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My guide to buying more Canadian / less American (lemmy.ca)
submitted 2 months ago by to c/buycanadian@lemmy.ca
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My guide to buying more Canadian / less American

In Person Groceries ➡️ Go basically anywhere but Walmart. Look for “Product of Canada” on packaging. “Made in Canada” is 2nd best. If the company is Canadian that is the 3rd best. For produce with no packaging ask someone at the store or use one of the buy Canadian apps.

Instacart (ordering groceries) ➡️ Voila (and use the shop local option in the app when possible) or https://montreal.lufa.com/en/marketplace/category/your-local-marketplace/specials

Amazon ➡️ Home Hardware, Canadian Tire, Princess Auto, KMS Tools, BMR, and Lee Valley for in person shopping. If you’re going to order online use the Canadian Tire App.

Google Drive ➡️ Sync. If anyone uses someone’s referral code they both get 1 extra GB so here’s mine. https://www.sync.com/?_sync_refer=181a30ae0

Netflix ➡️ Crave and CBC Gem

Disney Plus and Prime ➡️ Ahoy Matey, Sail the Seas

Uber Eats ➡️ Skip the Dishes

Burger King / Mcdonalds ➡️ A&W, Law & Order, Harvey's, or any local restraunt / https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Canadian_restaurant_chains

Starbucks / Mcdonalds Coffee ➡️ A local cafe or second Cup. Tim Hortons is half owned by an American company.

Subway ➡️ Mr Sub

Play Books (ebooks/ audio books app) ➡️ Kobo

Amazon ➡️ https://www.singingpebblebooks.ca/ for physical books

Dairy Queen ➡️ Chapmans from grocery store

Microsoft Office > https://www.libreoffice.org/ or you can host an Etherpad server https://etherpad.org/about

Pet Smart ➡️ Pet Valu or Ren's Pets

Default Android Apps by Google (messages/phone/contacts/notes/file explorer/gallery/etc...) ➡️ Various Fossify Apps (not Canadian but is open source and has no tracking)

Google Maps ➡️ HERE WeGo

Spotify ➡️ Qobuz

Google Search ➡️ Qwant

Tap with your Visa ➡️ Tap with your interact debit card

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[–] 13 points 2 months ago* (13 children)

For buying web domains, I use EasyDNS, which is fully Canadian and has been around forever.

For garden tools and yard work stuff: Gardena, Husqvarna, and Fiskar are all European.

For power tools: Bosch is European and majority owned by a charity.

For hardware stores, Home Hardware, Rona, Canadian Tire, Atlas Tools, Lee Valley, Princess Auto, are all Canadian.

PrimeCables.ca and Shopperplus.ca can replace a lot of the random cables, electronics, and accessories that I might go to Amazon for.

For hair care, Mark Anthony products are made in Canada, and owned by a European company.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 months ago

    I was using hosthero for my domain as they are also 100% Canadian. I create new email addresses for every thing, not only for unlimited free trials but so if I get an email address leaked I just turn it off. EasyDNS is so much better with their wildcard email.

    I self host my own password manager (vaultwarden), I self host my own pictures (immich), I self my own search engine (searXNG), and there are many other things.

    I am trying to get away from Apple as much as I can, I have moved to HA for most of my home automation. I have a bunch of raspberry pi’s that do stuff, I have a 2014 Mac mini that was just sitting on my desk because it could no longer get updates that I installed Debian on and now works as a media server.

    I got a firewall I could install openWRT on so that I could VPN into so that I could use my pihole setup and other services away from home. I do not want to be the product I want to use services with out being sold as much as I can.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 months ago

    @masterspace @JaceTheGamerDesigner goeuropean.org/ #GoEuropean is a website with european alternatives to US Brands. I first heared about the #BuyCanadian movement and searched for european products because I would buy canadian products but often they aren't availible here in europe.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago (9 children)

    Lowes bought Rona

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  • [–] 3 points 2 months ago (8 children)

    They sold it back soon after they bought it.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    So I've been reading up on Rona since this morning. Its still listed as an asset with Sycamore partners, a private equity firm out if New York. 14 billion in assets.

    They own the Rona company headquartered in Quebec. There is no listing for a publicly traded Rona stock.

    http://sycamorepartners.com/investments

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  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago

    Rona is a US company. But, I have no idea how they are still open because I never see anyone inside their old Lowes big boxes.

