N.S. Large Retailers Can Still Sell Non-Essential Items, Creating ‘Unfair Playing Field’
HALIFAX – When Premier Iain Rankin announced that Nova Scotia was entering a two-week lockdown, it effectively closed down many small retailers who only sold “non-essential” items, like clothing and toys. These shops can still do curbside pickup and online ordering, but they are not allowed in-person shoppers.
As of April 28, however, these new rules have not stopped larger box stores from selling their non-essential items, along with their groceries and pharmaceuticals. Huddle called Costco and Walmart locations in Halifax and both said they are still selling all items, regardless of their “essential” status.
This loophole has occurred in other jurisdictions in Canada during lockdowns. The issue got a lot of press coverage in Ontario during one of their mandated shutdowns. Smaller businesses were angry that larger chains could still sell all their items in the store because they happened to stock essential goods like food and medical supplies. In early April, however, the Ford government changed the rules so that all non-essential items have to be roped off, in order to make the economic playing field fairer.
Paul MacKinnon, CEO of the Downtown Halifax Business Commission was on a call Wednesday morning with government officials as part of the Nova Scotia Business Labour Economic Coalition. The topic of this retail loophole was brought up. According to MacKinnon, the provincial government doesn’t intend on closing the loophole.
“We had a couple of deputy ministers on the call today,” said MacKinnon. “According to them, at this point, the province is not looking to put restrictions on those larger retailers, in terms of making them rope of sections that have non-essential items.”
“There is going to be strong messaging coming out from the province, saying if you’re going to one of those retailers, you shouldn’t be going there for non-essential services – you should only be going there to purchase essential goods.”
MacKinnon admits this creates an unfair advantage for larger retails that sell a variety of goods and services.
“It does create a little of an unfair playing field. Technically you can go into Walmart and you can buy a bike, but you can’t go into an independent bike shop on one of your main streets, because they are closed,” he said.
“So, what happens if you go to Costco to buy groceries and a bike? We don’t have the answer to that yet. It’s something that we’re going to try and monitor.”
Huddle reached out to the Nova Scotia government for an explanation on retail regulations going forward but did not receive a reply prior to publication.
Unlike business leaders in Ontario, however, MacKinnon is not raising alarm bells yet over this loophole, since the lockdown is only for two weeks. If the restrictions go longer, however, there may need to be calls for more regulation.
“Certainly, if the lockdown extends further, I suspect what we’ll see is a stronger call from independent retailers to say…this is something that needs to become regulatory,” said MacKinnon.
“It’s a two-week shutdown; it’s probably not as big of a deal…but if the restrictions continue on for a longer period of time, it’s probably going to have to become regulatory.”
Patrick Sullivan, CEO of the Halifax Chamber of Commerce, was also on the same call as MacKinnon (Sullivan is the chair of the NSBLEC). He too is not worried yet about the advantage larger retailers have during the lockdown, because he believes most Nova Scotians will heed Dr. Strang’s orders about essential shopping.
“At this point, I don’t have huge concerns. And I would say that because, if people are actually listening to Dr. Strang, and people are staying home, and people are only going out for essential trips, then I don’t see people rushing to Costco… to purchase things that people don’t need,” predicts Sullivan.
“I think I’m being a little more optimistic than maybe I should be… but I don’t think people are going out buying kayaks right now.”
Sullivan did say, however, that the business community is still looking for clarification on the restrictions and what can be done during this two-week lockdown.
“What I’m hearing right now is they’re a little confused, actually, by the restrictions. So there needs to be some clarity about what exactly it means,” said Sullivan.
“I think it’ll take a few days for people to get exactly what this means and be clear about what they can and can’t do.”
The business leaders are also hopeful that people will continue to support local retailers during the lockdown. After the first wave of Covid-19 in 2020, even small, independent shops realized they had to have a digital presence in order to reach their customers.
“Most of our retailers, in fact, they’ve got online stores set up…so retailers are much better positioned this time around than they were a year ago,” said MacKinnon.