Business owner says Canadians turned off by American stereo equipment due to trade war – Halifax

A Nova Scotia small business owner says tensions with the United States are causing him more major headaches because his customers are refusing to buy American products.

Brooklyn Audio sells high-end stereo equipment in Dartmouth, N.S., and is one of the only stores that sells these items in the Halifax region.

Owner Jody Crane says his customers don’t care if there are tariffs on the products are not. They just don’t want them because of their connection to the United States.

“It’s left such a bad taste in people’s mouth[s] with what’s going on. So everyone’s looking at any other choice other than American made, which is unfortunate because there’s a lot of great products,” said Crane.

He says his distributors have also taken measures to absorb 10 per cent of the reciprocal tariff imposed by Canada on some U.S. electronics.

Crane sources his products from Tri-Cell Enterprises, an audio distributor based in Ontario.

A company representative, David Geist, says they’ve had to move away from some American manufacturers, which is regrettable since they’ve worked with some of them for almost 30 years.

But his American partners are empathetic, Geist says.

“A lot of our manufacturers that we work in the U.S., they see what’s going on and they understand why we’re pivoting,” he said.

“They’re not going to be upset. They understand. They realize that they know that this is what we’re going to do.”

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