Holiday season a test for buy Canadian sentiment

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When customers visited Lisa Pozin’s two Vancouver gift shops earlier this year, they had buy Canadian on the brain.

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“It was the first thing on their mind. They would comment on it and it was like they were seeing the red everywhere,” the owner of Giving Gifts recalled of a surge in patriotic shopping that a tariff war with the U.S. sparked in the winter.

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“They were looking for the maple leaves … and they were reading packages, even for things like soap, to make sure it was made in Canada.”

These days, Pozin said shoppers still appreciate domestic items on her shelves, but their country of origin doesn’t carry the same weight it once did. In fact, many of her customers no longer turn over packages to see where something was made.

Her observations suggest that as the tariff war drags on, consumers are growing numb to U.S. President Donald Trump’s tit-for-tat and with the cost of living continuing to rise, some are willing to prioritize price and convenience over patriotism.

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Many still keen to buy Canadian brands

This holiday season will test how much of a regression the buy Canadian movement has seen as best intentions and budgets go head-to-head.

Before most Canadians even started buying gifts, research shows they were keen on supporting homegrown brands.

The Business Development Bank of Canada predicted almost 60 per cent of the average $943 Canadians will spend on holiday shopping will be dedicated to domestic products and services this year.

Meanwhile, Deloitte Canada said 73 per cent of the 1,000 people it surveyed between Aug. 27 and Sept. 5 prefer to purchase products that support local or Canadian-owned businesses and 56 per cent want to buy gifts that support neighbourhood or small businesses.

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However, the interest doesn’t always convert to sales, said Chelsee Pettit, who runs Aaniin Retail Inc., a business selling Indigenous goods online and at Toronto’s Eaton Centre.

“Some people, they just don’t do it, but they’ll talk about it,” she said.

Spending data in the run-up to the holidays backs up what she’s seen.

Statistics Canada’s fourth-quarter business survey found that between April 1 and Nov. 5, about 13 per cent of companies experienced an increase in sales for Canadian products.

Some shoppers may not have supported buy Canadian movement

But over the same span, many more businesses — a whopping 68.2 per cent of them — did not experience an increase in sales of Canadian products and 18.5 per cent were unsure whether there had been impact at all.

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The shift is also borne out in anecdotes from retailers. Last month, Loblaw Companies Ltd. revealed many of its customers had switched back to buying U.S. products after Canadian countertariffs on U.S. imports were removed.

Marty Weintraub, national retail leader at Deloitte Canada, calls what many businesses are now experiencing the “say-do gap.”

“Somebody says something, in terms of what they want to do, but then when push comes to shove and they’re sitting in front of the cash register, they do something else,” he said.

Weintraub figures this happens because some consumers are facing so much financial pressure, they feel they have to put price before patriotism

“Value almost trumps everything else, probably eight times out of 10, unless there’s a particular reason somebody wants to pay a premium,” he said.

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And it’s not just cost that can dissuade someone from shopping Canadian. If an option made outside the country is closer to a customer’s home or easier to order, they often don’t think twice.

“Convenience outweighs anything — and delivery,” Pozin said.

Brands matter, too, said Sam Care, owner of Toronto toy shop Playful Minds.

Fickle kids sometimes won’t settle for anything other than the item they have their hearts set on and loved ones will indulge them even if it means sending money out of the country.

“There are Legos coming from Mexico, but we definitely get it from the United States, and not one person has ever said anything about that,” Care said. “They just keep buying and Lego is one of our top items.”

Like Pozin, she said customers aren’t looking for Canadian-made items with the same gusto they once were but they still consider shopping at Playful Minds a win because it’s a local, independent business.

“They don’t care as long as small businesses are succeeding,” she said.

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