Shoppers still buying Canadian this holiday season, say Ottawa retailers

Some small businesses in Ottawa say they're still seeing customers deliberately spending their money closer to home this holiday season after U.S. tariff threats rattled Canadians earlier this year.

At Maker House, a Hintonburg shop that sells only Canadian-made goods, founder Gareth Davies said the shift was immediate.

“From February onward, we got a huge uptick due to the vitriol from our neighbours to the south,” Davies said Saturday, adding that it was nearly double what he saw the previous year.

“Canadians became very protective of our economy, of our neighbours, of our country.”

In March, Davies said sales hit 120 per cent year-over-year, a significant boost during what he said is normally his slow season.

While the initial surge has cooled, Davies said sales remain well above last year’s levels heading into the days before Christmas.

“We might be up like 30 or 40 per cent on the previous December.”

Similar patterns are showing up at SFR Distillery in Ottawa, where salesperson Rachel Speakman says customers are increasingly asking about the origins of what they’re buying.

“People are very excited to hear that it’s 100-per-cent Canadian product,” said Speakman, who works in the distillery’s stall at the Ottawa Christmas Market.

The distillery makes American-style bourbon whisky, which Speakman said has been popular since American brands were taken off LCBO shelves.

She said they saw a noticeable bump when tariff and annexation threats dominated headlines, and that hasn't really gone down since.

Speakman said the biggest driver for their customers is the local aspect.

“It's not just our distillery, but it's the people who are providing us with the corn, with the barley, with all of our products that go into our bottles,” she said.  “You're not just supporting local, you're supporting Canada.”

Trend might not last, says expert

But according to Santo Ligotti, patriotic shopping impulses have "definitely softened a bit" since the beginning of the year.

Instead, consumers are prioritizing proximity, said Ligotti, vice-president of marketing at the Retail Council of Canada.

“Canadians told us it’s more about shopping locally,” Ligotti told Ontario Today late last month.

The council's internal polling, he said, still showed 86 per cent of consumers plan to shop close to home over the holidays, while 84 per cent said they’d be looking for Canadian goods.

But Ligotti says price is the most consistent factor in how people make purchasing decisions.

People who were more likely to buy Canadian earlier because they wanted to jump on the patriotic bandwagon might be more conscious of their spending during the holidays, he said.

“They’re going to look and say, ‘Well that’s great, I do want to do that. But I need to also make sure that I’m keeping to my budget,’” he said.

However, Davies at Maker House said he hopes both the “buy Canadian” and “buy local” trends will persevere.

“Keep on thinking about how your money holds power and how you can make a difference, even as one person, through your spending habits.”