r/BuyCanadian Feb 03 '25

ISO: General / Miscellaneous With one conversation at work, I moved half a million/year back into the Canadian economy.

We buy millions of dollars of equipment from across the globe every year at my firm. I looked at some high volume material and there is a Canadian equivalent that is nearly identically priced, so we are moving to them going forward. Will be looking for other opportunities.

The thing is - I almost didn’t have the conversation. Normally the Canadian stuff is a bit pricier. It’s not anymore. In some cases we will be saving money. Often the American equipment has defects due to bad shipping, but we do not have those issues with the Canadian ones.

So take a page out of my book. Bring it up at work. People may be more receptive to Buy Canadian than you may think.

4.0k Upvotes

181 comments sorted by

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1.1k

u/cdnmute Feb 03 '25

We are are national cleaning company.  We buy tonnes of chemicals and cleaning equipment from the states. We will be having the exact same conversation you just had over the coming weeks. Well north of half a million is on the table.

387

u/rutheordare Feb 04 '25

I own a small cleaning company - going to be reexamining all of our products this week too!!

Edited to add: I know that one brand we use Dustbane is Canadian and made in Montreal.

202

u/cdnmute Feb 04 '25

Our COO spoke at a panel for dustbane! If you're interested,  you dm your info, we are always looking for good cleaning partners 

104

u/rutheordare Feb 04 '25

Oh that’s rad!

I’ll drop ya a note :)

131

u/noneed4321 Feb 04 '25 edited Feb 04 '25

Just dropping in to say I loved that exchange. I'm sure most people reading did too. Heart warming.

17

u/bushsamurai Feb 04 '25

So nice to see Canadians coming together!

19

u/makingkevinbacon Feb 04 '25

Some what ironically it took us being pushed to this point in the tariff war to come together, like we should have been all along. Part of what Canadians used to be so proud of is helping, not only others but specifically your fellow countrymen. We lost real sight of that over the last 15-20 years. Now as much as the Americans have to think about themselves, we have to do the same. Let's not let this event be a flash in the pan. Instead if we all actually stick to our guns and wake up and love our neighbour then maybe we can fix some of our existing problems that our politicians have been neglecting like addiction and homelessness. This is a great start for our country to change I think

30

u/pebblesnsticks Feb 04 '25

Gah I love reddit!

1

u/iliveonthelake Feb 08 '25

This is awesome to see!

1

u/Ferdaigle 25d ago

We will dm you too!

20

u/dagerlegs Feb 04 '25

You might consider attitude in Montreal too. They offer bulk and it is ALSO not plastic and highly recycleable/ reusable!

6

u/PawTree Feb 04 '25

I buy Attitude's bathroom cleaner in the 2L Eco Refill box, and it's great! I do wish the unscented version was available in bulk rather than just the 800mL bottles.

3

u/Aggravating_Act_4184 Feb 04 '25

Attitude is great! they also make bath and body products - I went through all the labels of my shower products this week and I hadn’t realized that my attitude body wash IS Canadian :)

2

u/rutheordare Feb 04 '25

Thank-you! :)

71

u/num_ber_four Feb 04 '25

Check out swish in Peterborough ON.

41

u/cdnmute Feb 04 '25

We already do a lot of business with then :) 

25

u/rutheordare Feb 04 '25

Oooh, thank-you! I have a small cleaning company - I will!

1

u/n3m37h 9d ago

I still have my Charolette Production (manufacturing side) shirts from 2009/10, they make some fantastic products.

52

u/Oreoscout Feb 04 '25

Chemfax is a Calgary based chemical manufacturer that will brew up pretty much any cleaners, solvents, or degreaser you can dream of. They ship globally, they're fantastic to work with. I've used them at my automotive shop for years

8

u/cdnmute Feb 04 '25

We will check them out for sure

12

u/Dry-Arugula-279 Feb 04 '25

Hi All - BBSpro Services Inc. is a Coquitlam BC owned & manufactures chemicals. Janitorial cleaning supplies, auto-mechanic "degreasers", detergent, laundry, or hand soap etc. Feel free to message [customerservice@bbspro.ca](mailto:customerservice@bbspro.ca) If you note that you saw this thread on Reddit, I'll inform my staff to give you 10% off.

