Today, I bring you two tales of buying locally. One went perfectly. The other is a cautionary tale.

When my mother came to PEI, she wanted to cook oxtails. At first, we tried buying oxtails in Charlottetown, but this didn’t really work. The butcher we found sold his oxtails in portions that cost about $42. She didn’t want to spend that much, and since I’m vegetarian it would have been wasted.

After that we found someone else who told us they could sell us smaller portions, at $15 per pound. That was a little steep for her liking.

I knew she really wanted to eat oxtails so I made up my mind to find her an oxtails connection nearby. One day I saw a truck parked on the street with the word "cattle” on it. I asked him if he knew where I could get some oxtails. He told me who to call and he said "even if he doesn’t have it, he’ll get it for you.”

I called him and he had oxtails at $6 per pound. My mother liked this price. When I mentioned something about getting down to his shop, he said, “I come in to town every Monday to have coffee with the boys. Just meet me in the parking lot and I’ll give it to you there.” I met him, and got my oxtails. I gave him a little extra for practically bringing it to my door. My mom got her oxtails, and they arrived just in time for Christmas.

That’s what happens when buying locally goes well.

This weekend, when I tried to buy a natural beauty product online, I found out that buying locally in Canada has its own barriers that no one talks about.

Since I’m here to call out the issue and not the person I will just say that I was trying to buy a natural beauty product that is around the same size as a bar of soap. It is also the kind of product that can be found on a farm.

At first, I was thinking of the usual big online retailers.  At some point it occurred to me that since I am in rural PEI, someone around here may have it.

I went online and found a retailer an hour away.  The product cost $4.50. When I went to buy it from their website, I got a rude awakening. Below is a recreation of the checkout experience.

 

Paying $18 to $44 to deliver something that is an hour away from me seemed very unreasonable. So, I went back online to look elsewhere.

When I checked eBay, I found out that I could get the exact same product from Australia for between $22 and $25.

You may be thinking the same thing I am. Why should I pay the same price or more to get something from Australia as I would to get something that is one hour away?

This is a trade barrier.

When Canadian trade barriers are being discussed, this one needs to be brought to the table and discussed.

Now would be a good time to mention that I found the same item for between $2.15 and $9.75 shipping from China. But you already knew that.

In light of the recent Canada Post strike, I am not suggesting that anyone march in to Canada post and demand that they lower their prices.

What I am suggesting is that small businesses receive some support to offer more competitive shipping rates.

You may be wondering how that’s possible without Canada Post lowering their shipping rates.

Well, I do know that during the pandemic the government offered a lot of support to small businesses to get them online with Shopify stores.

Is it possible that some of these stores have been setup in a hurried and haphazard way with inaccurate shipping rates?

I mailed a box to my mother in January, a medium-sized-box filled with things like shoes and clothes. It got to Ontario very quickly and cost about $40.

How is it possible that an item the size of a bar of soap an hour away can cost so much?

But let’s just say I decided to give up on PEI and order the item from a big fancy province like Alberta.

Here is what my checkout shipping options were when I tried to order the same item from a store in Calgary.

In Calgary, you’ll notice that the item costs $3.50, one dollar less than the PEI price of $4.50. But look at the shipping.

This is completely ridiculous.

If we want to win this trade war and buy from each other, it has to be easier.

The supermarkets have gotten a lot of attention. However, some of us do from time to time do go on the internet. Let us explore solutions to make it easier for Canadians to buy from each other online.

Update #1: Shipping from Ontario to The Maritimes

Today I tried to order some gardening seeds online.

A seller in Ontario has the seeds for $3.95.

The seeds come in an envelope. The envelope is a little smaller than the kind of envelope you’d send a letter in.

The shipping is $19.99 and the total comes up to $27.53.

Seeds.

Dear Canadian business owners,

If you applied blanket shipping rates for everything when you set up your Shopify store, please revisit your shipping rates. It does not cost $19.99 to mail an envelope with seeds. You are alienating customers.

UPDATE #2: A Few Minutes Later

I just found a seed seller in Québec who is shipping seeds for 92 cents. The cost to mail a letter in Canada is $1.44.

• He has probably absorbed the 52 cents difference into the price, or
• He may be part of Canada Post’s "Solutions for Small Business" program which gives discounts for bulk mailing.

In either case, this price is more inline with what you would expect for shipping an item which is a little bigger than a grain of sand.

 

 

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