How it happens5:26According to the Duty-Free shop owner, the business suffers how Canadian avoid the USA
If the business does not soon pick up its service, ANDRic Lapoine says he has to deter people.
“I have had three customers today,” said the shopkeeper, said the shopkeeper How it happens Host Nil Kӧksal on Friday afternoon. “It is a fraction of what we usually have at this time of year.”
According to Lapointe, the business dropped near Quebec’s border with Maine in the same period last year at the Boutique Hors Taxes de la Beauce.
He is not alone. Duty-Free businesses across the country, which are still recovering from Pandemic travel limits, report massive business conclusions in recent months because the Canadians are increasingly avoiding to travel to the USA
The Canada Border Services Agency at a 52 country border and international airports in Canada in Canada sell products, including tax-free alcohol, to cross-border travelers and cannot legally turn into deliveries or online sales.
“If we have no one who travels in the USA, we have no customers,” said Lapointe.
Less travel south
The turnover in Duty-free business has dropped between 40 and 50 percent in the entire country since the end of January, with some remote intersections, according to the Frontier Duty Free Association, which corresponds to 32 such shops, a decrease of up to 80 percent.
“It has just dropped the cliff,” said Barbara Barrett, the managing director of the association. “It’s very dark.”
The number of flight trips between Canadians to the USA in March sinks compared to the previous yearAccording to Statistics Canada. The flight dropped by 13.5 percent, while the rural trip fell by 32 percent.
The decline coincides with domestic tourism when US President Donald Trump starts a trade war with Canada and other countries and repeatedly threatens Canada’s sovereignty.
Several Canadians also said CBC that they had canceled trips because They fear an increased examination by US border protection officerssomething The Canadian government has warned travelers.
The Canadian Jasmine Mooney was recently Locked up in a US at home for 11 days Difficulties with their US Visa renewal application and has since described that they are kept under shocking conditions. Two German tourists And A backpacker made of Wales have also been detained in the past few months.
In addition, the decline in cross -border country trips goes in both directions. A car search for US residents decreased by 11 percent last month, compared to the previous year, the second month in the previous year.
“It is as if the Americans are shy to come to Canada,” said Philippe Bacand, who runs a business -free business south of Montreal and indicates the boos that have received American sports teams in Canada. “It’s not inviting.”
Demand for help
While duty-free business in the crosshair of a trade war and geopolitical tensions are caught beyond their control, the Duty Free Association border calls on the Federal Government to offer support in the form of grants or loans in order to find out the disorder.
According to the association, many of these business still recover from Pandemic losses.
“I just woke up from my covid cat and have a tariff album,” said John Slippp when he went to the great-free outlet in Woodstock, NB, drove that his father was founded in 1985.
A second generation Osoyoos, BC, Duty-Free Shop owner, said he was fighting to keep his business up to date in the middle of Trump’s trade war with Canada. With cross -border traffic, Cameron said Bissonnette, he doesn’t know how long he can pay for his employees.
Cameron Bissonnette is afraid that he will be forced, his Duty-Free shop in Osoyoos, BC, which has been in his family since the 1980s and which he wanted to pass on to his children.
During a recent interview with CBC News, He broke out in tears when he discussed the future of his family business, which in his opinion has already dropped from 15 employees to only three.
“There is a point where you have to have a real moment of billing,” he said.
The mayor of Oyoos, Sue McKortoff, told CBC that this is also influenced by the community when the business closes.
“The Duty-Free is one of the best companies in the city,” she said. “They very supported the city. They hired people in the city.”
Meanwhile, Lapointe says that he has no choice but to let the workers go if the sales are not picked up via the normally lively Easter weekend.
He says he doesn’t want to lose his business, which is close to his heart.
“I worked here as a student in 1990, then I became the manager as a deputy manager, then the manager for 20 years and bought the business three years ago,” he said.
“So for me this shop is my home.”
With files from the Canadian press and CBC BC interview with Eric Lapointe by Leïla Ahouman.
