So how is not buying American going for you?

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 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?
- 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.
Hmm, I'm actually curious. SE Asia and Bangladesh probably are a viable alternative for a lot of things. Obviously, if you have an unlimited budget you can find some bespoke artisanal item made nearer by as well.

I'm American and I'd rather buy Canadian too

I’m joining the war on Canada… on the side of Canada. 🇨🇦
Then we shall turn this continent into an orgy of maple syrup!
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
Hopefully, one of these days they make it easier to emigrate from America, if that's of any interest to you.

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.
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!
  !linuxphones@lemmy.ca
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

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.

I'm currently switching all my computing/cloud stuff over to Canadian and/or EU providers. I'm going to move my domains to Easy DNS and try out a VPS from LunaNode.

I was about to say there's TunnelBear VPN, but, just found out they've been acquired by McAfee , so boo.
- I use Mullvad, based in Sweden. Works great for me.
- Private Internet Access is UK-owned, it looks like.
Would you recommend LunaNode? I’ve been looking for AWS, gcloud, Azure, and DigitalOcean alternatives and a lot are underwhelming.
- I'm actually pretty pleased so far. I had to contact support to sort out a payment problem but they were incredibly quick to help me out. I think the price performance is pretty decent, but my needs are very minimal. The web ui is really straightforward as well, really no complaints.

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.
https://agripurina.ca/about/
- I guess it uses Canadian farms, but Purina is owned by Nestlé.
- 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.

It's generally going well. I already did this boycott once before during Trump 1.0, so I know what do look for.

It's a bit harder this time around because there are things we need where a Canadian (or at least non-American) alternative doesn't exist. The big one is diapers, as we haven't been able to find anything non-American that also works within our budget and time constraints.

It's unfortunate, but also only temporary. My kids should be out of diapers in a few years, provided the world doesn't end before then.

Contact your local store to order https://www.royale.ca/diapers Made in New Brunswick.
- I'll do some research today to see if they are available where I live, or if they can be made so. Thanks for the tip.
- Oh, well that looks promising!
  We did it, Lemmy?
It looks like AliExpress sells some diapers. I have no idea how they compare price-wise, though, and the quality is bound to be somewhat lower.
In China they culturally have an alternate solution, so maybe that's why outsourcing has been slower in the diaper market.
No cloth diapers in Canada?
- There are, but they aren't feasible for us to use. We would love to, and even discussed it before our first kid was born, but the realities of our lives make them impractical.

Most of my groceries are either already made in Canada or imported from Mexico. I didn't have to change much.

It's not a cheap way to shop, I will admit, but it can be done. Canada makes a lot of food, especially here in BC where I live. Beef, pork, sausages, honey, dairy, milk-alternatives, breads, and so much more.

For non-grocery items there are numerous retailers that are Canadian. London Drugs is a great one here in western Canada. Online shopping is a bit harder because Amazon is so hard to replicate, but honestly at that point I just buy from Aliexpress. If I'm going to order cheap crap online I'll just get it from the source instead of sending money to the US.

Seconded. half the stuff on Amazon is legendary brands like FleySwui08 or Glai77Zalo or Blukogluko. All highly recommended, of course.
- TBH I'm not even sure why they do that. We all know it's from the same factory in Shenzhen as usual when we see that, right? And what comes tends to be basic but functional.
BC milk-alternatives
Yeah, I went with Earth's Own in the end. Their attempt at copying Nextmilk has not hit the mark yet, unfortunately. Side thing - why are so many brands in Burnaby specifically?
- Earth's Own is great. I love their oat milk.
  As for Burnaby - I'm not sure exactly. Probably cheaper and more available land for commercial businesses. Vancouver is notoriously expensive and cramped.
London Drugs is excellent! They even have an online filter for Canadian products.

Last year I moved from Ontario to Spain so avoiding American products has been pretty easy at the grocery store. The main thing has been cancelling online American services like Netflix, Amazon, Google one, Youtube Premium, etc.

