The brewing trade war between Canada and the United States has sparked conversations about buying local.
In British Columbia, many have threatened to cut ties with American products and replace them with northern alternatives, but the data shows that would be a significant change.
According to the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, nine in 10 consumers spend more at big businesses than at small retailers. That’s despite the fact that 82 per cent think it’s important that their money stays in their local community.
“CFIB has found that every time a dollar is spent at a local small business, about 66 cents of that dollar is recirculated into the local provincial economy,” said Emily Boston, CFIB’s senior policy analyst.
“That can look like anything, from paying wages for local workers. It’s giving back to the community through charitable donations or, most prominently, it’s buying goods and services from other local businesses.”
Boston went on to say that when money is spent at large, multinational companies, each dollar recirculates only 11 cents.
That number drops to around 8 cents for some online purchases, such as those made through Amazon, she explained.
“We need to make sure that we’re backing up our words with our wallets,” said Boston.
Kroma Artist’s Acrylics has been in business in Vancouver for several decades and has been manufacturing and packaging its paint inside its Granville Island shop.
The small-batch and handmade product is only sold from the store, which relies on local artists for support.
“We sell our products directly to the end user. So basically everybody gets a wholesale price. There’s no retail markup on our paint, at all,” said Jocelyn Pierce, a Kroma employee.
“So most of our customers find that it’s less expensive to use our paint than other high quality artist acrylics. That’s just another benefit of shopping local.”
Now, all eyes are on Washington to see if U.S. President Donald Trump follows through with tariffs on Canadian goods in March. In the meantime, small businesses are urging British Columbians to consider shopping local and sending a message via their wallets.