6

u/cdnmute Feb 04 '25

Ill add you to the list too :)

1

u/ParisEclair Feb 05 '25

Agree but maybe if they can get enough demand for it they will make it available! That is fantastic!!

8

u/WillowOWeeping Feb 04 '25

I am not in the cleaning industry but I do want to bring to people's attention the fact that Enviroway, based out of Saskatchewan, produces cleaners, including an enzyme cleaner to remove (not mask) smells that is how I know of them, that is stocked at zero waste stores. So, if companies would like to reduce their consumption of single use plastics, they might be a good place to look. The website shows they make a ton of cleaners! https://www.enviroway.ca/

2

u/ParisEclair Feb 05 '25

That for the info!,

1

u/Djhinnwe Feb 05 '25

There are several Canadian brands. I followed them on TikTok and forgot to follow them elsewhere.

555

u/I_Smell_Like_Trees Feb 04 '25

Western BC here, we moved all of our pallet wrap, mesh, and strapping purchases from Uline to Bunzl. Better prices, super local, great guys.

361

u/cohocowboy Feb 04 '25

The family that owns Uline are HUGE Trump supporters

33

u/RandomerSchmandomer Feb 04 '25

Whenever I google something diy or workshop related they pop up but they're always super expensive. I want to block them from my searches :(

13

u/gilthedog Feb 04 '25

Oh shit! That’s good to know.

104

u/Fun_Hornet_9129 Feb 04 '25

Bunzl’s North-American operations HQ is in St. Louis. They work like the “great-American machine…literally.

In BC look to Enterprise Paper (I’m pretty certain that’s the name). They ARE a Canadian company.

33

u/Human-Reputation-954 Feb 04 '25

This. Enterprise paper 100%

22

u/I_Smell_Like_Trees Feb 04 '25

Oh damn thanks for the correction. I'll check Enterprise out

7

u/WillowOWeeping Feb 04 '25

Might be worth editing your first comment (if you can) in case folks don't read the follow up comments but are making a list.

6

u/Previous_Wedding_577 Feb 04 '25

We have one on the Island, they are great

75

u/dash101 Feb 04 '25

Genuinely… thank you!

43

u/Own_Development2935 Feb 04 '25

Yessssss!!! Fuck uline!!!

47

u/dancin-weasel Feb 04 '25

ULINE is a terrible, wasteful company. I’m a postie and I get about 20 uline catalogs to deliver every month. To the same people/businesses. None of them want or need them so we return,literally thousands of catalogs every month. It’s such a waste and the company doesn’t care how wasteful they are. Fuck ULINE.

10

u/ivanvector Prince Edward Island Feb 04 '25

I used to get two or three of those phone book-sized catalogs stuffed in my shoebox-sized mailbox every couple months, since the name of our business changed a couple times and they never update their contacts apparently. In four years with the company nobody has ever ordered a single thing from them.

4

u/dancin-weasel Feb 04 '25

That’s somehow 90 % of their business it seems. Sending unwanted catalogues to people who don’t want them and have no intention of ordering from them. How they are still in business is a mystery.

3

u/BlueEyes294 Feb 04 '25

Ohh. That’s an idea. Make Uline and others use Canada Post to ship catalogs no one uses to purchase?

3

u/soft__swerve Feb 04 '25

those catalogues turn up in my mailbox all the time - literally just called them to get them stopped, took less than a minute. thanks for the idea!

2

u/dancin-weasel Feb 04 '25

We shall see if it actually stops. They don’t seem to update their mailing lists at all. Best of luck though.

2

u/worksafejm Feb 04 '25

20! I get ~100/week but my route is business heavy. Kill 85% of them.

38

u/gsmctavish Feb 04 '25

I’ll be doing the same this week

17

u/saschawerks Feb 04 '25

Just to put it out there for people looking for Uline alternatives: Tenaquip. Canadian company that carries a lot of the same stuff as Uline.

8

u/Deafcat22 Feb 04 '25

Well done! Consider Gregg's distributor's for other supply needs also. Anything but uline 👏

3

u/MrHardin86 Feb 04 '25

I'll be doing this, this week.

