‘Shop Canadian’ draws cross-border support

Increased demand for beard oil was not an outcome Dan Carriere had predicted as he watched Canada and the United States fire tariff announcements at one another.

But that’s what’s happened. Over the past month, Beard & Brawn has tracked a doubling of its American sales.

“That really caught me off guard,” said Carriere, the Winnipeg business’s co-owner. “I thought the opposite would happen.”

Customers ordering online can leave notes. There have been apologies and messages of support, Carriere said. He’s also noticed a jump in first-time Canadian buyers on the website.

“There is definitely people who are taking it to heart, that support local,” the entrepreneur said.

Neither the Retail Council of Canada nor Food & Beverage Manitoba have noted a trend of Americans buying Canadian-made products. However, the “Shop Canadian” movement is continuing in local grocery stores, causing chains to seek new products.

And some Americans want to support Canada as the U.S. president pursues the country as the “51st state.”

Lorilee Craker’s neighbour bought several bags of British Columbia coffee; Craker, a former Winnipeg resident, took one back to her Michigan home.

“It’s hard to find Canadian products,” Craker said. “It’s overwhelmingly American products here.”

“There is definitely people who are taking it to heart, that support local.”–Dan Carriere

Luc Barter Moulaison, a Winnipegger living in Chicago, echoed Craker — Canadian products aren’t obvious in the grocery store. Purchasing the items as a political statement doesn’t seem to be top of mind, Barter Moulaison added.

“There’s so much going on in the U.S. right now.”

In contrast, Canadians are questioning products’ origins across the retail spectrum, from grocery to furniture and apparel. It’s reached a magnitude John Graham, Retail Council of Canada director of government relations for the Prairies, said he’s never seen before.

Empire Co. Ltd., the parent company of grocery chains including Sobeys, said in a call this month its U.S. product sales are “rapidly dropping.”

Sobeys has spent the past month finding alternatives to U.S. sources, spokeswoman Sarah Dawson wrote in an email. Demand for local products has seen a “marked increase,” she continued, declining to share a provincial sales breakdown.

Canadian-made products continue to outpace overall sales at Red River Co-op, noted chief executive Craig Gilpin.

Meantime, the co-operative’s membership has jumped 50 per cent year-over-year, he said. Sales have been “very strong,” though it’s hard to know whether it’s because of patriotic sentiment or cheques from Red River Co-op’s annual equity return being circulated, Gilpin said.

The co-op distributed $34.1 million in February — around the same time U.S. President Donald Trump threatened 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian imports beginning March 4.

Since then, some Canadian imports, including steel and aluminum, have been tagged with tariffs. Canada retaliated with 25 per cent tariffs on a total $59.8 billion worth of U.S. goods.

“You may not see it at retail today, but (the added costs) could certainly be hitting the supply chain,” Gilpin said.

Federated Co-operatives Ltd. supplies Red River Co-op. It will source Canadian and international products if they’re “the best choices available … at the best cost,” Gilpin said.

The association representing Manitoba’s food and drink manufacturers had a call with No Frills representatives Tuesday. It was the first meeting between the two entities, said Michael Mikulak.

“We’ve been talking to a lot of retailers,” the Food & Beverage Manitoba executive director added.

There’s a desire from stores — and customers, and politicians — to fill shelves with Canadian products, but interprovincial trade barriers often keep Manitoba products from crossing borders, Mikulak said.

Streamlining nationwide regulations is complicated and won’t change easily, he continued. He’s hoping a new Winnipeg production facility will convert local companies to exporters.

Food & Beverage Manitoba is working with CentreVenture Development Corp. and the University of Winnipeg Community Renewal Corp. to create a roughly 8,000-square-foot facility in Market Lands, a burgeoning Exchange District development.

The food hub isn’t a certainty yet; government funding hasn’t been cemented, but Mikulak is “fairly confident” the space will become a reality. He envisions it to be rentable, meeting the federal requirements needed for users to export their food, and available next year.

“More than ever right now, something like that is … needed.”

He didn’t have a price tag for the facility. The building it’s proposed to be part of, a three-level structure including a food hall and Food & Beverage Manitoba’s offices, could cost upwards of $15 million.

Most firms have paused business investment — like upgrading their kitchens — due to economic uncertainty, Mikulak added.

Manitoba companies are struggling under tariffs, a weak Canadian dollar and reduced consumer spending, said Tyler Slobogian.

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“Many small businesses are trying to do everything they can to ensure that the prices don’t raise too much,” the Canadian Federation of Independent Business senior policy analyst said. “It’s becoming more difficult. I think the longer this uncertainty plays out, the harder it’s going to be for them to plan.”

The U.S. could implement further tariffs April 2, Trump has warned.

At least 20 per cent of Manitoba businesses have clocked increased demand for Canadian-made products, preliminary results from a CFIB survey show. The association launched the survey last week.

Sixty-two per cent of Manitoba businesses have already experienced or are anticipating negative effects from U.S. tariffs, a Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce survey from February found.

— with files from The Canadian Press

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com

Gabrielle Piché
Reporter

Gabrielle Piché reports on business for the Free Press. She interned at the Free Press and worked for its sister outlet, Canstar Community News, before entering the business beat in 2021. Read more about Gabrielle.

Every piece of reporting Gabrielle produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.