Ottawa shoppers eager to buy Canadian groceries amid U.S. trade war

At Ottawa grocery stores, consumer anger toward U.S. President Donald Trump is sending shoppers in search of Canadian products.

After 25 per cent tariffs on nearly all Canadian goods went into effect Tuesday, some Ottawa residents are translating that anger into paying extra attention in the grocery aisles.

At the same time, some Ottawa grocery stores are already shifting their purchases away from U.S. stock.

Shopper Bonny Jordan said she's now buying cabbage and carrots to make her own coleslaw instead of buying it pre-packaged.

"I will certainly avoid anything American if possible," Jordan said, as she was leaving Costco.

Allan Bacon, who was leaving Food Basics, also said he will be more selective in what he buys. He added that he grew up in England during the Second World War and believes Canada will make it through the challenging situation.

"When the people are faced with uncertainty and serious problems as we are, we tend to come together and get through it," he said.

Some retailers adapt

Meanwhile, some Ottawa retailers are also adapting to the situation by focusing on Canadian stock.

Marilyn Dib, operations manager at Cedars & Co. Food Market, said her store has stocked up on Canadian products. She said the store had already reduced its stock of American products due to the pandemic, from 50 per cent to 20 per cent.

"I would like to basically stop all USA product from coming into our store so that we do not have to do this additional hard work of having to deal with tariffs," she said.

One shopper bought a large portion of the store's U.S.-sourced dry goods to donate to the food bank, she added.

She also welcomes potential measures to label Canadian-made products, something Premier Doug Ford said he will consider legislating.

But she does worry whether Canadian supply can match demand.

Avoiding American not always easy

Hassan Al-Husseini, owner of Mangosteen Grocery and Fruits Express, said about 60 per cent of his store's stock comes from the U.S.

Al-Husseini said his store has been looking at getting product from other sources, but some items will be hard to source from anywhere but the U.S. He said it's impractical to source some items like green peppers or lettuce from elsewhere.

"It's very hard to get from different countries just because these items doesn't have a long like shelf life," he said.

Al-Husseini said when prices do go up, it will ultimately be the consumer who pays for it.

"Me as a businessman, we mark up 20 percent, 10 per cent on the item. We're still going to mark this to pay our bills, to pay our rent, but the only person going to get hit is a consumer," he said.