Boycotts of products from the U.S., provoked by the trade war, are “no question, hurting Canadian businesses as well,” Benson Mutalemwa says.
When Benson Mutalemwa was stocking his store a few months ago, he had good reasons for buying American products.
Mutalemwa owns and operates Knyota Non-Alcoholic Drinks on Bank Street, a self-described niche business selling alcohol-free beverages that mimic spirits, wines and beers.
“You plan your inventory based on what you tend to see people looking for, and on what’s popular, what people tend to be upset (about) if you don’t have it,” says Mutalemwa, who opened his downtown store in May 2022, in sync with renewed interest in sobriety.
“There were no tariffs. There were no boycotts,” he adds.
But now, the current political moment, with its buy-Canadian fervour and shunning of U.S. products in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs, punishes Mutalemwa’s business undeservedly, he says.
“It’s understandable that we have to stand up for Canada, but there’s a lot of pain too,” Mutalemwa says.
The example of Kynota illustrates that, in some cases, boycotting U.S.-made goods is a setback for a small Canadian business that has already paid for its stock.
“It is, no question, hurting Canadian businesses as well,” Mutalemwa says.
Mutalemwa says he spent about $15,000 on American non-alcoholic beverages because they were best-sellers popular with his customers.
Now, a majority of his regulars have boycotting on their minds and are asking about Canadian and non-American options. With the beverages that Mutalemwa sells, the problem is that boycotting means settling for a bottle that isn’t as good, he says.
“Sometimes there’s just not like for like,” Mutalemwa says.
“It’s already hard enough to find something that’s palatable for people, so, when you finally find that thing that they’re willing to purchase and come back and look for, and then all of a sudden, something like this happens … sometimes there is just simply nothing else to offer.”
Some customers are shunning American whisky substitutes and are saying, “‘I’ll buy whatever else Canadian you have.’ OK, you get to retain that customer,” Mutalemwa says.
What about the customer who boycotts, and then isn’t satisfied with non-American alternatives? “Unfortunately, that most likely becomes a lost customer,” Mutalemwa says.
He wonders if things will go from bad to worse, if his sales will fall, if his capital will be tied up in products that aren’t moving, and if, in the worst case, products that are perishable go bad and have to be thrown out.
Mutalemwa says his non-alcoholic wines “will be OK for a while,” but by the end of the 2025 some spirits might no longer be fit to be sold.
He says that, if he can sell all his American stock and buy-Canadian enthusiasm is still high, he will do what he can to align with consumer preferences.
“Anything Canadian we’ll stock, basically. But, again, there’s that niche consideration: Is it good enough for people to actually purchase?”
Meanwhile, compounding his woes is the fact that his U.S. products will be getting more expensive.
“Our costs for any products that are being imported from the U.S., our costs are definitely up. We’re getting price increase notices,” Mutalemwa says.
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