Gen Z consumers say Buy Canadian movement is unaffordable
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If you can't afford to buy Canadian, just don't buy American! You can get almost everything cheaper - depending what it is, of course - from China, South America, etc. than from the States.
Her books and clothes are bought locally, often from thrift stores. She takes a pass on the $6 baskets of blueberries. And as much as she’d like to get behind the Buy Local movement and avoid anything from the United States, she said spending extra isn’t something she can afford.
It's not blueberry season in our hemisphere. She can buy frozen blueberries from canada for far cheaper. As mentioned at the bottom of the article, just buy seasonal. Butternut squash is good, kinda awkward to cut, but easy to cook with just a few spices in the oven. Apples are kinda expensive lately, but keep really well.
I think we're collectively very spoiled right now and the fact that not getting fresh foreign blueberries is a major complaint is kinda sad.
Newfoundland-based music teacher Claire Bates said the hardest part of buying local has been losing some of her favourite routines.
“There’s so much happening in the world, and I just want to drink the coffee that I love,” said Ms. Bates, a Starbucks fan.
I get it, but I've given up my things like this too and it's not hard. I have a guilty pleasure of buying dairy queen, and since tariffs I've completely cut them out of my life.
I got kind of pissed off today when I was out. There was a lineup around McDonalds. Lineup around Starbucks. Meanwhile across the road A&W (who do have decent coffee) and Tims are basically empty. You can get better food at A&W and decent coffee, and A&W Canada is canadian owned.
Starbucks really exemplifies the problem perfectly I think. You don't need it, you can avoid it easily, and yet you go every day. I buy a $50 bag of locally roasted espresso that provides 4 cups a day of coffee for over a month. Compare that to a $2.75 for a cup of coffee from starbucks, that's a huge savings. I do not understand people's coffee habits in this day and age.
But frankly I'm finding this "it's not affordable" despite making zero efforts to change habits super frustrating to hear about.
I'm also finding the "I need people to tell me what to buy and why" frustrating too. You need to get off social media and make your own decisions.
Your last two paragraphs summarized it all perfectly: majority of us had become sheeple who are happy to give up their rights and free will to live a comfortable life and let someone else decide for them. The only resistance they show is by posting on social media - getting up and actually doing something for a better good is too difficult. Including doing their own goddamn coffee! Even buying an automatic coffee machine is paying for itself at this rate in less than half a year! And the same majority decides about our future in elections!
Acorn squash is just as cheap and good as butternut, and easier to cut/core
I'd also recommend delicata squash. I'm not usually a huge squash fan, but I really like that one. Very cheap and easy to cook, and easy to cut up as well. It seems to be very underappreciated. I always hear people talking about spaghetti, butternut, and acorn squash, and I think I'm the only person I have ever encountered who has mentioned delicata. Give it a go! Roast it up with some olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper. You can even eat the skin.
A&W also has a decent plated breakfast (for a fast food restaurant) and an egg McMuffin equivalent that is just as good. I actually like their hashbowns better than mcd's
I like their sandwhich better than the McDonald's version. McD's has a better hashbrown, but A&W has better everything else.
I used to buy Second Cup every day, and just a relatively cheap Americano. About 15 years ago I picked up a $1200 deLonghi Magnifica fully auto espresso machine. Since then I've run off, according to the counter in the machine diag, 40,000+ shots of espresso. At $3 a cup at Second cup, with bean costs, I've probably paid for that machine 30 or 40X over.
I recently had to replace that machine finally, but I have another one at the cabin with almost 20,000 shots registered on it. It wasn't just a fluke.
Bullshit. I smell fake news and manipulation…
I was commenting on this over on Reddit. It is affordable, you just need to also change your habits.
Buy less unnecessary crap. Buy more fruits and vegetables locally if possible. I've eliminated American products, and instead buy mostly Canadian. It's actually saving me money.
Examples Microsoft office cost me 10$ a month. Got an open sourced non-american and it's free. Bought a bag of Canadian onions, technically cost more but per onion was cheaper. Cut them up and froze most. Netflix, cancelled. Movies for free from my local library.
It's about changing habits. Come on. Our grandparents generation waited in line for hours to get a ration of flower. We can do this.
If you can't afford it then don't and don't feel bad about it. If you can then you probably should.
Or start learning to go without..the way things are going it's almost inevitable that many will need to do this regardless of if they choose too or not. Might as well start adjusting yourself and seeing needs vs wants and act accordingly. Shits gonna get much worse before it gets better
I regularly have discussions on here about how food delivery is a luxury services that people can go without....
Always leads into the same rabbit whole.
have you throught about the disabled people, shit lord...
As if doordash business ain't 80% broke peasants tired of slaving engaged in self indulgence
100%. People haven’t seen nothing yet. Good time to start learning what really needs are. People have no idea anymore and don’t even realize where they blow their money.
Yup, everyone should be acting within their means and not going into debt supporting domestic businesses.
No one is forcing you. Just do what you can. Just saying "it's unaffordable” does not absolve you though.
I am just sharing an article
I don't think they were directly speaking about you. It's a general statement towards the subjects within the article ("Gen Z").
Haha no, you cool
Has she tried living in America? That's FAR less affordable.
