Photo: Kirk Penton

Kai Heinrich is the owner of The Purple Seahorse Pet Store in Kelowna.

A Kelowna business that has competed with big, multi-national brands for years is speaking out as shoppers start to take buying Canadian more seriously.

The owner of The Purple Seahorse Pet store at Willow Park Shopping Centre along Highway 33 wrote a passionate, lengthy post on the store’s Facebook page this week in response to the backlash against American products over President Donald Trump’s tariffs threats.

“So this week it’s all about supporting Canada again eh? This is something that’s been on my mind all day. I wasn’t going to make this post but after multiple conversations, I’ve decided to do it,” wrote Kai Heinrich, as he explained that he only supports Canadian companies.

He recounted a conversation with a shopper who came in looking for a dog food that is American-made.

“I told her the owners where she currently shops are great people and deserve her business but she should continue to support them, respectfully I won’t be bringing that food into my store. She was pretty upset by it but then we got into a conversation about how all our Canadian suppliers are shutting down and how drastically the changes are taking effect by supporting a foreign economy,” said Heinrich in his post.

He told Castanet that nobody seemed to care until last week. That’s when the threat of 25% tariffs on goods from this country going into the U.S. looked like they would go ahead. They have since been paused for at least 30 days.

“It was always about budget, budget, budget. Oh, I just want cheaper. I’ll go to PetSmart for a dollar less.

“The amount of times were heard that in a day is phenomenal. And then, all of a sudden, there was this big tick on the weekend. Everything goes viral and it was like, oh my gosh! We’ve got to support local. We’ve literally been doing this for 55 years,” said Heinrich, who bought The Purple Seahorse in 2020.

He wrote on Facebook that every single bag of dog and cat food in his store is Canadian-owned and manufactured.

“All of our meats except lamb are from Canada and raised without the use of hormones or medications. Our frozen foods come from either Armstrong or Abbotsford. Our main brands we focus on are located in the Fraser Valley or Edmonton. All of our dog and cat collars and accessories and made by a family-owned company in Whistler BC (RC Pets is the boooommmbbbb).

“We support poop bags and holders that are packaged in Vancouver by the nicest woman ever, alongside her two kids and husband who actually live right here in Kelowna. Our cat nip is grown in Kelowna, then sold in bulk or made into cat pillows by my mom (she’s really good at sewing and loves cats). The gentleman who owns the cattle farm for our frozen dog treats maintains the Argus lawns in the back alley and I see him almost every Tuesday with his wife.”

Heinrich says that even if tariffs are slapped on goods flowing both ways across the border it probably wouldn’t have much of an impact on his business because of the years of building relationships with local and Canadian suppliers.

Since the post went up he says the store has been “rockin”.