Why buy Quebec products?

Why buying Quebec products is much more than a story of consumption?

Purchases are made all the time, try to calculate the number of times you take out your wallet in a week… the high number could give you the chills!

Imagine then that this is the case for pretty much everyone around you. It starts to do a lot of transactions, a lot of money spent, and a lot of consumption in the end.

Another calculation, try counting how many of these weekly trades encourage traders here? Maybe you will shiver again.

We do not always realize our purchasing power as consumers, but buying a coffee from a large American chain instead of taking it from a small local business can have a real impact. The same is true for any other product purchased.

"The customer is king", and it's somewhat true!

The customer (me, you, us) decides by his purchases who will get rich with his money. This is where its power lies. Through this economic gesture, he encourages a company by allowing it to flourish, as well as by giving a livelihood to the person who works there.

This is why buying products made in Quebec is important, but there are other reasons too…

Buying local means giving yourself the chance… The chance of what? That of opening up to the many possibilities that are around us. It's about giving yourself the right to take your place and assert yourself in a society that is sometimes too frantic.

We have to break the mold of the current economy and bet on us, because buying made in Quebec is a guarantee that in the long term, we will live in a community that pats itself on the back, that helps each other and that supports itself. It is a guarantee of economic success and sustainability for a province rich in nature, people and ideas.

I, who by nature only spread my toast with peanut butter, discovered great happiness when I tasted the fruit spreads from Les Petits fruits St-Louis , made in St-Louis-de-Gonzague in Montérégie. Jam had never had this effect on me. And then I started, quite simply, to encourage a one-of-a-kind Quebec company. All because of my toast!

Small or large, local companies aim for authenticity, respect for the consumer and the quality of their products, because very often this is the life project of its creators and even the extension of their person. We find ourselves far from the emancipation marketing strategy of a foreign multinational that tries to reach a wider clientele or steal market share from a competitor, in order to pocket our money, the color of which we will never see again. .

Make even more accessible what it already is, but which is not obvious

This is where Signé Local can act: by intervening with us, the Internet users, who do not always know very well the made in Quebec market available to us and who, out of (bad) habit, consume within companies that are not favorable to our economy or to working conditions abroad.

Signé Local is about wanting to break through the wall that has stood between Quebec consumers and local businesses that don't always have a strong enough voice to challenge people to buy their products.

Encouraging Quebec companies allows job creation and economic emancipation, reduces pollution, fuels competition with foreign companies and allows us to travel through our little corner of the country which has so much to offer.

Yes, travel! By discovering the species of wood that are found here and that make up the Atelier ClearWood cutting boards, for example! Because buying local also means becoming aware of what is around us.

I can only identify with this new era of consumption, because I like our Quebec products and I like our market, which is vast and generous. I love learning the story behind small businesses here and I love when success smiles on them. Somehow I have the feeling of having helped and because of this, I feel united much more than a consumer.

By Julie Matthew
Revisited in January 2022 by Ariane Lessard

Header photo credit: Avenue Coloniale