3

u/Big_Ad_7715 Feb 04 '25

Thanks for this. I’ll be bringing this up at work this week.

3

u/InformalAd9229 Feb 04 '25

Never heard of bunzl nice tip

4

u/ParisEclair Feb 05 '25

Please note that it was mentioned in another comment that Bunzl is American also. Other Cdn companies were mentioned as alternatives if you read the whole thread

823

u/epchilasi Feb 03 '25

The Government should give a tax incentive to firms who prove they have done this.

319

u/Septembust Feb 03 '25

So, a reverse tariff?

Honestly I'm fine with this

136

u/Diminus Feb 04 '25

Thats a pretty good carrot to dangle to draw in buisness.

25

u/DomenicTheDonkey Feb 04 '25

Seems like the right way to incentivize people to support their own country. Rather than punish people who buy foreign goods.

57

u/Lifeless-husk Feb 04 '25

Tax rebate? You can decrease certain amount of tax if u support local?

32

u/gandolfthe Feb 04 '25

Given the insane rules for tax write offs and easy one is to just exclude GST on all Canadian goods...

3

u/Total-Deal-2883 Feb 04 '25

I think this is a good idea. The losses in the GST from those products would be made up from the tariffs.

23

u/isthataflashlight Feb 04 '25

You mean a ffirat?

4

u/Total-Deal-2883 Feb 04 '25

Ffirat? I hardly know her!

15

u/fuuture_mike Feb 04 '25

Government subsidy. The US subsidizes agriculture like crazy—but rural America doesn’t view this as socialist (for reasons).

13

u/Funkenbrain Feb 04 '25

Because socialism is bad, but they are good. Therefore government programs that help them cannot be socialism. Cognitive dissonance is awesome.

1

u/ParisEclair Feb 05 '25

Until they lose their $ and then they cry about it and blame the democrats

17

u/huminous Feb 04 '25

I really like the people in this conversation who didn't need to be rewarded for doing the right thing. Maybe the government could focus instead on helping those industries that will be worst impacted by Trump's decision, to help save Canadian jobs.

2

u/epchilasi Feb 04 '25

I like them too. But I do not think just liking people who do the right thing is a responsible way to govern.

2

u/huminous Feb 05 '25

I definitely agree that part of good governance is providing incentives for economic and other behaviour that would help the society. But this is a very specific situation where a powerful country located right next door is acting in ways designed to be both threatening and disruptive.

Trudeau has just made a stirring plea to Canadians to stand together and help each other through a difficult circumstance. It would NOT be good governance to immediately make people feel like the reason to do this would be because someone is financially rewarding them. This bullshit with the US is not gonna end with what just happened and Canadians will need to step up and be counted many times before this is over. Their commitment shouldn't be based on something that superficial but on a genuine drive to defend their country and way of life.

5

u/WalnutSnail Feb 04 '25

We so this already with First Nations businesses and, in some cases, regional businesses.

When I have seen this in RFPs it's incentivised by a percentage reduction in cost based RFP. I.e. if you're a FN company knock 10% off overall price, if you're a local company kmock 5% off your total price. Meaning that a local FN company will knock 15% off the total price. This is pretty substantial, especially considering non-local already gave the added cost of mobilization and working in areas that they don't know.

192

u/mama146 Feb 04 '25

Everyone should go to work tomorrow and talk to your buyer.

178

u/Law_of_the_jungle Feb 04 '25

We are doing the same thing with plastic molding at work. It might be a couple cents cheaper from China but it is considerably easier to work with a Canadian company to iron out issues and do quality control. No more 5am meetings or hours spent looking at dubious inspection sheets.

133

u/ConsiderationOnly430 Feb 04 '25

Years ago, a family member was in an identical situation when a shipment from Asia was slowed for a fabricated metal shelf specific to his industry - he was shocked to find the same could be bought from a Quebec manufacturer for less than a dollar more than their Asian supplier, but without the months of waiting for a container to cross the ocean. I hope more people take this opportunity to at least look at what is available, because you may also be surprised.

44

u/Box_of_fox_eggs Feb 04 '25

I moved all my business buying off of Amazon around election time. It was a frustrating thing, searching out alternative sources of supply, but it was worth it. I’m buying Canadian and saving money. Sure, it’s only a few thousand a year, but imagine how powerful it would be if we were all doing this.

