Why Shopping Small Matters During a Trade War | A Maker’s Perspective

Today, this article from Melrose International landed in my inbox. If you aren’t familiar with them, they are a US gift company that provides a wide selection of home decor, gift and holiday products to gift shops throughout Canada and the US. While I don’t actively purchase resale items from them, I have placed wholesale orders from them in the past to build up my small shop display, especially during the holiday season (I always get asked where I get my display pieces from, so I carry a few extras with me during the holiday season so y’all can buy them too).

In case you don’t want to click the link, I’ll give you the Cole’s Notes version. Gift companies like Melrose International and their competitors are in a position where they now need to increase their prices, in order to allow for the new US Tariffs on many products that are currently manufactured overseas. This open letter is to inform their customers, and well, anyone really, about the situation that their company is being put in and how they know it will affect their (probably thousands of) shop owners who rely on them for affordable, on-trend products for their shops.

As a small business owner myself, it is incredibly disheartening to read updates/open letters like this and begin to understand just how impactful these tariffs and the US economy can be, even for us up here in Canada.

I know shop owners, who DO support local and DO support small Canadian businesses, but some also use larger gift companies to help round out their shops to help make them profitable (because shop life can be hard, yo and they deserve to support themselves and their families while serving their community).

Yes, some of these large gift companies use manufacturing plants based in China. Yes, it’s terrible and everyone should support local, but we all know that isn’t the case. Sometimes, cost does win when it comes to decision making, not just to the business owners, but shoppers (i.e. me and you) are guilty of it too. And sometimes, Canada just doesn’t have the same selection as other countries, especially when it comes to sourcing both trends and products in general. While all of my materials come from Canada, some of my non-consumables (i.e. tools) have to come from the US just because they aren’t available in Canada….. and I’m willing to bet that those tools were not manufactured in the US, so does that mean my price for those items will go up as well? Point being, I would buy from a Canadian manufacturer of I had the choice, but I don’t (and likely won’t for quite some time), and as a result it will cost me more. Ok that was a minor tangent, back to the small gift shops.

So what happens, when all of these gift companies have to raise their prices because of the overseas Tariffs? Our prices as shoppers goes up too, even as Canadians. And when prices go up, people don’t shop, and small shops close. Which in turn, means a maker (like me) could begin to lose shops they once sold to. It’s not just Canadian shops I’m talking about either, the prosperity of small shops in the US also affects small makers here, especially if you are one of the makers I know that sells to them (also like me).

I guess what I’m saying is that even though something as big as the US Tariff/Trade disagreement doesn’t seem like it has much to do with us – and only concerns large corporations, this little article made me realize just how impactful all of these changes might be.

I know, this is a total rant, but it’s got me all fired up about how the ‘solution’ for one big problem actually has the potential to hurt so many other businesses. Yes, I get the solution might be for ‘everyone to just buy Canadian (or local, or small)’ but I know that’s not really how the whole economy works and we have a long way to go to educate everyone (shops, businesses, shoppers, etc) to do this.

So, if you can’t buy ‘everything Canadian’ then maybe it’s time shift focus to supporting the ‘Canadian people’. It’s now more important than ever to just support your local small shops. The people that are running the businesses that are doing their best. They work hard to bring you beautiful selections of things for you to buy for your home, and to gift to the ones you love. Some of them only carry local products, some of them only carry items from big gift companies, and some of them do a mixture of both. But one thing is certain, the shop owners I know always have your best interest at heart and have been known to lose sleep over how best to serve their community and provide the very best, trendy, meaningful and in-demand products for you just when you need them.

The small shops are the superstars, so lets support them, k?

xoxo Shannon

Shannon is a writer, designer and adventure seeker based out of the beautiful PNW. She’s a proud fisherman’s wife, and spends much of her downtime curled up with a book and a London Fog in hand. On her working days, you can usually find her working in her studio over at AllyBeth Design Co – where she designs and creates quality stained wooden decor for the modern home.