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.
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. 😂
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.
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.
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.
It’s impossible to do a full boycott. There’s gonna be some stuff you end up getting.
Yes, I’ve bought two items to date from the US, due to lack of alternatives.
Considering how much stuff I’ve bought, though, that’s pretty damn close, and it wasn’t even hard.
You canceled your Netflix etc? Not playing games in steam?
You’re right, I guess that’s 3 direct purchases to date. Software platforms are definitively the hardest to replace.
That and there’s probably a lot of other ways you have made purchases without even knowing. My point is that don’t beat yourself up over not doing a full boycott. The fact that you’re doing what you’re doing will have an impact pretty big already. If enough people are like you, even if they aren’t perfect, will have a huge impact.
The hardest thing for our family are the digital services and social media. We are slowly cancelling Amazon, Facebook, Netflix, etc. But some things are used by my wife’s business (Google, Facebook, Insta) and the just isn’t a good replacement for YouTube.
Groceries are not bad thankfully. For hardware and household items, I can usually find a Canadian product if not at least Canadian made. Not being able to order to my door with Amazon is kind of an inconvenience but really we shouldn’t be leaning on that anyway.
Gasoline is an unfortunate reality for us, since we don’t have money for an EV right now and we need a truck to move renovation materials. And unfortunately construction supplies are sometimes a challenge to source (no way I’m going to Home Depot).
I really hope this gives Canadian industry a chance to blossom.
Killed all social media outside the fediverse. Even for our small business. Dumped Amazon and looking into Linux to drop Microsoft too. Degoogling the phone. We’re pretty good at the grocery store because we grow a lot of our own and make what we can.
Mastodon is free, might be better than going totally off grid for your business.
The audience is smaller than twitter was, but if you find a niche the people are quite nice
Even for our small business.
Damn, that’s next level commitment! I’ve gotten rid of everything personally, but giving up on my income source being easy to find would scare me.
Also, RIP DivestOS. Still sad about that.
Fuck em. We will manage. They can eat a bag of dicks. If I could eliminate all American influence from our lives I would.
If you have a pixel phone then GrapheneOS is a solid choice.
If you’re up for a challenge try Ubuntu Touch, Mobian, Sailfish and Postmarket OS!
I’m interested in moving off Android but afraid of bricking my phone. Years ago I had flashed roms onto my galaxy s4 but these days I worry about not being able to get work calls if something goes wrong. How risky is it these days, also is there anything I should know ahead of time if I try to move to a linux os. Do they work well on cheaper phones?
Years ago I had flashed roms onto my galaxy s4 but these days I worry about not being able to get work calls if something goes wrong.
There are still issues with calling however I would say Ubuntu Touch has the best support that front as it is the most stable. It should be fine installing when following an official guide from that distro.
I should know ahead of time if I try to move to a linux os.
The cellular connectivity has issues and the apps are limited.
Do they work well on cheaper phones?
It really depends on how well the phone model is supported by the contributors. They have lists of their most supported phones that you can look at.
Thanks for the info! Going to say cheap phone, possible cellular connectivity issues might not be a good idea for me right yet. I’ll put it on the to do with next phone list. I sometimes do Instacart deliveries to supplement income when I accidentally splurge to much. Not having cellular in remote areas would mean I couldn’t work directions/electronic signatures for alcohol.
Not having cellular in remote areas would mean I couldn’t work directions.
The open-source efficient Organic Maps can help with that.
Your job sounds really cool! Seeing all the beautiful countryside!
Yeah my normal job is in Nashville. Instacart is what I was talking about on the side. Basically it is just picking up stuff for people like groceries and hardware stores and dropping it off. Mostly it’s Kroger for me, grab 25 items, drop it off at their house and make a few extra dollars. Usually can make $100 on my day off doing that for 5 hours or so. You know how far the trips are before you take them so if you want further drives you can do them but you are paying for gas so usually I only take farther ones when they are for decent money amounts. I have taken some that are 30 miles into the middle of nowheresville. I’ve actually delivered to an Amish community as well.
Purchased some local onions instead of onions from the US, along with a few other things. Salsa from Mexico. Was a small grocery run, but my purchases would have been 15% American previously - but 0% this time.
If everyone is doing this, the numbers do start to add up quickly to a meaningful impact.
