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Walmart Canada sells more food online than any other retailer in the country, runs 401 stores, and in June 2026 became the first market outside the US to get Walmart+. None of that tells you whether ordering from walmart.ca will go smoothly, because the store’s pricing and its delivery experience are two very different stories. This guide covers both: the real fees, the Walmart+ maths, where Walmart beats Costco and Loblaws on price, and the ordering habits that avoid the problems reviewers complain about. We researched it using walmart.ca’s own help pages, Walmart Canada press releases, published price-comparison studies, and aggregated Trustpilot reviews, in line with our research methodology.
Walmart Canada at a glance
- ✅ What it is: Canada’s largest mass retailer, 401 stores plus walmart.ca, in the country since 1994
- ✅ Scale: 900,000+ Canadians visit walmart.ca daily; over 100,000 employees; Canada’s #1 food e-commerce retailer by sales, per ECDB
- ✅ Free shipping: orders over $35 sold and shipped by Walmart; a $7.97 fee applies below that
- ✅ Walmart+: $8.97/month or $89/year since June 4, 2026, with Crave streaming included
- ✅ Best for: groceries, everyday essentials, baby, toys, and home basics at the lowest basket totals in the country
- 👎 Watch out for: home-delivery reliability and customer service draw heavy criticism; pickup is the safer fulfilment choice
- ⭐ Our rating: 3.9 / 5
Walmart.ca vs the main alternatives
Canadian online grocery and general-merchandise shopping runs through a short list of players. Here is how they stack up.
| Retailer | Free delivery threshold | Membership | Price position | Returns |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Walmart.ca | $35 (sold by Walmart) | Walmart+ $8.97/mo or $89/yr | Cheapest basket totals in comparison tests | 90 days, most items |
| Amazon.ca | $35 for non-Prime on eligible items | Prime $9.99/mo or $99/yr | Competitive on general goods, weak on fresh grocery | 30 days typical |
| Costco.ca | Included on most items | Membership from $60/yr required | Best per-unit value on bulk sizes | Generous, near-unlimited on many items |
| Loblaws / PC Express | Pickup free; delivery fees vary | PC Optimum (free points program) | Priciest basket in comparison tests | Grocery-standard |
The pattern from published tests is consistent: Walmart wins the checkout total, Costco wins per-unit bulk value, Loblaws costs the most. A February 2026 basket comparison by Narcity found an $83 spread between the cheapest and priciest totals for the same 11 essentials, with Walmart cheapest on 6 of 11 items. The same Dempster’s 675g loaf cost $3.34 at Walmart against $4.49 at Loblaws.
What is Walmart Canada?
Walmart entered Canada on January 14, 1994 by taking over 122 Woolco store leases, according to Wikipedia. Three decades later it operates 401 stores across every province, per ScrapeHero’s July 2026 location data, with headquarters in Mississauga, Ontario. Most locations are Supercentres with full grocery, which is why Walmart now leads Canadian food e-commerce by sales, ahead of Amazon, per ECDB.
The company is spending to stay ahead. In January 2025 it announced a $6.5 billion, five-year investment, its largest in Canadian history, funding dozens of new stores starting with Supercentres in Port Credit, Oakville, Calgary, Edmonton, and Fort McMurray, per the official announcement. The online side runs a marketplace with third-party sellers launched in 2017, and walmart.ca states it now serves more than 900,000 Canadian visitors a day.
Delivery, pickup, and the $35 rule
Every fee below comes from walmart.ca’s own help pages, checked July 2026:
- Standard shipping: free over $35 before tax, for items sold and shipped by Walmart. Orders under $35 pay a $7.97 fee.
- Same-day delivery from your local store: $8.97 per order. Express delivery, under three hours: $11.97.
- Pickup: free over $35, including curbside grocery pickup at participating stores, with the same $7.97 fee under the threshold.
- Marketplace items sold by third-party sellers set their own shipping and follow a separate return policy, so check the “sold and shipped by” line before assuming the $35 rule applies.
Is Walmart+ worth it in Canada?
Walmart+ arrived in Canada on June 4, 2026, the first launch outside the United States, per Walmart Canada’s announcement. It costs $8.97 a month or $89 a year with a 30-day free trial, and it replaced the old Delivery Pass program.
The bundle: unlimited free same-day delivery from your store on orders over $35, free shipping with no minimum on walmart.ca, discounted express delivery, and a Crave Standard with Ads streaming subscription that sells for $11.99 a month on its own. That last item does the heavy lifting. If you already pay for Crave, the membership is effectively cheaper than free; if you order same-day delivery twice a month, the $8.97 fee it waives each time covers the subscription on its own. It also undercuts Amazon Prime Canada at $9.99 a month or $99 a year. Skip it only if you shop in-store and stream nothing.