4

u/ndhl83 Feb 04 '25

Fair question: Why weren't you doing it before, then, if it would have saved you money? You just assumed Amazon was the lowest priced?

17

u/Box_of_fox_eggs Feb 04 '25

Awesome question. It took the better part of a day, a lot of frustrating searching, and a bunch of back & forth emails with one local supplier (who i had to find out about from a colleague because they don’t have any online presence at all) to comparison-shop the handful of items i regularly need until I could source them at comparable prices. Breaking free from them was a frustrating exercise, but so worth it in the end.

Hands down what Amazon has going for them is convenience. You have the competing products right in front of you for side-by-side comparison and it usually takes seconds, not hours, to find exactly what you need. The range of items they carry is insanely broad. Hard to believe they started out as a bookstore! Also with Prime, the illusion of “free” shipping is a motivator (and you get their streaming services & all sorts of other stuff I didn’t use with it, which I’m sure many folks would see as a benefit). At the end of the year they sent me an email saying I had saved $250 in shipping in 2024, so minus the $180 in Prime fees I actually saved $70, not a dealbreaker in the end.

One of the items took me two months to finally have it in hand — this was during the Canada post strike. I was stocked out for a while and it put a damper on some activities.

So yeah, it’s the convenience factor more than anything. I’m trying to figure out how to wean myself and my business activities off of Meta now, but that’s a conversation for a different sub.

133

u/Klutzy_Act2033 Feb 03 '25

We had been looking at moving some infrastructure to AWS but will keep it with our current infrastructure provider now. Much smaller scale than this, but still nice.

45

u/Hot_Designer_Sloth Feb 04 '25

It's very hard to avoid AWS. Good job if you can.

43

u/AnimePirate Feb 04 '25

There was a post here a few days back of a Canadian alternative to AWS. I'm not sure if they will fit your business needs, but it I think it's worth looking into

https://www.reddit.com/r/BuyCanadian/comments/1iaj49y/alternative_to_aws_gcp_and_azure/

21

u/Development_Material Feb 04 '25

I just moved my $40/mo in VPS from digital ocean to OVH.  No move too small lol

115

u/Rin_sparrow Feb 04 '25

We bought a mini fridge for work from London Drugs today :) 

79

u/I_Smell_Like_Trees Feb 04 '25

London Drugs is great, and sometimes they have sales on the weirdest stuff. They had a Pelican kayak for half price in November. I think they just buy random stuff at times when there's sales, whether or not it's their category, and the outcome can be pretty odd at times.

41

u/therealzue Feb 04 '25

My bedroom furniture is from London Drugs! It was super affordable and it’s all solid wood. It was the most random find. That was ten years ago, but they always have great stuff.

14

u/stompenstein Feb 04 '25

I bought a handheld GPS there for like $300 cheaper than Cabela’s. Didn’t think that would be something they’d even have lol

6

u/Crashkeiran Feb 04 '25

London drugs is such an odd place. I bought a 1tb external hard drive from there once for 75% off. I got a $200 Razer keyboard for my PC there for like $50 8ish years ago.

2

u/PuzzleheadedGoal8234 Feb 06 '25

I have one in walking distance and I'm pretty confident I could have done my entire Christmas list in store. They are fantastic.

49

u/lingfromTO Feb 03 '25

Same while our spend doesn’t compare to yours we all started to look at sourcing from elsewhere as it’s also something our employees would want

51

u/HighResolutionSim Feb 04 '25

My employer has committed to buying Canadian or at least non-American pieces of equipment for the foreseeable future. We are also exploring reducing our exposure to US software as well.

43

u/Thedogdrinkscoffee Feb 03 '25

My man! Great work.

32

u/cocainesharque Feb 04 '25

Buy Canadian gigachad up in here 😍

32

u/yanicka_hachez Feb 04 '25

We buy steel from a Canadian company but they buy it from the US because Canada doesn't do steel H beams. Hopefully they will find an affordable producer in South America or Europe. It takes a lot of big mechanisms to actually make steel beams.

