You can count on Loblaw’s to be the first major supermarket to introduce a new innovation. And the first to be brought on the carpet by critics for not-so-popular policies and price hikes. Now, Loblaw’s has become first to unveil anti-tariff plans…
Trump confirms Tariffs set to come down on Canada and Mexico next week…
US president Donald Trump earlier this week doubled down on his threats to implement tariffs of up to 25 percent on all Canadian goods entering the US. He went even further, saying he’ll unveil an of-ficial tariff plan against Canada by early nest week.
Not just standing by, helpless
Canadian government and food retail industry players have not just been standing idly by, doing nothing, hoping Trump’s tariff threats wouldn’t gel into something real.
In fact, within hours of Trump’s announcement this past Monday, Federal government spokespeople confirmed they’re ready to apply counter-measures against the US. That will drive up the cost of US goods here.
And Canada’s largest supermarket conglomerate, Loblaw’s, stated it’s stepping up its program to find new, non-US suppliers and set up a ‘Buy Canadian’ program.
Star of the show
Comments from Loblaw’s CEO Per Bank, during the company’s latest quarterly conference call, high-lighted efforts to ‘mitigate the potential impact of Trump tariffs’.
As we predicted in this space last week, Bank confirmed that, ‘the most difficult place’ to mitigate potential tariffs will be the produce department.
Nevertheless, Loblaw’s, and other supermarket chains, have been searching for new, previously un-tapped fresh food suppliers. One small regional chain reports it’s already getting its popular Red and Green Seedless Grapes from Namibia.
Buy Canadian!
Peter Chapman of consulting firm SKUFood observes, grocers have been ‘all over’ the buy Canadian trend, reacting quickly. Of the major grocers, he said Loblaw’s has been the most vocal.
“This is definitely an opportunity for Canadian manu-facturers. […] Now is the time to leverage the oppor-tunity,” Chapman wrote in his industry newsletter.
Meanwhile, Loblaw’s spokeswoman Catherine Thomas said the grocer is talking with its existing vendors to source more Canadian products, as well as looking toward new and alternative local vendors.
Some caveats…
Of course, replacing US products on their shelves with Canadian ones will doubtless result in higher prices at the supermarkets. Depending on the ability of Canadian suppliers to fill the demand. And there may still be some shortages and temporary product outages. We’ll just have to wait and see on that front.
It will also be interesting to see how Canadian shoppers react to the absence of familiar US brands in some supermarket departments. And the sudden presence of unfamiliar alternatives from Europe, South America and other parts of the world.
My take
One thing I’m sure of is, Canadians will get by, no matter what Trump or the rest of world throws at us. We’ve proven, many times over, our adaptability and willingness to sacrifice comfort and con-venience in the interest of ‘getting by’.
In fact, we and our forebears have made it through two World Wars, a cavalcade of depressions and recessions, and a circus parade of other economic and social upheavals over the past 100 years or so.
We weren’t ‘laughing all the way’, by any means. But we never lost hope or even thought about ad-mitting defeat. And, as my late birth Dad, a Second World War veteran who fought our enemies face to face, at the so-called tip of the spear, always claimed: Each time, we came out the other end stronger for our struggles…
~ Maggie J.