So how is not buying American going for you?
So how is not buying American going for you?
Last trip to the grocery store I couldn't find any non-US salad kits, and Silk NextMilk is made down there now, because I guess our plants were the listeria ones. Chip dip was surprisingly hard to find too, although I did it.
I'm very pleased with how many vegetables actually come from Mexico (definitely via the US though), and there's even a few things you can get from greenhouses, so that situation is less dire than I'd expected.
The hardest thing for our family are the digital services and social media. We are slowly cancelling Amazon, Facebook, Netflix, etc. But some things are used by my wife's business (Google, Facebook, Insta) and the just isn't a good replacement for YouTube.
Groceries are not bad thankfully. For hardware and household items, I can usually find a Canadian product if not at least Canadian made. Not being able to order to my door with Amazon is kind of an inconvenience but really we shouldn't be leaning on that anyway.
Gasoline is an unfortunate reality for us, since we don't have money for an EV right now and we need a truck to move renovation materials. And unfortunately construction supplies are sometimes a challenge to source (no way I'm going to Home Depot).
I really hope this gives Canadian industry a chance to blossom.
I’m lucky to live in a rural place with great farmers market infrastructure, so many options to buy from here. When I do go to the grocery store, buying Canadian has been the norm for quite a few years but I am making a more conscious effort, taking my time to check all the labels. Haven’t had problems so far
Not bad. I get most of my veg from local Chinese grocery where everything is a little closer to spoil but cheaper by half and all the sourcing info is in a language I don't read so I basically wrote that off as a whole in the name of scraping by.
But was decently happy to learn that my spending habits were mostly Canadian centric by default anyway exempting snacks. Mind you I live in a chunk of Van where most of my fav stuff is imported from Asia through local companies and ports so my easy solve was just segwaying hard into Korean and Japanese imports.
I was already bracing myself to be careful at the grocery store a while back cause I'd been following the story of the US rolling back food and product regulations. It can't be fun to be doing any Kitchen/ Restaurant work right now. Last time I out I managed to find all Canadian stuff. Lettuce was the hardest, self contained was all from California. I did find a Canadian made salad kit I stripped for parts, I wish the quality was better but it was okay. I'm not a real power user of lettuce anyway. It's just going to take a bit of adapting.
I also typically buy used name brand clothing and plan to keep going with that and with entertainment I usually use the free services, used stores and thrifts and a bit of yarr matey on the side.
Excellent grocery shopping today. We didn’t buy anything US (we think). The red cabbage didn’t have any country listed and we assumed it’s Mexican since the green ones were. We didn’t have to switch lots but for some products we bought alternatives: taco shells, granola bars, salsa. We also found some Canadian stuff sold out or almost: ketchup, cereal (we picked a different Canadian one). It’s fun to try new stuff! Also really excited about tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers, lettuce and basil from Alberta! This is very early in the year for us to get local produce!
Purchased some local onions instead of onions from the US, along with a few other things. Salsa from Mexico. Was a small grocery run, but my purchases would have been 15% American previously - but 0% this time.
If everyone is doing this, the numbers do start to add up quickly to a meaningful impact.
The other day I took my German car to the Asian market to pick up curry ingredients and enjoyed the night watching the Red Green show sooooooo.....pretty great honestly. 👍
I'm American, and not buying American has been the norm for decades. So far, it's working out pretty well.
Most of my groceries accidentally end up being nearly all Canadian products.
I haven't really needed to buy anything other than groceries this past week, but I have been looking for alternatives to other products I'll eventually need, and I will make buying Canadian first a priority, followed by Not American™ as a close second. 😂
Not much changed for me personally, I already mostly buy local.
Btw if you really want to hurt america see if you can modify your rrsp/resp/tfsa/<other 4 letter acronym> to exclude American companies (and O&G while your at it). It's hard and probably not good from a purely financial perspective, but I think it has a lot more impact.
Signed up for the Odd Bunch. You get imperfect produce which is still perfectly edible delivered all from local producers. Like a CSA share. It actually ends up being less expensive than the store. You'll have to be creative in using it up, but it's a great option. Link: https://go.referralcandy.com/share/9TSC9RD?s=sp&t=cp
It's generally going well. I already did this boycott once before during Trump 1.0, so I know what do look for.
It's a bit harder this time around because there are things we need where a Canadian (or at least non-American) alternative doesn't exist. The big one is diapers, as we haven't been able to find anything non-American that also works within our budget and time constraints.
It's unfortunate, but also only temporary. My kids should be out of diapers in a few years, provided the world doesn't end before then.
Most of my groceries are either already made in Canada or imported from Mexico. I didn't have to change much.
It's not a cheap way to shop, I will admit, but it can be done. Canada makes a lot of food, especially here in BC where I live. Beef, pork, sausages, honey, dairy, milk-alternatives, breads, and so much more.
For non-grocery items there are numerous retailers that are Canadian. London Drugs is a great one here in western Canada. Online shopping is a bit harder because Amazon is so hard to replicate, but honestly at that point I just buy from Aliexpress. If I'm going to order cheap crap online I'll just get it from the source instead of sending money to the US.
Didn't buy anything american this week, at all, but I'm due to go grocery shopping.
I'm making a pot pie from some leftover beef and bacon fat that I turned into roux, I've got some potatoes that are getting old, some carrots, mushrooms... it should be tasty
Yeah it's going well. I already knew in November that Trump was going to fuck up the economy one way or another, so I bought a handful of bigger ticket stuff from the states at that time for Black Friday.
The main food staple I've had to change so far is baby carrots, I usually get the California organic ones in bulk at Costco. I just have to make a separate trip to my smaller local grocer for substitutes.