Saskatoon restaurant not affected by province’s liquor boycott

Exactly one week ago today, Premier Scott Moe directed the Saskatchewan Liquor and Gaming Authority (SLGA) to stop buying alcohol produced in the United States.

The SLGA is where bars, restaurants and liquor stores get its product from and those businesses have had to since shift purchasing its stock more locally in order to keep the shelves stocked.

At Hudsons in Saskatoon, managing partner Greg Clark said his restaurant and bar were well prepared for tariffs and an anti “buy American” campaign to take a direct aim at his business.

Read More:

• Saskatoon GPS car tracker case: 70 charges and 17 victims so far
• Former Christian school director on trial denies paddling students
• Canada-linked team finds Saturn has 128 more moons, leaving Jupiter in cosmic dust

“We took a look at things back in the beginning of February when the first threats of tariffs were coming through. We did an assessment of everything that we had and where it was from — just to make sure that we were sort of aligned with what we felt were upcoming regulations based on what we were seeing with some of the things that Eastern Canada were looking to do,” Clark explained.

After completing his audit, Clark stopped purchasing American products and was prepared for the regulations that went in place last week. He said it took his restaurant about a month to work down on the American products it had already purchased.

Clark learned from the audit that his business actually didn’t have many American products on the shelves to begin with.

“Now we’re pretty much all Canadian or non-American products that we have. Some things we source from Europe, but the majority of our product is from Canada. It already was from Canada,” Clark explained. “Our wines, our vodkas, liquors, key spirits, have always been from Canada. A large majority of our beers were always from Canada.”

The only technically American products on the shelf right now are beers like Bud Light, Budweiser and Coors.

According to Clark, those beers are staying on the shelf because they’re actually brewed in Canada.

“That’s Canadian breweries supporting Canadian citizens, Canadian jobs, so we’ve continued to carry that product,” Clark added.

There is one noticeable bottle not being carried on the shelves at Hudsons and that is Jack Daniel’s whiskey.

Despite not having one of the most popular whiskeys in North America on the shelf, Clark said he so far hasn’t heard any complaints.

“We haven’t heard anything yet. I think things are just starting to get going with sort of the impacts and I would assume that over the next month or two now that you’ll probably start seeing people sort of being a little bit more vocal on certain brands,” Clark stated. “But again, I think everybody’s kind of on the same page with supporting Canadian brands and so we’ve had zero complaints.”

Clark doesn’t know where all of the trade war conversations will head next but will continue to keep doing what’s best for his business.

“Just like anybody else, we’re going to take it step by step and we’ll make the choices that are best for Canada and best for us and best for local,” Clark said.