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Gen Z consumers say Buy Canadian movement is unaffordable

according to a recent Ipsos Canada study, the Buy Local movement is largely bolstered by older Canadians. Gen Z consumers, on the other hand, are almost six times more likely to switch to an American service such as a bank or telecommunications company, according to the survey.

Carleton University economics professor Frances Woolley noted more than a quarter of youth aged 25-34 are food insecure already. University of Victoria theatre student Samantha Frew said she has heard the calls to buy local. But she still tends to do most of her shopping at Walmart for financial reasons. She also struggles to figure out which companies are wholly Canadian.

“As much as it felt dystopian to go into the liquor store and see posters over all the American liquor, I was like ‘Oh, I wouldn’t have known that unless that poster was directly over it.‘ ”

In Montreal, National Theatre School student Owen Carter said they have boycotted corporations and products for other causes in the past, but cutting out all American goods is proving to be much more difficult.

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Prof. Woolley advises students trying to buy local to shop seasonally.

“Canada grows a lot of things in the summer, not so much in the winter,” Prof. Woolley said. “In winter that means eating things that keep like root vegetables and frozen food.”

She said buying locally does not have to be expensive. She referenced butternut squash and Canadian cabbage, two pieces of produce that can keep all winter and won’t break the bank.

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39 comments

  • Without too much attention to prices but heavy attention to where product is from, my grocery bill for two weeks went from 180$ to 240$

    I can see that being cost prohibitive to some people, but the monetary hit is worth it to me.

    I'd rather support my fellow countrymen

  • Please forgive me for the copy-paste from another post, but here's my comment from another posting of this article:

    Real Canadian Superstore prices for my hummus since this started:

    Swapping from Peru-made lemon juice for my hummus to malt vinegar - cost down from $2.79 to $1.50
    No Name Chickpeas to Unico equivalent - $1.50 to $2
    Using canola oil and not olive oil as suggested by nearly every recipe - no name olive oil costs $12 for 750 mL whereas canola oil costs $8.29 for 3 L getting you more for less with hardly a change in the recipe
    Tahini - found a good recipe from Diabetes Canada that completely removes this ingredient, saving me a solid $10 for a jar
    To finish things off, while both Canadian, swapping from sandwich bread to sliced French bread for dipping - $1.97 to $1.25

    Cost of hummus ingredients goes from $28.26 to $13.04 with the added bonus that one of those ingredients lasts three times as long.

    People need to learn substitutions in their recipes, that alone saved a tonne. I pay more for Canola oil personally cause I get Canola Harvest and not the no name brand since they're unionized, but even with that in mind you're paying less than olive oil for like, double the amount.

  • I guess it depends on how much each individual really cares - when i was a student and a very poor worker in my early career, buying free range chicken and eggs were (and still is) very important to me, and i purchased accordingly. I never wavered on my personal morals to buy the half price caged chicken. If i really couldn't afford to pay the free range prices that week, I just bought something else.

    I get that the Buy Canadian movement can be challenging because it's all-encompassing, but honestly a lot of the times the alternatives aren't even more expensive. And if you're savvy with shopping the specials and flexible with your purchases, it's easier. It's definitely a lot of effort though. I'm celiac and I figured that I will probably still occasionally be buying USA goods just because my choices are so limited - amazingly I haven't had to yet. In fact I had a hell of a time finding gluten free soy sauce recently and thought I was going to have to buy something imported from USA, but finally I found that the sobeys house brand soy sauce is gluten free - and a third the price of the stuff i normally buy.

    That said this also reflects why it's important to champion doing the best we can, even if it's not 100% - someone who is carefully replacing 20% of their previously-USA purchases with Canadian, but struggling with the rest, is still doing better than someone who has just given up completely because perfection feels impossible.

  • Ahh I see buy cheap products in the short term and be ok with losing the country in the medium to long term.

    • Not only that, but I suspect as the tariffs take hold much of this US stuff is going to get more expensive anyways. Inflation is going to hit because of this BS so all you can do is adjust in a way that fights back.

      • Who wants their absolute shit anyway. Chock full of high fructose-glucose processed “food products”. I hope it all goes way up in price no one buys it and they stop peddling their disgusting shit to us. I also don’t want disgusting hormone and anti-biotic infused American milk products either.

39 comments