{"id":609544,"date":"2026-04-17T05:08:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T05:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/609544\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T05:08:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T05:08:10","slug":"reasons-why-b-c-residents-are-spending-less-in-2026-daily-hive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/609544\/","title":{"rendered":"Reasons why B.C. residents are spending less in 2026 | Daily Hive"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019ve been trying to cut back on spending this year<\/a>, new data on B.C.\u2019s consumer spending shows that you\u2019re not alone.<\/p>\n

B.C.\u2019s consumer spending data fell by nearly one per cent in the first quarter of 2026, according to transaction data from Moneris, a commerce provider that accounts for a third of spending transactions in Canada.<\/p>\n

They looked at transaction data from January to March 2026 and compared it to the same timeframe last year, and found that\u00a0B.C.\u2019s year-over-year domestic spend fell 0.86 per cent.<\/p>\n

Sean McCormick, vice president of business development at Moneris Data Services, said that if we account for two per cent inflation \u2014 which means that everything costs about two per cent more \u2014 this is closer to a three per cent decline in spending.<\/p>\n

\u201cA thriving economy does not see consumers spending three per cent less on the same things that they bought a year ago,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd even unadjusted for inflation, a healthy, thriving economy doesn\u2019t see consumers spending one per cent less on things that they bought a year ago. And that\u2019s what we\u2019re seeing in B.C.\u201d<\/p>\n

Across Canada, consumer spending is down 0.27 per cent. The province with the biggest drop in spending was Manitoba, which declined by 2.14 per cent.<\/p>\n

\u201c[In] a healthy, thriving economy, we should see at least two per cent growth \u2026 And we\u2019re just not seeing that in the first quarter of 2026 versus first quarter 2025,\u201d said McCormick.<\/p>\n

He said there\u2019s no single reason for the dip in spending, but attributed some of it to poor consumer sentiment.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are influenced every day by the things we see and hear around us. That could be online, on social media, legacy media, friends, neighbours, family. It could be how we feel when we go to the grocery store, and we see red meat that costs 50 per cent more than the last time we bought red meat. These are the kinds of things that influence how we spend overall.\u201d<\/p>\n

Canadian consumer confidence is currently low. In March, Moneris conducted a survey with Angus Reid, and found that 49 per cent of Canadians believe the Canadian economy is struggling \u2014 up from 34 per cent in June 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, Canadians are going to be spending less at the till if that\u2019s where their heads are at,\u201d said McCormick.<\/p>\n

The survey also found that just 13 per cent of respondents think the economy will improve in the next six months, and 43 per cent reported that they expect their non-essential spending to drop.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re seeing every day is that more and more people are having to make tough decisions on how they\u2019re spending their money,\u201d said McCormick.<\/p>\n

In B.C., transaction size is up by 0.41 per cent, which is the size of a transaction seen at a terminal when people tap their card.<\/p>\n

While B.C.\u2019s average size of transaction has increased slightly, the spending is overall going down \u2014 meaning that \u201cpeople just aren\u2019t buying as often,\u201d McCormick explained.<\/p>\n

Apparel spending down, grocery spending up<\/p>\n

Nationwide, apparel spending declined by two per cent, which McCormick said is indicative of consumers not having a lot of disposable income.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re looking for an easy place in the springtime to save a couple bucks, maybe you get another season out of your favourite pair of shoes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Consumer spending on groceries went up by three per cent, less than the 5.4 per cent food inflation reported by Statistics Canada<\/a>.<\/p>\n

McCormick said consumers have been adapting to the \u201ceye-watering grocery inflation,\u201d and that since 2020, the average transaction size at grocery stores has only grown slightly in the last 18 months.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve been substituting the luxury brands, or the more expensive brands, for the cheaper and discount brands,\u201d he said. \u201cSo they\u2019ve been able to maintain, basically, for all intents and purposes, the same transaction size when they check out. They\u2019re just filling their basket with lower-priced goods, and in other cases, fewer goods.\u201d<\/p>\n

For example, if someone bought 10 oranges and the last few would go bad, they might now choose to buy seven.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you\u2019ve been trying to cut back on spending this year, new data on B.C.\u2019s consumer spending shows…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":609545,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[45,49,48,46],"class_list":["post-609544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=609544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609544\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/609545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=609544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=609544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=609544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}