Last trip to the grocery store I couldn’t find any non-US salad kits, and Silk NextMilk is made down there now, because I guess our plants were the listeria ones. Chip dip was surprisingly hard to find too, although I did it.

I’m very pleased with how many vegetables actually come from Mexico (definitely via the US though), and there’s even a few things you can get from greenhouses, so that situation is less dire than I’d expected.

  • reddig33@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    5 months ago

    Considering how much stuff isn’t made in the US anymore, this should be easy. For a real challenge, try avoiding items made in China.

    • ikt@aussie.zone
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      5 months ago

      sorry to butt in but that’s a hobby of mine 😀

      for example going full renewables: solar panels made in south korea (qcells), battery german (sonnen), ev south korea (hyundai ioniq), heat pump australia/japan (reclaim energy)

      I’m now looking at computer parts made exclusively in taiwan (looks like gigabyte mainly) because europe appears to have 0 competitive chip makers

      it seems you can still buy bigger items that are local or non-china made but you will be punished for it, prices are anywhere from 10% to 100% higher

      • slax@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        5 months ago

        I’ve never heard of Reclaim… How is that heat pump treating you? We got a Bryant (I believe it’s a Midea rebadged) and our solar is a Sol-Ark inverter (I still need to figure out how to get it off WiFi and just local using CANbus…) and LONGi panels.

        • ikt@aussie.zone
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          edit-2
          5 months ago

          Yep sorry I’m in Aus not Canada, they’re a local manufacturer (https://reclaimenergy.com.au/), expensive as hell but felt like showing my support to at least one of the few places this still does engineering in Australia

          How is that heat pump treating you

          Really good! the separate compressor from the tank makes it whisper quiet, can barely hear it even if you’re a foot away, co2 which is the most environment friendly refrigerant, and power usage is well, minimal, only a small 160L tank because I live by myself, can see example of what it uses here (it’s the light blue bit at around 8am in the morning):

          That said it is summer here in Queensland, will have to see how it goes in winter but under 1kw a day for hot water, that’s really not bad at all imo

      • reddig33@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        5 months ago

        I went to buy a pair of scissors this week. I could not find a pair that wasn’t made in China.

        I went to buy a greeting card, 75% of them were made in China. It makes absolutely no sense. It’s a freaking happy birthday card. There is no way it’s cheaper to cut down the tree, mill the paper, send it to China on a boat, have it printed, then have it sent back to North America on another boat. WTF?

        • BCsven@lemmy.ca
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          5 months ago

          Staples has online card building, you can customize all of it if you want, and it was about $2.50. Just have to plan ahead because they often print it at another facility and use the interstore shipping to get it to your pickup store.

  • TheFeatureCreature@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    edit-2
    5 months ago

    Most of my groceries are either already made in Canada or imported from Mexico. I didn’t have to change much.

    It’s not a cheap way to shop, I will admit, but it can be done. Canada makes a lot of food, especially here in BC where I live. Beef, pork, sausages, honey, dairy, milk-alternatives, breads, and so much more.

    For non-grocery items there are numerous retailers that are Canadian. London Drugs is a great one here in western Canada. Online shopping is a bit harder because Amazon is so hard to replicate, but honestly at that point I just buy from Aliexpress. If I’m going to order cheap crap online I’ll just get it from the source instead of sending money to the US.

    • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.orgOP
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      5 months ago

      BC milk-alternatives

      Yeah, I went with Earth’s Own in the end. Their attempt at copying Nextmilk has not hit the mark yet, unfortunately. Side thing - why are so many brands in Burnaby specifically?

      • TheFeatureCreature@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        5 months ago

        Earth’s Own is great. I love their oat milk.

        As for Burnaby - I’m not sure exactly. Probably cheaper and more available land for commercial businesses. Vancouver is notoriously expensive and cramped.

    • mPony@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      5 months ago

      Seconded. half the stuff on Amazon is legendary brands like FleySwui08 or Glai77Zalo or Blukogluko. All highly recommended, of course.

      • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.orgOP
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        edit-2
        5 months ago

        Pretty much, right?

        I assume we all know some Americans, or ex-Americans. I’m not even close to the border and they’re around. The good ones are all very welcome.

  • Jay@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    5 months ago

    Anyone have suggestions for Canadian cat food that isn’t overpriced? I’ve got like 15 cats so I go through a lot in a month.