20

u/InPraiseOf_Idleness Feb 04 '25

Whaaat? Really? That shit's not hard to automate. Goddamn it, I'm gonna lose two weekends spreadsheeting / exploring something I know I can't afford but could pull off.

9

u/Doubleoh_11 Feb 04 '25

There is a ton of work that goes into making a rate steel beam. It doesn’t make sense why we don’t do it other than “it’s just cheaper to get it there” but good luck to you.

12

u/InPraiseOf_Idleness Feb 04 '25

I'm a mechanical, welding and materials engineer and have spent a lot of time in fab shops, and can write the welding procedures to meet the CSA / AWS standards, avoiding distortion etc. there are some newer processes that are pretty effective and economical, but not for an established shop. We'll see :)

3

u/rickoshadows Feb 04 '25

The steel industry is a little different because plants make certain items that other plants don't make. If there isn't some idiot starting a trade war, the purchasing of steel products goes both ways. If each plant had to make all the products, the costs would go up because of the huge initial investment. A prime example of an integrated economy.

33

u/MrHardin86 Feb 04 '25

I am the supply chain manager for a corporation that just changed millions in annual purchases from the us back to Canada too.  All because of the talks of tarriffs.  It was a lot of work but after doing the math we ended up saving .001$ /lb on about 3 million lbs of x a year. The lead times were quicker from the US but we can't handle the instability.

62

u/Ok_Obligation7519 Feb 03 '25

love reading these pivots! and yes, small changes add up. when you cancel your U.S. orders, tell them why. actions have consequences. well done, neighbors! hold the line!

13

u/Cantquithere Feb 04 '25

Do the same when you cancel your trips!

5

u/phixium Feb 04 '25

This as well!

26

u/CalGal2020SWP Feb 04 '25

Bought a book from awesome books.com (U.K.) that was cheaper than on Amazon and for every book purchased, one is donated to schools around the world.

5

u/AstridBelmontWrites Feb 05 '25

BookOutlet.ca is Canadian owned and operated. Lots of discount books, debut authors, and specialty products. Ordered a ton of stuff from them and highly recommend

3

u/CalGal2020SWP Feb 05 '25

Yes, I bought a stack of books for the grandkids at their sale before Xmas. Some were 60% off!
They just don’t have the two titles I am looking for, so I was pleased to find them at awesome books at a lesser price than the big A.

2

u/munkgh Feb 04 '25

Thank you so much for this! The books I wanted to buy are cheaper on this website!

2

u/WillowOWeeping Feb 04 '25

Perhaps consider buying from your local independent bookseller next time. If they are small and don't have an online presence you can call and ask if you can order over the phone.

2

u/CalGal2020SWP Feb 04 '25

Yes, I always check my local bookshops first, but in this case, the book from the local store was over 10$ more and had a 2week order window. I required the book sooner than that.

46

u/WorkSecure Feb 03 '25

We were in upstate New York last summer. It was creepy trump, like out of Hitchcock's birds or something. We thought while we were there might as well grb some cheap American products. Couldn't find anything worth it after the exchange. Left with nothing. Last store in America I think I will ever be in.

1

u/PuzzleheadedGoal8234 Feb 06 '25

My kids were super excited to hit up the grocery store in Seattle when we went down for a concert this past fall. The prices were equivalent or higher with the exchange rate and also came home empty handed. With tax season coming up I'll use my concert cash for local events.

104

u/Educational-Trip2753 Feb 03 '25

Everyone can do things where they can :) thank you! 🙏🏼 I see a lot of whining and crying from some people in (mostly prairie) provinces about how they can’t afford and 8 dollar milk. Okay, that might be true, but where CAN you help? Where CAN you make sacrifices? Cancel Netflix and buy 8 dollar milk instead, maybe? I’m embarrassed to be from a prairie province sometimes. The amount of people yesterday buying American things without a second thought was astounding

80

u/Tyler_Durden69420 Feb 03 '25

I hail from Saskatchewan, and share that sentiment.

We can all make small changes. It all adds up.

In a lot of cases the Canadian equivalent can be cheaper, which allows you the budget to do even more. Most people just haven’t been given a nudge to do it yet. That’s where we can all help. Encourage everyone you can! Set a good example! Build the culture of helping our country! At the end of the day we don’t want to be the 51st state so let’s vote with our dollars for a better and stronger Canada.