    However, many RONA outlets are locally owned franchises, like Home Hardware.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (5 children)

    I didn't know this. I just hope its not a front for a US company

    Edit. Sycamore, a private US investment firm owns Rona.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago (2 children)

    I don't remember but my local Rona, last I checked, still had huge banners that says "TOOLS MADE IN AMERICA" all over.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago (1 child)

    Ya I've been avoiding it since Lowes bought it. I still refer to Rona+ as Lowes

    Same house brands too

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago*

    It is not the same house brands.

    It was when they were owned by Lowe's, and they carried Kobalt as their house tool brand, but after Lowe's sold them, they fire saled all their Kobalt products. Most recently they've also phased out Valspar brand paint.

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    • [–] 9 points 2 months ago

    Thank you for posting this, OP.

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    [–] 7 points 2 months ago*

    Yo,

    Dollarama, Giant Tiger for discount stores

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    [–] 5 points 2 months ago

    Stay strong, Canada. If you can't buy Canadian at least buy European or Asian. Other than food and defense products, us tanks barely make anything any more (lots of services and corporate bureaucracies though).

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    [–] [S] 5 points 2 months ago

    Added more great alternatives.

    Google Maps ➡️ HERE WeGo

    Spotify ➡️ Qobuz

    Google Search ➡️ Qwant

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    [–] 4 points 2 months ago

    Decent list!

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    [–] 4 points 2 months ago

    To add to your Amazon entry, vevor.ca sells a ton of their stuff on amazon but you can buy it direct from their website for the same price or less with shipping included. Most of their products are mid-level China made things like Princess Auto.

    Everything is made in China these days. It's kind of unavoidable. But the quality isn't that bad.

    I just bought a basic spot welder for my company from there and it's pretty damn good for the price.

    Vevor and Princess Auto have replaced Amazon for 90% of my needs.

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    [–] 7 points 2 months ago (3 children)

    Meta --> Gander

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    • [–] 3 points 2 months ago

    Great information. Thank you for compiling this.

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    [–] 3 points 2 months ago*

    People should be switching searches from Google to an alternative like Qwant (endorsed by the EU) whenever possible.

    People are voluntarily handing over 1000s of dollars a year to google.

    When most of the time they can get similar or better results with an alternative.

    All the tech overlords stood behind trump at his inauguration, including Googles Sundar Pichai

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    [–] 3 points 2 months ago

    Thank you for making this list

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    [–] 5 points 2 months ago

    or use one of the buy Canadian apps

    Does anyone have a good rec for one that's not vibecoded slop? A couple months ago I tried a ton of apps & sites, but the info they were giving was so bad & inconsistent & obviously LLM generated.

    BankruptTrump was the one that worked best for me (fewest errors... if you ignored checking the reference links) but when it was wrong it was wrong so I've pretty much given up.

    I just want something human-built that I can contribute to 🥲

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    [–] 2 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    Books : black bond books, indigo/chapters

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    • [–] 2 points 2 months ago (3 children)

    Sync and Google Drive alternative: https://cantrusthosting.coop/pricing/

    Wyx alternative: https://lynx.patrii.ca/en_CA

    Cloud server hosting: https://patrii.cloud/

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago (2 children)

    What’s wrong with Sync?

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    • [–] 1 point 2 months ago

    Pets: bosleys (which is petvalu)

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    [–] 0 points 2 months ago (2 children)

    Chapman's makes crappy ice cream. Kawartha Dairy is where it's at.

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    • [–] 0 points 2 months ago (6 children)

    Amazon ➡️ Home Hardware, Canadian Tire, Princess Auto, KMS Tools, BMR, and Lee Valley for in person shopping

    all that stuff is Chinese anyway. Chinese Tire.

    Most supplies from Home Depot are sourced in Canada.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (5 children)

    Home Depot is an American company though (& a pretty pro-trump one at that).

    As an aside, I purchased a Canadian flag from Canadian Tire that was made in Canada by a Canadian company, so not all their products are sourced outside Canada.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago (2 children)

    Avoid Lowes, Menard's, Harbor Freight, Kobalt, Stanley, Black and Decker, Ridgid, and Husky as well because they're all American.

    Husky is not to be confused with Husqvarna because the latter is Swedish. Milwaukee Tools is American but owned by a company in Hong Kong so decide that for yourself.

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