Yep. I did another mini-trip since the one in the post. The local greenhouse lettuce was sold out and some US products were on a deep sale, including NextMilk. (Since I’m pretty poor and it going bad on the shelves would be a waste, I caved)
Don’t watch any movies or most of tv
CBC has some great stuff, actually. I consume more from them than anyone else, easily. And then a lot of “American” stuff is produced here too, although you’d have to check.
The streaming platforms are a different matter. Even Gem works like ass for me.
I pirate most stuff anyway, and the rest I borrow it on physical media at the library, so they’re not getting money anyway
I can agree with that, 100%
All the best TV worth watching is already taped in Mississauga. :)
Whos doing the taping?
The last person using BlockBuster.
That’s a very good point. I guess it depends on the show.
ALLEGEDLY!
Already cancelled Netflix and Prime.
Crave has plenty of good content and CBC Gem as well. I cancelled Netflix and Disney Plus, I will miss the latter a bit because of What We Do In the Shadows, but I’ve watched each episode many times so it’s not like I haven’t seen it. I’m also just trying to read more books in general.
Finding a cloud service provider that’s reliable and has good terraform support has been impossible. Best we could do there was switch to another American firm that didn’t seem to be a Trump-supporting sell-out.
Otherwise it’s been pretty easy. But mostly because we already had everything.
As a baseline my focus hasn’t been so much not buying American at all but buying from Canadian owned and operated stores as the primary entry point. So no more Amazon, etc.
Not much changed for me personally, I already mostly buy local.
Btw if you really want to hurt america see if you can modify your rrsp/resp/tfsa/<other 4 letter acronym> to exclude American companies (and O&G while your at it). It’s hard and probably not good from a purely financial perspective, but I think it has a lot more impact.
I’m disabled. Also petition your government leaders to divest CPP from American companies and investment firms.
Already did it! And boy, was I glad I had when Trump started doing things.
VEU is one example ETF on the TSX.
I’m lucky to live in a rural place with great farmers market infrastructure, so many options to buy from here. When I do go to the grocery store, buying Canadian has been the norm for quite a few years but I am making a more conscious effort, taking my time to check all the labels. Haven’t had problems so far
Nice to see another rural person. Lemmy is pretty urban on average.
Farmer’s markets are very seasonal, of course. And like I’ve brought up elsewhere, people absolutely will resell store goods in them if they can make a profit doing so.
Me three! We buy all our meat from local farms. And veg in summer and we grow our own. I am also increasing what we grow on fruit
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.
That’ll go about as well as reading the TOS on everything before clicking agree
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
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.
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
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?
Sorry to chime in as an American, but I usually found that you can get the small items but they cost much more.
Do you have access to German scissors? Brands would be zwilling solingen and three swords.
Stickers can be locally made but you can’t get 100 for $2 like the made in china sets.
In the USA I find it challenging to find us made versions of the items.
I hope you are able to find domestic versions of the items you are looking for . It’s a great way to show you care for your fellow countrymen.
yep small items i’ve pretty much given up on, nobody seems to care that $2 worth of stickers are made in China
It just keeps going though, weirdest one for me was those little marshmallows you put on cakes:
Coles Bake and Create Pink and White Mallows, 100g. Great for creating a delicious rocky road or topping hot drinks.
Made in China
https://www.coles.com.au/product/coles-mallows-pink-and-white-100g-2441652
Really???
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.
Stupid easy…
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.
Most Purina products are at least produced and manufactured in Canada. I have been using the beyond line of products and my cats love it.
Sadly, it is a mega agro corp.
I guess it uses Canadian farms, but Purina is owned by Nestlé.
Dammit.
I knew there was a catch.
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.)
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.
I’m American and I’d rather buy Canadian too
Then we shall turn this continent into an orgy of maple syrup!
Hopefully, one of these days they make it easier to emigrate from America, if that’s of any interest to you.
I’m joining the war on Canada… on the side of Canada. 🇨🇦
I’m American and I’d rather be Canadian, too. Best I can do is Mexican and that’s looking better every day.
We should probably get out before they close the borders for us too
sighs in American
hon, we don’t hate you. but we’re really not happy with your Emperor.
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.
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.
Get Cutibase if you can find it. Made in Quebec, works really well, scent-free.
I bought Cetaphil. Would look into Cutibase next time around.
