Urban Grocer has kept American fruits and veggies off its shelves for nearly four months – a streak it plans to extend.
In late February, as Canada’s relationship with its southern neighbour soured, the shop, which sits on Fort Street near the Oak Bay Junction, stopped ordering U.S. produce.
“It was in response to the tariffs,” said the store’s manager Garth Green. "At the end of the day, we recognize that building the economy from within is the best thing we can do in a situation like this, so pushing everybody to try to pick Canada first was our angle."
The move began after the grocery store stuck small tags to its shelves to illustrate the origin of its produce. Soon, Urban Grocer's management found shoppers were buying items marked with stars and stripes far less than before.
“Prior to all of this, one of our most popular spinach was Popeye Spinach. We used to sell 60 to 80 bags a day of that stuff,” the store's previous manager Gary Innis told Victoria News in March. “In the last week that we had it, we sold two bags. That’s a message.”
Now, the 200 types of American fruits and veggies Urban Grocer once offered have been replaced with Canadian alternatives – and what the grocery can’t find at home, it sources from abroad. In March, it ordered products from as far away as Morocco, Argentina, Mexico and Japan. Today, Dutch cauliflower, Spanish broccoli and apples from New Zealand take the place of U.S. varieties.
To avoid raising prices, Urban Grocer has absorbed the extra cost incurred as a result of ordering produce from countries farther away. Though it’s now seeing less profit per item sold, the store is making more money, thanks to an uptick in customers supportive of the move.
“It has not hurt us at all,” said Innes in March. “We're growing our overall sales by catering to new customers that want to come to us.”
However, finding non-American products hasn’t been a walk in the park.
"It’s been a lot of sourcing – sourcing items and staying up late trying to find things that not everybody carries," said Green. "It's taken a lot of work."
Since March, news of the shop’s policy has spread. A B.C. farm reached out to the company to express its support, for example, even offering Urban Grocer first access to its newest crop of peaches.
“The farming industry is big and they've been talking about what we've been doing and how much support it's been giving to the local economy,” said Green. “We've built that relationship with a lot of local people where they ... want to support it, so it's been a win-win.”
The manager added the shop plans to eventually rid all of its aisles of U.S. products.
"I'm working with suppliers and buyers to really work towards that," he said. "It's not going to happen overnight, but ... our goal is to eventually be that way."
In the meantime, Urban Grocer's staff have been busy promoting its Canadian offerings.
"We've definitely pivoted and put more focus on Canadian items, realigned all our shelves and pushed most of the American products away from your prime spots and eye-level locations," he said.
Though time-consuming, the work has been worth it.
“It's been so rewarding," said Green. "All the customers and even the staff have been so appreciative of what we're doing. It makes a big difference when you can come into a store and have confidence in where it's coming from."
