Be Wary of Buy Local Claims

One of the rallying cries designed to support or encourage businesses feeling the COVID pinch was a campaign focused on buying local…..spending your consumer dollars are home to keep locally-based services viable.

In many communities, this was simply adding on to messaging that was already in place but for some it was new.

But it was also an opportunity for national firms to reposition themselves, to claim they were local or at least a conduit to buying local by featuring regional suppliers in various markets.

But some simply didn’t pull it off. A good case in point is something called Shopico.ca. Buy local, says the TV ad promoting it. It is a way to help support Sas-katch-a-wahn business. Huh? The very least you can do is get someone who can pronounce Saskatchewan to do the Voice Over if you’re promoting local because if there’s anything that offends the ear of a native of this province its mispronouncing Saskatchewan.

So, I looked it up on the Internet. Turns out Shopico is owned by Bell Media. Not local at all. It is headquartered in either the province of Ontario (pron: On-Ta-Ree’-Oh) or Quebec (pron: Kew’-Bik).