Cancel them, but don't stop watching American stuff you like. Just don't pay for it.
- This is the way 🏴‍☠️
https://www.simplehomelab.com/docker-media-server-2024/
It's a little daunting but once you get it up and running with a VPN, you'll never miss those enshitified streaming services.
What are you doing for streaming then? High seas, or is there something local available in Spain?
- There is movistar plus which is a bit like crave, so its 100% not cutting off the US as you can watch some american content on it. But it also has a lot of Spanish content which is fresh for us. We're also looking at some UK streaming services that are available in Spain like BBC ITVX but we haven't subscribed yet.
  Also looking at the high seas for content we couldn't get at either of those 😅

As someone who isn't a North American... What is a salad kit?

A mix of greens in a bag, often with a pouch of dressing and a bag of nuts tossed in as well.
- Thank you... You know, that sounds mighty civilised.

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.

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.

Already did it! And boy, was I glad I had when Trump started doing things.
VEU is one example ETF on the TSX.

Very disappointed to hear Silk NextMilk is made in America. Other plant based milks just aren't the same. Have you found a good alternative?

Earth's Own is Canadian and really good.
- I buy Earth Own oatmilk but it's just not as good with cereal :(
Have u tried making peanut milk at home? It doesn't take more than 10 min and is incredibly underrated.
I tried the Good Earth oat-coconut blend. No bones, don't recommend as of now. Honestly if that's the brand I'm going back to just oat.
NextMilk is a mixture of different plant based milks. Its probably the closest to real milk but I find any brand of original (some sweetener but no extra flavoring e.g. vanilla) oat milk to be close enough that I don't miss cow milk much.
- Next milk is a Silk product
NotMilk, it is quite milk like. And company is from Chile.

I thought looking at the list online would be annoying until I realized you can just look at the food labels. So it’s easy. Had to buy cabbage instead of lettuce last time I was at the store. That’s about it.

What were you doing with it? Cabbage is great but it's not exactly the same as lettuce.
- Putting it in wraps and cooking it with soy.

Stupid easy...

Yeah it's going well. I already knew in November that Trump was going to fuck up the economy one way or another, so I bought a handful of bigger ticket stuff from the states at that time for Black Friday.

The main food staple I've had to change so far is baby carrots, I usually get the California organic ones in bulk at Costco. I just have to make a separate trip to my smaller local grocer for substitutes.

Hmm. I was stocked up on carrots, so I haven't actually looked yet.
I did notice the huge Chinese kind are actually from China. I'm gonna need a different knife if I go with those, haha.

As an American, pretty good, we don't produce shit here.

It's clearly a salad kit-based economy. /s
That's a lie. We produce the highest quality bullshit in the world.

Excellent grocery shopping today. We didn’t buy anything US (we think). The red cabbage didn’t have any country listed and we assumed it’s Mexican since the green ones were. We didn’t have to switch lots but for some products we bought alternatives: taco shells, granola bars, salsa. We also found some Canadian stuff sold out or almost: ketchup, cereal (we picked a different Canadian one). It’s fun to try new stuff! Also really excited about tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers, lettuce and basil from Alberta! This is very early in the year for us to get local produce!

No Alberta bell peppers where I shopped, unfortunately. It's interesting that they're doing that in greenhouses as well. I went with Mexico, which is fine, they're cool, but the thing is you know it came in through the US.
I didn't buy any fresh tomatoes this time around, so I don't actually know what's available.
- I was impressed that they have them in February. It’s pretty cold an early in the season for bell peppers. Tomatoes grow like weeds but bell peppers are slower. Mexico works as well. I shop Canada first and then almost anything but US second. For example I don’t like garlic from China.