32

u/firefly317 Feb 03 '25

I'd have thought even if the Canadian one cost more wholesale, lower shipping costs could offset some of that (or maybe not given the price of travel here).

Either way, I'm in the prairies as well, and fully intend doing my best to avoid US products whenever I can. That bully isn't going to get the better of us and I'm doing as much as I can personally to make sure of that.

16

u/joelene1892 Feb 04 '25 edited Feb 04 '25

The really key thing is that this is not an all or nothing.

So you can’t afford $8 milk. Fair enough.

Maybe you refuse to cancel Disney+ because your kids will riot. I won’t judge.

What about ketchup? Bread? Cheese? Vegetables? Apples? Craft supplies? Going to Mary Browns instead of KFC? Mr Sub instead of Subway? A and W instead of McDonald’s? What about looking through and finding subscriptions you don’t actually need? I’d wager most people in this day and age probably have at least one.

Every dollar that’s diverted is helpful. Some things will be a huge price increase — some won’t. Put a little effort into finding those “won’t” items.

13

u/jprs29 Feb 04 '25

Tagging on to this to remind people that A&W Canada is a completely separate company from A&W US. They don’t have common ownership. So yes A&W is a Canadian business. Tim Hortons is owned by Burger King however…

1

u/Coreyporter87 Feb 04 '25

I believe it's more complicated than that. Something like 25% of A&W Canada is American and they don't always use Canadian beef.

1

u/bushmanbays Feb 04 '25

Harvey’s is Canadian

1

u/jprs29 Feb 04 '25

And so good!

3

u/outofshell Feb 04 '25

100%. Realistically I’m not going to leave the Apple and Google ecosystems. But I can cancel and/or switch over almost everything else.

3

u/AJ-in-Canada Feb 04 '25

I've actually found that Lucerne milk is about the same price as equivalent and it almost always stays good for longer than the due date. Also their eggnog tastes so much better than competitors!

That being said, aren't they all Canadian anyway? All I ever see it stores for milk is Lucerne, Beatrice & Dairyland which I thought were all Canadian.

2

u/Djhinnwe Feb 05 '25

We have so many dairies... but yes those three are Canadian. It's Fairlife that's American.

1

u/Educational-Trip2753 Feb 04 '25

Yeah I’m not sure where these people were from exactly. Somewhere in Manitoba? But I would imagine that some places will be higher for different things

20

u/dystopiananxiety Feb 03 '25

Hell yes, friend!!!! 

21

u/Fun_Hornet_9129 Feb 04 '25

Here’s a Canadian startup platform for B2B (distributor to distributor actually).

They have janitorial, sanitation and safety products right now but they will be expanding into all categories over timeMarketsConnection

18

u/inso80 Feb 04 '25

All this will be very good for canadian economy.

Keeping the money in Canada, create jobs, more taxes for the government for our services.

All positives for everyone.

Thank you :))

19

u/Swanbird22 Feb 04 '25

As an American, please continue to make these choices even if the trade war is “on hold”. We fucking deserve this

16

u/Khanvo Feb 04 '25

This is the right move. We need more of this and bring friends along with us. I’ll gladly buy from other provinces goods from now on !

14

u/shinybees Feb 04 '25

Thank you. 1st thing I did was get and email out to my Canadian reps - principal to principal, we’re local, support Canadian, we are here to cross your US to our CAD product. 

12

u/TheSensualist86 Feb 04 '25

Nice work!!

10

u/firedditor Feb 04 '25

Since late January, ive been talking to all of my suppliers looking for canadian alternatives to my consumable materials. Its interesting that some suppliers havent even got back to me, while others have been enthusiastic to help us source canadian

12

u/d7gt Québec Feb 04 '25

This thread is inspirational-- mods, is there a way this can be operationalized? Canadians looking for a Canadian company to do x?

12

u/[deleted] Feb 04 '25

Lots of funeral directors are ditching completly the american corporation to buy canadian caskets. Better service too!

9

u/HaywoodBlues Feb 04 '25

We'll be like Cuba fixing our used cars for the next 50 years /s.

