I saw a recent CBC News piece about a local grocery and their challenges rising to the growing demand of Canadian goods as alternatives for US goods.

Grocery stores are very aware of the problem, and they are trying. Unfortunately, some products sit on shelves for weeks before they’re cleared out in normal conditions, so it might be a while before the stock rotates out so they can rotate in non-US alternatives.

Produce is one of those areas where it’s more about who makes it, rather than who you’re buying from. We can grow just about anything we want with enough time, effort, and money. Hydroponics has come a long way. But again, time, and money. We have land… We have land in spades. A lot of it is colder climates than most of these plants are capable of enduring, so if we want some things to be Canadian grown, we would need greenhouses of the stuff to grow it. Not cheap. So what if we throw out the “grown in Canada” and just went with non-US?

There’s two challenges there: can we get it in a reasonable time frame so that it can sit on shelves and/or in people’s houses long enough to actually be consumed before it spoils? Is there a country with the necessary climate and shipping capability that’s close enough to make all of that make sense? That’s not the USA?

This is the question we’ll struggle with, and I’m certain we are struggling with. I’m certain that some varieties of apples, pears, oranges, and other common fruits and vegetables spoil fast enough that normally, our only real option for them is from North America and one of the biggest farmland areas in North America is the United States. They have prairies that rarely freeze and are vast and plentiful.

Look, I’m not saying we should give up. Far from it. I’m just pointing out that getting to the point where we have completely eliminated US goods from grocery stores, isn’t going to be an overnight thing. It will take months if not years to fully migrate to alternatives.

Luckily, our current federal government seems to be helping in this regard. I’ve seen plenty of news coverage about their efforts to bring goods from Europe, and from across the Pacific, into Canada, as well as have our exports sent those directions too, so we are not economically dependent on the US buying our stuff.

I have to give them credit for trying at least.

Keep doing what you’re doing. Look for Canadian goods, buy them whenever possible. Look for US goods, avoid them whenever possible. The market is changing. All I can say, from the economist in me, is that, I have high hopes and expectations that we will end up as a stronger, more independent country when all is said and done. The damage the commander and cheeto of the US has done with all of this will create a permanent rift between the long, prosperous and open border we’ve enjoyed with the USA for over 100 years. I’m worried that the US economy will suffer for a long time after this, but that’s not really what any of us are actually concerned about. I feel bad for the American people, especially those who voted against this. Hopefully this serves as a strong example to everyone that they need to think a bit more about what and who they are voting for.

Our local grocery stores have changed as much produce as I suspect they can. Lots of Mexican and South American, Canadian where possible. But there’s still some USA and I suspect they just cannot get it elsewhere at the moment.

i agree with you, but not at the cost of your health. don’t get scurvy over a boycott

As much as I support boycotting American, not buying American lettuce and apples won’t force the grocery stores to “switch suppliers”

Canada can’t grow that shit. All the grocery stores will switch to is corn and more bread in the bakery because we have very little land with the climate that will produce fruits and vegetables.

That might actually increase the sales…

Sadly Scott Moe likes to drink and Danielle Smith loves Trump.

jason momoa, his camp chair unfolding

Insert padme meme

Porque no los dos?

Yes, go fascist get fucked.

Consumers started to get on board with the general Buy Canadian deal (which is really translated to Don’t Buy American).

As a result, consumers were purchasing less American alcohol, and it just became an albatross on the shelf. So once retailers sold out their stock, they just replaced it with product that would actually sell, such as wines from France and elsewhere.

Liquor is controlled provincially. Only some provinces have opted to remove US liquor entirely from their shelves. AFAIK private liquor stores legally can still sell American booze even if the provincial stores pull it. I may stand corrected on that though.

To the consumer choice element… Canada has it’s own thriving wine industry. Domestic cheap wine is maybe 10% more expensive than the imported brands from California or Australia. I may be corrected on that as well, I live much closer to said wineries than 3/4 of Canadians.

Liquor follows the 80/20 rule. So 80% of all liquor sales are made by the top 20% of liquor purchasers. That’s not broken up by liquor type or price point though… but I would expect that high end wine drinkers are buying less US wine due to tariffs… while cheap wine drinkers are switching away from US wines.

Not tariffs, it was all just removed from store shelves.