What Walmart Canada customers say
Here is the honest part. On Trustpilot, walmart.ca holds a “Bad” rating of 1.4 out of 5 from roughly 2,800 reviews as of July 2026. The complaints cluster tightly: failed or late home deliveries, hard-to-reach customer service, slow refunds, and disputes with third-party marketplace sellers. One reviewer wrote in July 2026: “Trying to return a damaged patio set. Several calls to customer service. Getting told they will contact me but they never do… Do not order online.”
Context matters when reading that number. Review sites for mass retailers skew heavily toward delivery disputes, and Walmart’s in-store value story is what the price studies measure. But the pattern is consistent enough to shape how you should use walmart.ca: choose pickup over home delivery when timing matters, keep orders “sold and shipped by Walmart” where the 90-day return policy applies cleanly, and photograph anything damaged on arrival. Shoppers who follow those three habits sidestep most of what the one-star column describes.
Returns: the 90-day advantage
Walmart Canada’s return window is 90 days for most items with proof of purchase, per its published policy, and online purchases can go back to any store. That is three times Amazon’s typical window. The exceptions worth knowing: items fulfilled from outside Canada get 30 days and cannot be returned in-store, marketplace-seller items follow the seller’s policy, online grocery issues must be reported within 10 days, and oversized items like mattresses cannot go back to a store. Fresh produce, meat, and seafood bought in-store carry a satisfaction guarantee with no time limit.
Pros and cons
👍 What we like
- The cheapest checkout totals in published Canadian price comparisons, ahead of Loblaws and Sobeys
- Walmart+ at $89/year with Crave included beats Amazon Prime Canada on price and bundle value
- 90-day returns on most items, with in-store drop-off for online orders
- Free pickup over $35, including curbside grocery at participating stores
- $6.5 billion investment means newer stores and better fulfilment infrastructure coming through 2027
👎 What to watch
- Home-delivery reliability and customer service are the site’s weakest links, per sustained Trustpilot criticism
- Marketplace items carry different shipping fees and return rules than Walmart-sold stock
- Costco still wins on per-unit price for bulk sizes if you have a membership
Final verdict: how to shop walmart.ca smartly
Walmart Canada earns a 3.9 out of 5: full marks on price, a deliberate deduction on fulfilment. The play is simple. Use walmart.ca for the grocery and essentials basket where it is provably the cheapest big-format option in Canada, collect via free pickup rather than gambling on home delivery, and take the Walmart+ trial if you stream Crave or order same-day delivery even twice a month. Keep marketplace purchases to sellers with strong ratings, and the 90-day return window covers the rest. Shoppers who treat it as a pickup-first store get the prices without the one-star experience. For more of our retail coverage, see our Bed Bath N’ Table sale guide and our Lidl Germany review.
Sources cited in this guide
- Company history and 1994 Woolco entry — Walmart Canada, Wikipedia
- Store count, July 2026 — ScrapeHero location data
- Shipping and delivery fees — walmart.ca help centre
- Return policy — walmart.ca return policy
- Walmart+ Canada launch — Walmart Canada newsroom, June 2026
- $6.5B investment — Walmart Canada newsroom, January 2025
- Price comparison studies — Narcity, February 2026
- Customer review themes — Trustpilot: walmart.ca
- Food e-commerce leadership — ECDB Canada food market data
Frequently asked questions
Does walmart.ca have free shipping?
Yes, on orders over $35 before tax for items sold and shipped by Walmart. Orders under $35 pay a $7.97 fee. Walmart+ members ($8.97/month or $89/year) get free shipping with no order minimum, plus unlimited free same-day delivery from their local store on orders over $35.
Is Walmart+ available in Canada?
Yes. Canada became the first Walmart+ market outside the US on June 4, 2026. It costs $8.97 a month or $89 a year with a 30-day free trial, and includes free no-minimum shipping, unlimited same-day delivery over $35, discounted express delivery, and a Crave Standard with Ads subscription normally worth $11.99 a month.
Is Walmart cheaper than Costco or Loblaws in Canada?
Published basket comparisons in 2025 and 2026 found Walmart had the cheapest checkout totals against Loblaws and Sobeys, while Costco offered the best per-unit value on bulk sizes. If you shop normal quantities without a membership fee, Walmart usually wins; if you buy in bulk, Costco does.
What is Walmart Canada’s return policy?
Most items can be returned within 90 days with proof of purchase, and online orders can go back to any store. Exceptions: internationally fulfilled items get 30 days, marketplace sellers set their own policies, online grocery issues must be reported within 10 days, and oversized items cannot be returned in-store.
Is it safe to order from walmart.ca?
Payments and buyer protections are legitimate, and the 90-day return policy is among Canada’s most generous. The practical risk is fulfilment, not fraud: reviewers report late or failed home deliveries and slow support. Choosing free store pickup and buying items sold and shipped by Walmart avoids most reported problems.
Image credits: Walmart store in Ontario by Christophe95 (CC BY-SA 3.0); Walmart Edmonton electronics section and Walmart Vegreville checkouts by Rowanswiki (CC0). All via Wikimedia Commons.