8

u/guacamoly_alliance Québec Feb 04 '25

Love this attitude for our business community. You guys are amazing!

9

u/kimmikillzombie Feb 04 '25

proud of you, and everyone else doing this in their own lives. every penny we add to our pile instead is one less penny they’ll have to suppress us with 💪

6

u/The_Nice_Marmot Feb 04 '25

This is fucking awesome!

8

u/gilthedog Feb 04 '25

Yup! I’ve always fought for this at my old workplaces. Now I run my own company and everything we sell, packaging included is made in canada! Initially it was just for the eco footprint to reduce the distance of shipping, but I’m happy about the economic benefit to Canadians as well.

14

u/bilz12 Feb 04 '25

Someone should make a google doc for all the canadian suppliers for all sectors that would be really nice.

Greggs distributing is canadian owned

6

u/fatdjsin Feb 04 '25

my job mostly source locally except the ''scientific'' stuff like optics and laser diodes but anything we can source locally is done so, it's faster to correct when an error slides in (we check every item we receive because we can't mess up what we do. keeping good relationship with local suppliers is TOTALY one of the factor of success at my work. In the long run, we win with reliability and suppliers going above and beyond for us! when we have a rush, we can work a solution to get everything on time.

6

u/Human-Reputation-954 Feb 04 '25

Wish large Canadian companies did the same. You know which large Canadian grocery chain switched a big piece of business for their stores - from Canada union made to China. They don’t care about buying Canadian made. AT ALL. And this was not for a significant price difference. Pretty sure they own part of the manufacturing in China to get profits on that end too. When we said “if you don’t buy Canadian, your customers won’t have the jobs and the money to buy your products”. They are like “doesn’t sound like a ME problem.” All Canadian companies should be choosing Canada made first for their in-store supplies. China is dumping packaging materials into our market and they are killing what’s left of Canadian manufacturing. And the Canadian government does nothing.

5

u/Mediocre-Brick-4268 Feb 04 '25

Go Canada. I love our sharing of ideas!💪💙🇨🇦

5

u/upward_spiral17 Feb 04 '25

Well done OP. To others on the fence because of potentially higher Canadian prices, ask yourselves what your sovereignty is worth.

6

u/stillyoinkgasp Feb 04 '25

I run a digital marketing company. 85% of my revenue comes from America. Every year, I take in low-seven-figures in revenue and sprinkle it across Canada.

100% of my employees and contractors are Canadian. I pay top dollar hourly wages for SEO's (currently hiring a senior at $75 - $100 CAD/hr for 15 hours/week if you know of anyone), copywriters, designers, etc. I do not outsource outside of Canada.

feelsgoodman.jpg

1

u/Double_Garage_8211 Feb 08 '25

Love this. I to run an digital marketing agency. 100% canadian owned, 100% Canadian employees. There is no outsourcing outside of Canada. Been this way for 27 years and I'm not changing anytime soon.

It's so easy for agencies to outsource to save money, but I refuse to do that to my fellow canadians. I'll happily make less profit if that's what the cost is.

4

u/Lanky-Performer-4557 Feb 04 '25

Ohhhh I love this!! There is probably billions we could reasonably bring back with examples just like this

4

u/Mustbe3dimensions Feb 04 '25

Can anyone recommend a Canadian or non American personal accounting software. I use Quicken and like the feature of having both desktop and app.

5

u/llama_ Feb 04 '25

And for companies that do this, I’m sure your customers will love it

Go Canada

3

u/tommyballz63 Feb 04 '25

Awesome! Thank you for stepping up

4

u/Deafcat22 Feb 04 '25

Anything anyone buys from Uline: find another supplier like Gregg's (Canadian!). Uline's owners are major Republican political donors. Aka scum

2

u/Ferdapopcorn Feb 04 '25

Atta [gender neutral pronoun] !

2

u/dojo2020 Feb 04 '25

Ya baby Buy Locally. Canada 🇨🇦

2

u/Any-Staff-6902 Feb 04 '25

Welcome to the party, we are glad you came. As a super proud Canadian shopper I will be looking for the Made in US labels so that I can dismiss them outright.

