{"id":605120,"date":"2026-09-04T01:32:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T01:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/605120\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T01:32:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T01:32:08","slug":"saskatoon-retailers-see-trade-war-boost-ahead-of-counter-tariffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/605120\/","title":{"rendered":"Saskatoon retailers see trade war boost ahead of counter-tariffs"},"content":{"rendered":"

The trade war between Canada and the U.S.<\/a> is bringing more customers to some local businesses, at least temporarily.<\/p>\n

Shabeen Shakoor has been working at Saskatoon Appliance for six years. He said that ever since the most recent trade negotiations between Canada and the U.S. fell apart, there\u2019s been an influx of customers to the business.<\/p>\n

Read more:<\/p>\n

Usually, about 30 people come in every two weeks, he said. But in the last two weeks, that number has spiked to 50.<\/p>\n

Though summer can mean lower sales at the appliance store, Shakoor said the influx is more than a seasonal change tied to the end of vacation season. According to him, people are chasing peace of mind and trying to lock in the lowest appliance prices before counter-tariffs take effect<\/a>.<\/p>\n

People who were previously on the fence are deciding to order now, he said.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just that more customers are coming in; they\u2019re also re-considering which brands to buy because of the tensions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are pissed off about the current tensions with the U.S.,\u201d Shakoor said.<\/p>\n

Between 10 and 15 customers have come in and asked, \u201c\u2018What do you guys have? Anything but U.S. (products).\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

People who are doing renovations or building a new house, he said, \u201cjust want to support anything, any brand that\u2019s not built in the U.S.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Saskatoon Appliance\u2019s \u201cbread and butter\u201d is Whirlpool, an American brand, he said people are finding alternatives. Sales of LG and Frigidaire have increased because \u201cthey are non-U.S. products,\u201d according to Shakoor.<\/p>\n

Consequences of the unknown<\/p>\n

Even if Shakoor isn\u2019t stressed about business, the same can\u2019t be said for Duane Thome from AC Flooring, who has seen a different side of the trade war.<\/p>\n

Thome said the flooring company has seen a similar influx of customers, with people coming in concerned about product costs.<\/p>\n

The issue is, \u201cwe don\u2019t have a full understanding of how our products are going to be hit, except we do know that the carpet side of it will be anywhere from 25 to 50 per cent increase,\u201d Thome said.<\/p>\n

From Thome\u2019s understanding, the tariffs will apply to the product\u2019s point of origin, though it\u2019s hard to know what that will do to pricing.<\/p>\n

\u201cEspecially the carpets, they can jump anywhere from $5 a square foot to $10 a square foot, and that\u2019s a huge increase to us and for the customers purchasing it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

This uncertainty puts his business in a difficult place, according to Thome, because employees can\u2019t give customers a final price right now.<\/p>\n

Canada\u2019s new counter-tariffs are scheduled to take effect on Sept. 8<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Read more:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The trade war between Canada and the U.S. is bringing more customers to some local businesses, at least…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":605121,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[85,46,321,125],"class_list":["post-605120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mobile","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-mobile","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=605120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605120\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/605121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=605120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=605120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=605120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}