Philippe Bachand was in mid-vings when he helped open the family store one hour in the south of Montreal.
During the 37 years that followed, he has never seen such a radical drop in traffic and sales while the Canadian-American border was open.
After US President Donald Trump launched his trade war and sounded about Canada’s annex, income started falling in locking with volumes of narrowing travelers.
“January was not too bad. February began to slow down, then in March, with the new price and all this, my Canadian traffic was down 50%,” said Bachand, 63, whose workshop is in Philipsburg, Qué.
“It’s not fun.”
His experience reflects a blow by the owners of rights franchise on the country as Canadian travelers avoid the United States in the midst of anger, fears of border guards and degrading comments of Trump on Canada as a potential “51st state”.
Sales in rights in the franchise of rights have dropped between 40 and 50 percent across the country since the end of January, certain remote passages declaring a decrease of up to 80%, according to the frontier Duty Free Association.
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“He just fell from the cliff,” said executive director Barbara Barrett, whose association represents 32 stores. “It’s very dark.”
Mom-And-Pop stores, which sell tax franchise products ranging from maple cookies to the whiskey of the Canadian club, just began to bounce back from the Cavid-19 pandemic when the trade war hit, the owners said.
“I just woke up from my cocovated wood, and I have a tariff nightmare,” said John Slipp, leading to the franchise exit of rights to Woodstock, NB, that his father founded in 1985.
While the franchise stores of rights to land passages are less than less than three dozen, they can be cornerstone of the local economy in rural areas.
Releases are looming as a possibility if the company does not turn around.
“I haven’t done them yet, but I’m going to be,” said Slipp.
The frontier Duty Free Association, whose closely regulated members do not have the possibility of pivoting delivery or online sales, calls on the federal government to provide support in the form of subsidies or loans to cause disruption.
“We depend 100% on this trip above the border,” said Barrett. “You have to go to the United States to enter our stores.”
The number of Canadians returning by car from the United States fell almost 32% last month compared to March 2024, the third consecutive month in declines from one year to the next and the strongest dive from the pandemic, according to Statistics Canada.
During certain level crossings, the Americans returning home constitute most of the buyers. But the car visits by American residents dropped 11% last month against one year earlier, the second consecutive month of drop from one year to the next.
“It’s as if the Americans were shy to come to Canada,” said Bachand. He underlined the hoots that the American sports teams have received in Canada in the past two months.
“It is not welcoming.”
& Copy 2025 the Canadian press