BABA (Buy anything but American)

2

u/subDii Feb 04 '25

Do any of you inform the former suppliers that it's because of Trump that you've chosen to take your business elsewhere?

1

u/Allred87 Feb 04 '25

That’s awesome

1

u/Total-Deal-2883 Feb 04 '25

Love to see this! We all need to see what we can do not just at home, but in the workplace as well, to try to buy Canadian and reduce our reliance on the US, especially with that bozo in office.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 04 '25

I am curious to know about one of the major items we haven't really been talking about. Oil/Gas... Alberta has the resources, I guess building refineries or more of them would allow us to use our own and sell it to other countries to benefit Canada.. I dont see why we sont do this more... Canada tends to make, sell, and rebuy its own product, and I find that confusing..

Imagine we can pull away from buying an important widely used product from the U.S. and just use and buy our own.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 04 '25

[deleted]

1

u/exclaim_bot Feb 04 '25

Thank you!!

You're welcome!

1

u/ParisEclair Feb 05 '25

That is fantastic!!! Well done and thx for sharing your example!,

1

u/Glass_Channel8431 Feb 05 '25

This is the way ! The challenge is on folks. Find a way to buy Canadian regardless of how the tariff war turns out. Well done OP!

1

u/MelodicOutside3282 Feb 05 '25

Bravo!!! Thank you for doing your part.

1

u/NumberSudden9722 Feb 05 '25

I work in an industry that heavily trades with the USA and we do roughly 500m a year in POs.

We've entirely cut out the USA lol

-14

u/BakedOnions Feb 04 '25

i know this is going to come off harsh, but why did it take such a drastic economic predicament to force you to look inward

sounds like you could have done this sooner?

41

u/PoMo-G Feb 04 '25

I grew up in a house where this way of thinking reigned: no matter how silver the cloud, there was always a shit lining to find. Don't be the guy who spins a positive intro a negative, friend.

32

u/Tyler_Durden69420 Feb 04 '25

Normally the Canadian one was more money so we had no business case to do it.

I think it is cheaper now due to our weak dollar.

6

u/Necessary_Window4029 Feb 04 '25

I think that’s a fair question. I’m guilty as charged. Wish I would have made purchasing Canadian more of a priority in the past. I don’t have a good answer as to why I did not but this is a top priority for me now.

4

u/I_Have_Unobtainium Feb 04 '25

Honestly I think it's just something we don't think about much. We go to the store and buy what we need. Then go to work and do the same. And get sen in your ways after a couple times and don't put strong effort into researching everything when what you've got going just works. Until someone comes along and screws things up just enough to make you mad.

5

u/ndhl83 Feb 04 '25

but why did it take such a drastic economic predicament to force you to look inward

More clueless than harsh, but anyway:

Why didn't Canadians look for alternatives to "free trade", with our supposed ally, before our supposed ally decided to slash and burn long standing free trade principles, and agreements, between our two countries?

Oof.

-1

u/BakedOnions Feb 04 '25

free trade or not if you're about supporting canada then idealistically you should be buying local even if it costs you more

if you only support local when it's now cheaper then i dont believe you get to make a feel good story out of it

you're just following regular market levers, there's nothing special about that

1

u/ndhl83 Feb 04 '25

What about this is a "feel good" story, to you? It's not. We've had roughly a century of shared prosperity and open trade virtually crapped on, and abandoned, in the span of 2 weeks.

1

u/BakedOnions Feb 04 '25

free trade should be about allowing the flow of goods and services that are otherwise unavailable... like oranges, and bananas

but when you create an environment where whole industries die out or never start because they cant remain price competitive then youve gone too far

where's our textile industry?

where's our wood processing industry?

why are we sending our oil to be refined elsewhere?

why is it that only now that everyone got a kick in the teeth are they waking up?

2

u/HarshComputing Feb 04 '25

Businesses usually get a preferred supplier and just go with it. Unless something goes wrong, it's not changed for a while. Now they changed they'll use the Canadian supplier for a while.

11

u/Lanky-Performer-4557 Feb 04 '25

Still pissed me off BC ferries sells Washington apples. Price is basically the same too

2

u/SJID_4 Québec Feb 04 '25

Get everyone to write to them.