Real Canadian Superstore prices for my hummus since this started:
Swapping from Peru-made lemon juice for my hummus to malt vinegar - cost down from $2.79 to $1.50
No Name Chickpeas to Unico equivalent - $1.50 to $2
Using canola oil and not olive oil as suggested by nearly every recipe - no name olive oil costs $12 for 750 mL whereas canola oil costs $8.29 for 3 L getting you more for less with hardly a change in the recipe
Tahini - found a good recipe from Diabetes Canada that completely removes this ingredient, saving me a solid $10 for a jar
To finish things off, while both Canadian, swapping from sandwich bread to sliced French bread for dipping - $1.97 to $1.25
Cost of hummus ingredients goes from $28.26 to $13.04 with the added bonus that one of those ingredients lasts three times as long.
People need to learn substitutions in their recipes, that alone saved a tonne. I pay more for Canola oil personally cause I get Canola Harvest and not the no name brand since they're unionized, but even with that in mind you're paying less than olive oil for like, double the amount.
I've switched to canola from olive oil for nearly every recipe that needs oil (barring a couple key recipes) due to the enormous price difference in the oils alone. Huge way to cut grocery costs with virtually no perceptible difference in taste
Thank you for using tonne ❤️❤️❤️
Okay now I need this recipe!
Here's the page on the Diabetes Canada site: https://www.diabetes.ca/nutrition-fitness/recipes/pear-rhubarb-breakfast-crisp-(1) (the URL doesn't match what the recipe is for, not sure why)
I substitute the lemon juice with malt vinegar as stated. Found malt vinegar works better than lemon juice personally since when I first started making hummus, I used that instead since I didn't have lemon juice off hand and just grabbed something acidic, and lemon juice didn't provide as bold a flavour.
I also use jarred garlic instead and play it by eye since I really like garlic and the jarred stuff is more convenient for me.
Lastly for the spices I ditch the black pepper in favour of paprika, and use 3/4 teaspoons of salt rather than 1/2.
ive had zero problems with it. in fact every canadian item ive bought over previous american purchases are far cheaper.
my wife keeps a list, and price compares everything, its her talent.
we have saved a shit load of money so far because the items we buy are cheaper, we also buy less overall, and find ways to recycle or upcycle things we own, and as far as groceries go we save our leftovers and meal prep, allowing us to have healthier, cheaper meals, that we cook to taste. we bake our own bread, make our own pasta, we make our own broth from bones and vegetables to can for various uses.
its been extremely rewarding so far.
you just gotta get creative with it. i find the joy it brings far outweighs the minute increase in difficulty while shopping.
No name mustard from the states is cheaper, than the rest of the mustard on the shelf. That might be one of the few exceptions.
I think it depends which province you’re in, I’m in Quebec and food is very cheap compared to in Alberta - went visiting family and I could not believe how expensive everything was and this was before trump was even president again.
I found both. Some items are more expensive, others are actually cheaper. Buying produce and veg in season is key. Bulk if you can. Watch for sales especially with clothing and anything that is household items (TP, shampoo etc.). Not buying American is the first goal. Canadian is the next. Lots of cheaper stuff can be had by non-USA products. Shopping is a skill like everything else. I am sure they all are ok with paying Starbucks drink 2x a day
I absolutely get not being able to afford things. I only expect my fellow Canadians to do what they can within reason. But the important thing is knowing about it. Seeing the signs, becoming knowledgeable about what things should change, what habits you should look around for alternatives, the awareness campaign is what leads to incremental action.
small44 , it's not just GenZ. Retired Boomers living on a pension, immigrants trying to earn a basic living,, working class folks of all ages, creeds, colours et alia, are all having a hard time. My lucky find is that Dollarama, a Canadian company, has a lot of in-house brands and a lot of non-American imports. and i has enabled us -- creaky old boomers who worked in social good professions rather than for profits -- to find almost everything we need either from Canada or at least not from the US, and still afford to eat relatively healthy and pay the cat's vet bills.
Giant Tiger is also a good Canadian company to patronise. If I can't get it there, I won't wear it.
My first thought: who owns the newspaper? Is it some US hedgefund?
The Globe and Mail is owned by Thomson Reuters, a Canadian company.
As an aside the Thomson's are the richest family in Canada.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_tree_of_Thomson_family
Gen Z was a mistake
Everything Canadian is stupid expensive.
When you travel someplace else, you realize how cheap groceries and restaurants are elsewhere.
Edit: whoa whoa! I'm not saying to not buy Canadian! I'm just saying our stuff here is super expensive. Our living expenses are high in Canada compared to other places.
Traveling is expensive (Trains, planes, etc) even within Canada. Internet, phone, mobile is super expensive, even clothes are expensive. Our Canadian corporations have a near monopoly and they know it, and they're taking full advantage of it to rip us off.
Our housing might not be as expensive as other places but when you check the wages, you quickly realize with the ratio that the cost of living is very high here.
But I'm putting my money where my mouth is I'm buying canadian regardless. I'm just very cautious where I spend my money. Instead of Loblaws for example, I go to local markets. I buy clothes from small local businesses. Etc. And for everything else where I don't have a choice but to buy from a big corp, then I'd rather pick a Canadian one over any other. And for my last resort, I'd prefer European products over American.
Do you look at income, rent etc in these countries then? I know several European countries where groceries are indeed cheaper but you need to compare how much they earn there and their rent or mortgage. Let alone FX
That's true. My main point of reference is France because I go there often. But generally they have pretty good living conditions with tons of benefits in Europe.
Then I go to places like Panama, where people aren't rich but they get by pretty well. The average salary there is 25 500 USD / year. (2 130 USD / month) and the average cost of living is around 1 500/ month. That's not bad.