As the cost of living rises, people are paying less attention to being green, according to a new CROP survey. As the focus for many Canadians becomes reducing expenses, some local, zero waste, organic grocery stores feel like they’re getting caught in the crossfire.
Joelle Martin has poured her heart and soul into two small grocery stores she owns on Montreal’s South Shore.
She takes pride in her zero-waste mentality and selling locally made, ecologically responsible products with high quality ingredients.
These days, however, she says her customer base is a fraction of what it once was.
“I don’t have many left,” Martin says.
To figure out why, she put a poll on her Facebook page. The most common answer was that people are going to the big-name grocery stores hunting for bargains, instead of buying sustainably sourced, local, possibly more expensive products.
“For you to be coming to a store like mine right now, being green really needs to be strong in your head and your heart,” she said.
Martin’s informal poll seems to confirm the findings of an annual CROP survey about green habits.
It finds when people are stressed, being eco-friendly goes out the window.
“This year is probably one of the worst years, you know, with the interest rates, inflation, interest rates and so on,” said CROP president Alain Giguère.
According to CROP, ecological lifestyles steadily climbed until 2019, then dropped during the stress of the pandemic before rebounding. Now, in the midst of a cost of living crisis there has been a sharp decrease.
“When consumers are stressed from a financial point of view, the focus, you know, is on maintaining their lifestyle,” Giguère said of why people are prioritizing cheaper food these days.
“When we’re doing well, we focus on ecology. But when we’re not doing as well, we don’t take care of the ecological crisis,” said Martin.
BocoBoco, an online eco-friendly grocery store based in the Mile End has noticed a recent downturn in the domain too.
“It’s really everything that is local, biological, really everything that is green in general,” said co-owner Guillaume Sirois.
The say even small-scale Quebec farmers who supply them with meat and produce are suffering.
“We’ve been working with a small farm close to Montreal for two years. Two weeks ago they file for bankruptcy,” he said. “The local farms, the local producers, they’re really important.”
Even though we are in an affordability crisis, the green grocers hope people keep prioritizing the environment.
“It’s not necessarily where you come for savings,” said Reserves customer Nathalie Champagne. “The goal is to get quality, local products and do our part for the environment.”
Martin says by her count, 50 zero waste groceries have closed in Quebec in recent years.
She hopes people show they care about these small businesses and what they stand for before they disappear.