The popularity of grocery delivery has only grown in Montreal since the days of Covid lockdown.
Updates from March, 2026 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
Le Club Pays, a café explicitly devoted to Quebec independence, has opened on St‑Hubert plaza.
Ian
I hope being exposed to the ethnic, linguistic, and cultural diversity of St Huey doesn’t hurt their feelings.
mare
They offered me a free chocolat chaud when I passed but I was late for a tea date. Only now do I realize what I missed.
MarcG
Maybe I’m naive but the people interviewed seem to have unique and intelligent ideas on the subject. Though, of course, they didn’t discuss ethnic, linguistic, and cultural diversity…
Kate
I’d love to hear how they plan to cope with the United States moving in and taking over, once Canada falls apart.
Ian
The one thing we don’t hear about “les Patriotes” is that a lot of them actuall did want to join the US. Certainly the US has been quite open in their overtures towards Alberta because of the oil.
Of course the First Nations are totally opposed as they have no illusions about independence being a great adventure or whatever but given how Trump is acting these days he may declare that sufficient popular dissent to merit invasion. I wonder what the National Assembly will look like after a couple of Tomahawk strikes.
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Kate
The Crown prosecutor in the case of the Old Montreal fire that killed seven people in March 2023 says a report will be made public soon.
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Kate
Apparently a man stepped out of his own car, Friday morning, got trapped under it, and is now in critical condition. As usual going a step further than other media in reporting details, TVA reveals that the man’s daughter, inside the car, somehow set it in motion.
MarcG
One of my early childhood memories is getting in the car to run an errand with my mom and older brother, I was probably 3 or 4 and my brother 6 or 7, her starting the car then realizing that she forgot something in the house and running back in to grab it, my brother immediately reaching over from the passenger seat and putting the car into neutral, and the car slowly rolling backwards down the inclined driveway and knocking over a utility box.
azrhey
I have the same memory as MarcG , but with my grandfatther and no brother to blame it on! I think it was me removing the hand break from a manual car or something , but yeah, big scare all around….
mare
My station wagon almost ran me over once. I opened the rear door and took out a grocery bag and when walking away it slowly rolled backwards. I ran back behind it and tried to stop it but it had gained quite some speed and momentum so I couldn’t and it came to an abrupt stop with quite a bang against a wooden Bell telephone pole. Fortunately the steering wheel was turned otherwise it would have hit the neighbours car across the tulle. Maybe then the no fault insurance would have paid for the expensive repairs. The whole door was out of whack, the hinges broken and the whole thing had to be replaced and even with a door from the scrap yard in the wrong colour it was still $1100. And the remote door lock never worked reliable ever after.
jeather
Thank you all for re enabling my anxiety about walking between two parked cars
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Kate
It’s a big item locally: the Juste pour rire festival will be producing a Julien Lacroix show and some folks are not happy, after accusations of sexual impropriety from several women in 2020. The 24hres piece lists numerous comics who say they won’t participate in the festival if he’s in it.
Lacroix was never formally accused. I have zero opinions on this case and am only posting the story because his name has been all over the place this week and I wasn’t aware of the history.
The current PDG of Juste pour rire says Lacroix is such a good comic that he wanted him to return. Wouldn’t be the first time that festival looked the other way.
EmilyG
Juste pour rire has now decided not to go ahead with the show, according to an announcement (apologies for the Facebook link)
https://www.facebook.com/justepourrire/posts/pfbid0rnNgVbz2aZBQ731RfEoQ6LT8shCmg4ksRBFf4mucWQPVkhpiiwQPMmj65vLx4fXrlKate
Thank you, Emily.
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Kate
Weekend notes from Le Devoir, CityCrunch, La Presse, Journal de Montréal, CultMTL. -
Kate
The mayor plans to allow buildings up to 34 storeys in the planned development on the old Molson brewery site.
DeWolf
That was always the plan, but Soraya loves to take credit for things that had been in the works for years before she came into the picture.
SMD
The initial plans topped out at 27 stories, so this would have the project go from 3200 units to 4200. Most importantly, the promoters are now looking to renege on their commitment to social housing, which the local tenants’ rights committee describes as a breach of their social contract: « La promesse de plus de 800 logements sociaux s’évapore pour les locataires du Centre-Sud. »
Kevin
Will the public get access to the water?
Ian
@DeWolf Plante did the same. All mayors love to take credit for things set into action by their predecessors that work out but blame them for anythign that is going wrong.
I remember Jean Doré doing it.
DeWolf
@Kevin The master plan calls for a promenade overlooking the water, but there won’t be direct access as it’s blocked by the port railway.
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Kate
The only suspect in Thursday’s dépanneur killing has killed before and carried out other, less than fatal attacks on people, animals and property.
TVA identified the victim on Friday as Chong Woo Kim, 55 years old. It was mentioned somewhere that he was a son of the family that has owned the dep for a long time.
Joey
I understand the point of the criminal justice system is not to rehabilitate people and enable them to have some semblance of a life after completing their punishment and demonstrating some degree of remorse, but the number of things this guy has done *since* being freed after killing a woman is just mind-boggling: domestic violence, violence against animals, armed assault, threatening police officers, you name it. I don’t think the system is generally too lenient (though feed me enough stories about gang leaders getting contraband delivered by drone and I’ll eventually change my mind), but in extreme cases like this the protection of the general public should supersede other considerations, no?
