A new survey indicates that masses of Canadian consumers have shifted their grocery shopping habits as a result of US President Donald Trump’s Food tariffs – and countervailing Canadian Tariffs on US foods coming to Canada…
It’s not just because some foods have become more expensive and others have become less available, either. Canadian pride in home-grown, -raised and -made groceries has emerged as a significant factor…
Perfect timing
I don’t want to get into an economics lecture, here. There are lots of other places online to get that sort of information. What I do want to do is focus on what Canadians are saying about the reasons they’re shifting their grocery shopping habits. Fortunately, there’s a brand new public opinion poll on that exact question: Impact of US Tariffs on Canadian Food Consumer Behaviour, from Food Proces-sing Skills Canada (FPSC).
According to the official FPSC news release, “This report is part of a series of consumer surveys ga-thering insights into Canadians’ grocery shopping habits, perceptions of available products, and response to increasing food prices and inflation. This final report in the series also assessed awareness and concern regarding US tariffs and trade rhetoric.
Key findings…
The poll results showed, in general, that a strong majority of Canadians are united in their feelings about grocery prices, the Tariff War with the US and related issues. In fact, almost half of those asked (43 percent) reported making significant changes to their grocery shopping habits in the last two months. That in itself is notable news, considering how much Canadians complain about their political and cultural divides over other issues!
The report confirms:
- Seniors prioritize buying Canadian.
- Immigrants and those under 35 place least emphasis on it.
- Buying products from one’s own province is most important to Quebecers (82 percent).
- Buying from their own province is least important to Albertans (48 percent).
A cocktail of reasons
The primary motivations for changes in grocery shopping habits include:
- a desire to buy Canadian products (81 percent)… and,
- a desire to avoid US products (76 percent).
But poll respondents cited a cocktail of reasons they’re turning away from US-made and other foreign-origin products, including:
- the belief that it’s good for the economy (86 percent),
- anger/frustration’ with the U.S (75 percent),
- a desire to help Canadian food and beverage processors (72 percent)… and,
- just plain, good old Canadian pride (71 percent).
‘Buy Canadian’
The poll also confirmed what many of us strongly suspected: That ‘By Canadian’ has become a forefront issue since it became clear Trump was going to follow through on his Tariff War with the World. More than two-thirds (67 percent) of consumers reported buying more Canadian products in the past two months, including 26 percent who indicate buying ‘much more’.
Easier said than done? That’s one clear finding of the new poll:
- Only 40 percent of consumers said they find it easy to determine how ‘Canadian’ a product is.
- The most common method for identifying Canadian products is reading product labels (76 percent),
- Followed by looking for Canadian symbols (e.g., the flag or the Canadian Maple Leaf) on packaging.
- Only 11 percent reported using mobile apps or online tools and,
- Only 47 percent of respondents correctly identified ‘Product of Canada‘ as the ‘most Canadian’ product designation.
Allow me to toot my own little horn, here, and point you to my post earlier this week that aims to clarify, once and for all, what various ‘Made In Canada’-type food labelling convention mean. And provides a link to the Canadian Government’s official, definitive guide to what foods are affected by the Tariff War…
My take
Canadians agree they’re paying more for their groceries and they’re not happy about that. But they’re jumping right in and trying their best to save where they can. And they’re rallying around domestic producers and manufacturers.
Overall, I am impressed by my fellow Canadians’ instinct to leave the bitching, moaning and complaining at the door and just get on with the process of ‘getting on with it’, in the face of the Tariffs War and related issues. I am particularly reminded of stories my folks and others their generation used to tell that revealed their collective attitude towards survival during the Great Depression and the Second World War: a quiet determination to prevail, and a simple strategy of ‘doing what it takes’.
If you ask me, that’s the essence of what it means to ‘be Canadian’…
~ Maggie J.