Yes if I had a dollar for everyone who recommends Habitant soups - nah owned by Campbells. The same with Old Dutch chips - owned by a company in Minnesota even if the chips are far more popular in Canada than in the US. Finding alternatives requires research, creativity, and sometimes paying more but that additional money often results in improved quality - e.g. Sprague soups vs Habitant. Sometimes you get to pay even less - Italpasta and Primo are brands I would have ignored that are actually good. It's been a bit of a remix as far as our weekly shopping goes but it makes our purchases more informed and deliberate which saves us money.

[–] nik282000@lemmy.ca 9 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Tim Hortons and Canadian Tire.

Tim Hortons pimps that "we are your national identity" shit so hard while using imported labour to sell substandard product at an inflated price.

Canadian Tire is still a Canadian company but the products sure aren't. The time their inventory spends on the shelf is just a layover between a sweat shop and a landfill.

[–] BCsven@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 day ago

Canadian Tire is like a dollarstore now.

[–] dudesss@piefed.ca 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

People should skip all fast food chains unless their locally owned.

Canadian Tire has a Paderno cookware manufatoring plant in PEI. There is also https://meyercanada.ca/ if people want to avoid CT. Their Frank chips might be made in Canada. But you're right, most of it isn't. But still better than say Walmart which is not Canadian owned to begin with.

[–] SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca 2 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

Yeah there's some things like cleaning products that are US only at the grocery store, but they have Canadian made alternatives in Canadian Tire. Don't know why people are hating on Canadian Tire, they seem to be a little bit better than the grocery stores on this to me.

[–] dudesss@piefed.ca 1 points 11 hours ago

You've got to shop around. Some stuff you're stuck buying online, but is worth asking the company if they're willing to do e-transfer.

[–] Croquette@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 day ago

Or the famous "Designed in Canada". I hate that

[–] kent_eh@lemmy.ca 16 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Yes, they don't make it easy.

It is still worth the effort to read labels and use some of the available apps while shopping.

Alsi, foreign owned but made in Canada is still better than made in USA, if that is the only choice you are faced with.

[–] Jhex@lemmy.world 18 points 2 days ago

Yes, they don't make it easy.

100% on purpose, then the same companies push for "personal responsibility" and "vote with your wallet" movements, instead of real regulation, knowing full well they can misinform us into doing whatever they want