongs to Loblaw, which is Canada’s largest grocery company. Its house brands — President’s Choice (PC) and No Name — are everywhere, but not every PC or No Name product is actually made in Canada.

Brand	What to Know
President’s Choice (PC)	Loblaw’s largest private label, launched in 1984. Look for the “Prepared in Canada” tag on the website filter — it applies to roughly a third of PC items, not all of them.
No Name	The yellow no-frills packaging is a Canadian retail icon, but like PC, only a portion of the lineup is actually produced in Canada. Check the label.
Balderson	A cheddar company operating in Ontario since 1881. You’ll usually find it in the specialty cheese section, not under a store brand.

Superstore’s website also has a “Shop Canadian” filter built into its search, which is a fast way to narrow things down before you even get in the car.

Quick Tips for Spotting Canadian Products While You Shop

These are the habits I’ve picked up after a lot of trial and error:

• Look for the “Blue Cow” logo on dairy products. It’s the official mark of the Dairy Farmers of Canada and confirms the item is made from 100% Canadian milk.
• Flip the package over. Front-of-package maple leaves and flags are marketing. The real answer is usually in small print on the back or side.
• Use the store’s website filter before you shop, since both Costco.ca and Superstore’s site let you narrow results by Canadian-made or “Prepared in Canada” tags.
• Don’t assume a Canadian-sounding name means Canadian-made. Some brands with maple leaves or “Canada” in the name are actually owned or manufactured elsewhere.
• Ask a staff member if you’re unsure. This feels awkward the first time, but I’ve had good luck asking Costco staff near the sample stations — they often know more than the shelf tags show.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is “Product of Canada” always better than “Made in Canada”?
Not necessarily better in quality, but it does mean a much higher share of the product — ingredients, labour, and processing — happened in Canada. “Made in Canada” can still include imported ingredients or parts, as long as the label says so.

Are Kirkland Signature products Canadian?
Some are, some aren’t. Kirkland Signature is Costco’s private label, and it partners with suppliers all over the world. The Canadian-made items are usually food products like maple syrup, honey, and lasagna, sourced from specific Canadian companies.

Does Costco Canada carry the same products as Costco in my home country?
No. Product lineups vary by country and even by region within Canada, so what you find in a Victoria, BC warehouse may be different from what’s stocked elsewhere. Availability also changes seasonally.

Is it more expensive to buy Canadian brands?
Not usually. Most of the Canadian brands I’ve mentioned here are priced similarly to their imported counterparts. Price differences tend to come from the product category itself, not the country of origin.

Where can I double-check a company’s origin claims?
The Competition Bureau and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency both publish official guidelines on origin labelling, linked earlier in this post. If a claim still seems off, most companies list a contact address or website on the package.

My Takeaway

I didn’t expect grocery shopping to become one of my favourite ways to learn about Canada, but here we are. Every trip to Costco or Superstore, I still find something new — a brand I hadn’t noticed, a label I finally understand.

If you’re settling into Canada right now, I’d encourage you to try the same thing. Pick one section of the store — dairy, snacks, coffee, whatever you buy most — and really read the labels next time. You’ll probably be surprised at what you find.