Signed up for the Odd Bunch. You get imperfect produce which is still perfectly edible delivered all from local producers. Like a CSA share. It actually ends up being less expensive than the store. You'll have to be creative in using it up, but it's a great option. Link: https://go.referralcandy.com/share/9TSC9RD?s=sp&t=cp

I am also a subscriber. While some of the produce still comes from the US, I think it reduces our dependence by reducing waste. It is cheaper than the super market but still more expensive than the local grocers here in Vancouver.
- I don't mind supporting small farms in the US or buying their imperfect produce so it doesn't get wasted.
Looks like it's just major cities, which makes sense, but then again if you're not in a major city you probably have gift overgrown zucchinis appearing on your front step anyway.
What months does it run where you live?
- I just started, I think every month. I'll find out, my SO ordered it so I'm not sure.
Wonder if there's a version of this from the states.
- Looks like this is: https://www.imperfectfoods.com/

I'm American, and not buying American has been the norm for decades. So far, it's working out pretty well.

I'm American:(

Your in a prime position to sabotage then!
- I work at a Walmart. I can fart on stuff
then you have more influence for change than the rest of us, friend. Buying Canadian products also means lobbying small businesses to purchase supplies from Canada. and if you happen across someone who doesn't understand what's going on, let them know. Hopefully they'll tell 2 friends, and so on.

The other day I took my German car to the Asian market to pick up curry ingredients and enjoyed the night watching the Red Green show sooooooo.....pretty great honestly. 👍

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.

Not bad. I get most of my veg from local Chinese grocery where everything is a little closer to spoil but cheaper by half and all the sourcing info is in a language I don't read so I basically wrote that off as a whole in the name of scraping by.

But was decently happy to learn that my spending habits were mostly Canadian centric by default anyway exempting snacks. Mind you I live in a chunk of Van where most of my fav stuff is imported from Asia through local companies and ports so my easy solve was just segwaying hard into Korean and Japanese imports.

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

Great until I went into Dollarama and bought an energy drink and now I need to get two gifts for 6 year olds. Most likely at Walmart 🤦🏼

I don't know what you did in the end, but literally any store is probably better than Walmart, which is privately owned by the Waltons. Even Costco has shareholders all around the world.
- Walmart is a publicly traded company. The largest shareholder is the Walton Family (50%) with the rest of the shares purchased by investors around the world.

Had to buy Corn Starch from Austrian company. Because the Fleichmann's CANADA brand corn starch is Made in USA. And could actually find a Canadian Manufacturer

Good to know! I've been planning on experimenting with making my own meat substitutes.
Oh what company is that?
- Bakers Supply

Didn't buy anything american this week, at all, but I'm due to go grocery shopping.

I'm making a pot pie from some leftover beef and bacon fat that I turned into roux, I've got some potatoes that are getting old, some carrots, mushrooms... it should be tasty

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)

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.

That's the next frontier for me. AliExpress looks very promising, and I'm going to bug other people I know about degoogling as well now. Streaming is a bigger question, because I'm not sure I can sell piracy, I never really watch TV alone, and while we do a lot of CBC we still need to supplement with Netflix, as of now.
I'm not sure if I should care about the ownership of brick and morter stores, except Walmart, because they're all personally (edit: majority) owned by the Walton family. Even if like Costco the profits go to the US, they have shareholders all over the world, and obviously the store itself is in Canada.

I was already bracing myself to be careful at the grocery store a while back cause I'd been following the story of the US rolling back food and product regulations. It can't be fun to be doing any Kitchen/ Restaurant work right now. Last time out I managed to find all Canadian stuff. Lettuce was the hardest. I'm not a real power user of lettuce anyway. It's just going to take a bit of adapting.

I also typically buy used name brand clothing and plan to keep going with that and with entertainment I usually use the free services, used stores and thrifts and a bit of yarr matey on the side.

I did find a Canadian made salad kit I stripped for parts
What brand?

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?

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.

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).
There's actually a full-blown refinery for diesel in Edmonton, so that's an option, at least in western Canada.
For household products, of course China is a titan, and Dyson is British which came up for me recently.

Don't watch any movies or most of tv

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?
- 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.
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.
watches Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter on repeat, out of sheer spite

Whoever makes the best quality product against the competition, that's what I buy regardless of where it's made.

I have no bone to pick with whatever American company either, but geopolitics is happening. Even boycott aside I expect the value for cost of American products may go abruptly down shortly.
- You can vote with your wallet. I don't consider politics in what I purchase. I buy based on quality of product, not location.