IOW if you kill someone and then later you kill your girlfriend’s pets while fighting with there, if you find yourself free and clear to murder a random stranger, the system has utterly failed.
jeather
The system is wrong about who it is lenient to.
Tim
Are two murders enough to label him a dangerous offender?
Nicholas
People are leaving candles and flowers outside the dep tonight.
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Kate
After almost a month of quiet on the arson front, a car and a house were both firebombed on the South Shore on Thursday evening, and two vehicles were destroyed by fire early Friday in St‑Léonard.
maggie rose 05:24 on 2026-03-14 Permalink
I discovered this week that Voila’s ‘customer fulfillment centre’ is in Point-Claire and most deliveries from there are made to Quebec City. It’s an interesting rabbit hole to go down searching for info about them, the architects and the UK-based system that powers it. Also, Voila quietly offers free delivery to seniors and folk with disabilities. Not mentioned on their website, I guess it’s hard to prove. I was talking to them on the phone about a 50% off delivery offer and they were happy to offer free delivery as long as I need it. Since 2020 the quality of produce has improved a lot. Prices are nuts though. I compare prices with Instacart and often use them too. Darn Long Covid.
MarcG 08:30 on 2026-03-14 Permalink
There’s a Long Covid Awareness Day event at the Planetarium tomorrow from 1-3pm. Livestream available and more details on Facebook.
MarcG 08:54 on 2026-03-14 Permalink
maggie: You and others may also be interested in this webinar discussing how Long Covid patients could potentially access disability benefits.
maggie rose 13:05 on 2026-03-14 Permalink
Thanks, MarcG! I’m on their list and submitted a few short ‘tell us what it’s like’ statements for their public awareness project, which will be displayed in Montreal tomorrow. It’s open to caregivers as well. https://covidsociety.ca/priorities/long-covid/lcad-2026-share/
Ephraim 13:14 on 2026-03-14 Permalink
Ah yes, order online with a cookie that tells them what you buy and if you compare to other companies so that they can jack your prices. They found that some companies and in particular instacart will show different prices based on neighbourhood and other socio-economic markers. Yes, this is also true by supermarket neighbourhood. The more they find that people don’t travel and don’t compare.
SMD 14:08 on 2026-03-14 Permalink
Dynamic pricing! It will be interesting to see if the provincial consumer protection bureau looks into possible regulation, as has been called for, especially since this winter’s federal consultation seems to have been a bust with the only outcome being a commitment to continue “closely monitoring” the situation (https://competition-bureau.canada.ca/en/how-we-foster-competition/education-and-outreach/publications/consultation-algorithmic-pricing-and-competition-what-we-heard).
Ephraim 21:59 on 2026-03-14 Permalink
Oh, I’ve seen it on AZ. For example, product B06VWKGB5F which sells for $30 is $21.36 on my commercial account. I’ve seen it on a number of products. And then there are coupon codes. But there are also cases where they intentionally don’t sell the same products. For example Persil+Oxi from one store is sold in 3.72l container with 75 wash loads but on AZ it’s a 2X version that is 2.43l with 82 loads. So one is about 125oz or 1.67oz per wash and the other is 82oz or 1oz per load. (Yes, it’s really a much more concentrated version).
Kate 22:06 on 2026-03-14 Permalink
Ephraim, to be honest, I’ve never compared prices. I have one person and one cat to feed, so the differences for me are not the same as for someone provisioning a big family, or someone running a business that consumes larger amounts of food and household supplies.
It also takes time to compare website figures as well as to visit multiple stores.
This is probably why more people don’t do it.
My mother used to say she’d walk six blocks to save a dime. I would not.
CE 01:50 on 2026-03-15 Permalink
When I was a kid, my mom used to drag us around to 3 or 4 different grocery stores on a food run with a pile of flyers to get the best deals on everything. I wonder how much money it saved her over the years.
MarcG 07:08 on 2026-03-15 Permalink
Do coupon cutters factor in the cost of gas?
Ephraim 07:57 on 2026-03-15 Permalink
Kate – I do it all the time. Save time by using Maxi, which will match price. The app I use for the flyers allows you to look up an item and see everyone’s price. But I also know what prices should be. The savings at a supermarket if you know how to do it, are better than the bank. Let’s say you know that you use 1 can of tomatoes per week. Tomatoes are 25% off this week from the lowest price you have ever seen. You have space under your bed. You buy 52 cans and put them under your bed. That’s 25% interest on your money, with little carrying cost. Your bank is giving 2%, maybe?
The price specials roll. Storage is key. The cycles are often 3 to 6 weeks before sometimes comes back on sale, longer with Costco. Just like the stock market, you buy low. I bought 12 cans of organic coffee when it was $16.30 a can and 6 refills of Dawn Powerwash when the refills were on sale.
Ian 20:03 on 2026-03-15 Permalink
When I was a kid we were very poor so when my Dad actually bought groceries it was always stuff on sale. He’d buy a whole flat if the price was low.
Canned peas? Creamed corn? Yeah that’s supper for the next month, with rice or potatoes and that pot of stew that mysterioulsy never left the stovetop. We only got cheese when he stole it.
Nowadays I buy food with price comparison in mind but having experienced actual poverty I don’t care to roleplay it.