Buying Canadian is more difficult than you think

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The The worst trade war in history Started, it is heartbreaking to see many Canadians eagerly responding to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s local shopping calls. The excitement is clear: online forums like Reddit Buy Canadian The community pledges to cancel trips for Disney World, finish digital subscriptions to Netflix and Amazon, and attack US products from groceries.

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But “buying Canadian” is more complicated than appearing. The distribution chains in Canada and the United States are so immense that it is difficult to say that “matte” in the United States ends and starts “matte” in Canada. Therefore, if you plan to change the way you shop in this turbulent times, the devil is in detail.

US ketchup company Graft Heinz Co. Viral lists In products to avoid. Yes, Craft Heinz is an excellent US company. The company is headquartered in Chicago and Pittsburgh and its largest shareholders are Berkshire Hathaway, Blackrack, Vankard and State Street Top Brass. But when the brand, Heinz, undoubtedly American, the bottle of Canadian grocery stores has been manufactured in Canada for over 100 years.

Heinz opened his first Canadian plant in Leamington of Ontario – the real tomato capital of Canada in 1909. It closed the plant to the anger of many Canadians in 2014 and expelled 740 employees. But the company resumed its red sauce in Canada six years later, this time its Mant Royal, Cue. The plant-company that uses more than 1,000 people recently printed a full-page ad in the world and in the post.

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Hein’s ketchup, really Canadian ketchup. It is difficult to ignore the sauce without hurting Canadian tomatoes.

However, in terms of ketchup, there are still brands with Canadian roots deeper than Heinz. The president’s choice, for example, creates sauces with Canadian tomatoes, and its parental company Loflas is headquartered in Brampton. Unlike Heinz, in other words, a lot of white collar jobs that go to sell the president’s wishes occur in Canada, which is a little more than a conscience shopkeeper.

However, there is no Canadian alternative in every US brand. In those cases, buying US brands is the best way to support Canadian shopkeepers, however, may seem negative.

If you are in the market for a new car, for example, buying the Ford will be a patriotic choice, if the car is made in the company’s Okvilli or Windsa. Plants. It is certainly a pro -Canada choice than a nisan that makes most of its North American cars in Tennessee, Mississippi and Mexico.

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At the same time, if you want to boycott US products and choose Canadian brands, Canadians do not guarantee that you have cut off economic relations with the United States, but in both cases, they do not guarantee that you can buy orange juice from the queue -based oasis on top of Florida -based Tropicana. One can choose to buy almonds than its American competitors from the Earth -based Earth, but you are still buying California almonds even if you are still indirect.

In response to Trump’s payment threats, Canadians want to adjust their purchasing behavior, so they need to know the complexity of the distribution chains. It is stupid to ignore identifiable American brands, Suchas Heynes or Ford, and if their products are grown here, compiled or assembled here – in the case of ketchup, there may be Canadian alternatives. Similarly, the purchase of American orange and almonds compiled in Canada does not hit Trump in pain; The conscientious shopkeeper should avoid these products completely.

Jona Brucesky He is a freezer writer and management consultant for Toronto. His works have been published in the CBC, Globe and Mail, Toronto Star and Financial Post.

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