The best shop in Montreal for spices and dried fruits, and the cheapest is..
ANATOL SPICES in the Italian area
6822 St Laurent, Montréal, QC H2S 3C7
Telephone : 514-276-0107
Run by a Greek guy and his sons (?), the place boasts cheap spices and dried foods and fruits.
We bought a little packet of turmeric there for $0.30 and the value of it if you were to buy the Clubhouse version from the grocery store, was estimated by us to be $2.00.
That’s a savings of 85% .. and if you do that for ALL spices (his whole shop smells wonderfully fragrant), like peppercorns, fleur de sel, dried raisins for your oatmeal, etc… you can save quite a bit of money, and get a lot in the process.
Bay leaves in particular, are a real rip off in grocery stores. They charge $5 for a little glass bottle of 6 leaves, when it costs pennies if you buy them in bulk or at a spice store.
The quality of spices is also quite decent.. but I’d avoid buying or eating any chocolate items from there, unless you like your chocolate or yoghurt covered raisins to have a flavour of spices throughout it.