      • Jay@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        5 months ago

        Huh TIL. I’ve mainly been feeding them that and the co-op stuff (Which they don’t care for so I usually blend them together.)

    • noseatbelt@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      5 months ago

      Acana is Canadian, though they are not super cheap but certainly not the most expensive either. My dogs like it, and one of them is a picky eater.

  • refreeze@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    5 months ago

    I’m currently switching all my computing/cloud stuff over to Canadian and/or EU providers. I’m going to move my domains to Easy DNS and try out a VPS from LunaNode.

  • Avid Amoeba@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    5 months ago

    I had to buy moisturizer. I saw two on the shelf. Flipped the labels, one was made in USA, the other made Canada. I picked the latter. That was it.

  • BenVimes@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    5 months ago

    It’s generally going well. I already did this boycott once before during Trump 1.0, so I know what do look for.

    It’s a bit harder this time around because there are things we need where a Canadian (or at least non-American) alternative doesn’t exist. The big one is diapers, as we haven’t been able to find anything non-American that also works within our budget and time constraints.

    It’s unfortunate, but also only temporary. My kids should be out of diapers in a few years, provided the world doesn’t end before then.

  • Showroom7561@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    5 months ago

    Most of my groceries accidentally end up being nearly all Canadian products.

    I haven’t really needed to buy anything other than groceries this past week, but I have been looking for alternatives to other products I’ll eventually need, and I will make buying Canadian first a priority, followed by Not American™ as a close second. 😂

    • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.orgOP
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      5 months ago

      Yeah, same. Aside from the products I mentioned it wasn’t hard at all. I had to take a bit of extra care with canned fruit, I guess.

      American software dominance is pretty out of control. If you don’t want to use American streaming, you pretty much have to go to piracy instead, and if you want to talk to IRL people online US social media is the main game in town. Not to mention the internet backbone itself being centered in the US.

      For online shopping, you can go Chinese. I need to look into if there’s any non-US Western options.

      • harrys_balzac@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        5 months ago

        Sailing the Seven Seas is definitely the best way to do streaming.

        US social media is increasingly right-leaning and bot-dominated, so you’re not really missing out there.

        Online shopping is awful.

        At this point, I’m hoping for the Giant Meteor.

        • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.orgOP
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          5 months ago

          Depends how you online shop. I do it occasionally and for niche things that aren’t sold anywhere nearby, and for that I’m immensely grateful. Hopefully someone’s working on federated ecommerce.

  • Drivebyhaiku@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    5 months ago

    Not bad. I get most of my veg from local Chinese grocery where everything is a little closer to spoil but cheaper by half and all the sourcing info is in a language I don’t read so I basically wrote that off as a whole in the name of scraping by.

    But was decently happy to learn that my spending habits were mostly Canadian centric by default anyway exempting snacks. Mind you I live in a chunk of Van where most of my fav stuff is imported from Asia through local companies and ports so my easy solve was just segwaying hard into Korean and Japanese imports.

  • Excentrifugal_Forz@lazysoci.al
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    5 months ago

    I was already bracing myself to be careful at the grocery store a while back cause I’d been following the story of the US rolling back food and product regulations. It can’t be fun to be doing any Kitchen/ Restaurant work right now. Last time I out I managed to find all Canadian stuff. Lettuce was the hardest, self contained was all from California. I did find a Canadian made salad kit I stripped for parts, I wish the quality was better but it was okay. I’m not a real power user of lettuce anyway. It’s just going to take a bit of adapting.

    I also typically buy used name brand clothing and plan to keep going with that and with entertainment I usually use the free services, used stores and thrifts and a bit of yarr matey on the side.

        • timidgoat@lemmy.ca
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          5 months ago

          This is definitely not an exclusively Canadian company. I was looking the other day at salad kits and all the Taylor Farms bags I looked at were American. There is a Canadian subsidiary so its possible to find Canadian products but just be cautious!

  • wise_pancake@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    5 months ago

    Didn’t buy anything american this week, at all, but I’m due to go grocery shopping.

    I’m making a pot pie from some leftover beef and bacon fat that I turned into roux, I’ve got some potatoes that are getting old, some carrots, mushrooms… it should be tasty

  • Sho@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    5 months ago

    The other day I took my German car to the Asian market to pick up curry ingredients and enjoyed the night watching the Red Green show sooooooo…pretty great honestly. 👍