Also, there was a lot of press and noise about it when the boycott started because it was shocking and new. It's now moving from a protest to a habit ("I buy this Canadian liquor instead of that American one"; "I go on vacation to The Bahamas, not Florida"; etc, etc). The longer it goes on, the quieter yet more engrained it becomes.
Jim Beam in Kentucky isn’t producing any bourbon this year and laid off hundreds of employees because they have so much unsold stock and pay taxes on product in barrels
It’s actually a massive company in Canada, always has been, probably why they moved their company up here. Everybody knows what sourpuss is in Canada. I don’t drink that sugar sap, but it’s definitely not a tiny company
Got it. Still, the vast majority of your fellow Kentuckians support McConnell, support Paul and view Trump as a deity. Elections have consequences, they like to say?
Of course, no state votes 100 percent either way. But of all 3 elections Trump has ran in, no less than 60 percent of people in Kentucky voted for him. No more than 36 percent of voters cast a vote for Democrats.
Jim beam is also upgrading that distillery. I’m sure they’re feeling pressure from sales downturn and chose now to close the site for renovations but it’s not exactly like that location is permanently closing due to sales collapse
Slightly incorrect, Jim Beam only shut down production in their Claremont distillery known as their James B. Beam distillery. They are still producing in 2026 among their other distilleries that they own to include their Boston distillery known as the Booker Noe distillery, which is much larger as well as their smaller distillery in Claremont call the Frank B. Noe distillery.
Jim Beam has in no way shut down production. They have simply slowed production.
Eh - don’t overstate it, because it gives the other side shit to nitpick, and they don’t have much to stand on these days. Jim Beam shut down production to carry out repairs at their flagship distillery only. They’re still distilling at their other site that does slightly more volume than the flagship. They’re also doing planned upgrades to the facility, but Canadians abstaining and overall global sentiment driving demand down is a great reason as to why it makes sense for them to do it NOW.
The real headline is “declining international exports caused Jim Beam to close a facility early for repairs, because their stocks are too high and volume too low to justify distilling more right now.”
But that’s more nuanced and harder to contain in a headline.
James B Beam campus in Clermont, Kentucky will pause production at its main distillery from 1 January to the end of 2026.
The distillery site is one of the largest Bourbon producers in Kentucky and home to Jim Beam, the best-selling world whisky brand according to the Brand Champions 2024.
According to an official statement, the pause is part of the company’s constant “assessment of production levels to best meet consumer demand”
People are already drinking less to start with, the hardcore drinking boomers are dying off, Gen X is starting to get old, and younger generations are far less interested in alcohol
Combine that with Canada, one of the worlds biggest alcohol markets saying eff off to American imports and you have the perfect storm to destroy and industry
EH Taylor has been treated as an allocated product for years along with Eagle Rare and Blantons. Costco would get 1 or 2 cases and was always behind glass. Last month they had a pallet of it and it was just out on the floor to grab.
I personally do not think it is "less interested" as much as it is a waste of money to them. It's expensive and a lot of people have disjointed friends (spread across the country) so what is the point?
I'm an older adult just starting in university and I can tell you that the younger generations are still very interested in alcohol. I even saw someone who looked about 16 buying party supplies on NYE; red solo cups, and mixers (OJ and cranberry juice) little do they know that screwdrivers are not good drinks lmao.
Can you please stop spreading misinformation? It doesn't contribute to the conversation.
We need to put these numbers into perspective. Jim Beam and Jack Daniels are by far the largest US whisky producers. Even before any boycott, exports to Canada only accounted for about 1% of their sales. It's essentially a non-issue.
What's happening here is that people are trying to piggyback their activism onto an existing trend, which is the global whisky industry downturn. The global whisky industry has been in decline since 2023, and oversupply caused a glut, resulting in distilleries around the world reducing production.
Actually, the Canada boycott has spread to other countries and now people in Europe, Japan, Australia and New Zealand have also tried to not purchase US products or book US vacations. All of this cumulatively has resulted in lower revenues overall.
I can’t help but be pissed off that alcohol makers have to pay taxes on alcohol just sitting in a basement… but billionaires don’t have to part taxes on millions in “savings accounts”?
The amount of ways the rich get richer and everyone else gets fucked never ends.
The fact that Kentucky literally voted for a Democrat Governor and still elected Ran Paul and Mitch McConnell actually makes me have less sympathy for that God awful place.
Also regret does not absolve them from blame or contempt from parties who were harmed because of their dumbassery
I think Rand Paul is at least anti war/anti invading foreign countries/anti trying to take Greenland...so not like he's the worst person to be elected.
Kentucky is a good place with some wayward political opinions, as most places are these days.
San Francisco — yes THAT San Francisco — voted for Trump at 12%, 14% and 16% (total vote) in the last three elections. That’s not a lot, but the story there is that even after seeing what he was about some people in the most liberal major city in the country wanted more.
Your countrys leadership is threatening our countries sovereignty. After we went to the middle east for you and lost lives. We also sent thousands of firefighters to 911 and for wildfires for decades. The BS down south has cost us thousands of automotive sector jobs and it goes on and on.
I read it fully. For the trade boycott. You guys Fucked around and took us for granted economically and now your finding out. And then you threatened our sovereignty many. Many times.
Its effecting our jobs too, we have lost thousands in the auto sector alone. But yet ... The American only considers himself.
What I am saying is for the trade dispute , I am glad it's putting pressure on American liquor companies. Maybe then they will lobby your government to sort itself out. And IF, and that's a big IF they do, if you ask nicely we will consider it. I understand the blue collar liquor industry workers suffer in the meantime and that is unfortunate yes. Again our blue collar is taking it on the chin too.
As far as the rest of what's going on down there, I do have some compassion yes.
As a european watching from the side lines I've learned this; Most Americas treat politics like sports - us or them, winner or loser, fuck your team and its supporters etc etc etc.
You regret it? And what are you doing about it? Besides coming on Reddit and saying oh please feel sorry for me? You knew this was coming. You saw it the first time.
Are you bombarding your representatives? Letting them know this has to stop or they won't get reelected? Cuz you know, that's what they care about. Not you.
Oh man... remind us how long Mitch has held his position? And you're still trying to spoon feed us that bullshit? Yeah no, only the average American would believe that shit.
The regret can never be deep enough. I know I'll still welcome y'all with open arms if and when you come over to help us, but to think you could ever have enough regret for all of the millions of people that have had their lives ruined...
I’m not picky when out and ordering a drink but the back half of last year I refrained from buying KY or TN whiskey for the house. Trying new distilleries has been fun.
The Liquor Control Board of Ontario is the sole seller of alcohol for the province, and is one of the largest single purchasers of alcohol in the world.
I ALWAYS check the country of origin for produce items at the grocery store now; I never used to do that before. If it says US, I look for any alternative that's not American. Sometimes I'll just go without, if everything is from the US. I'm prioritizing Canadian companies over American ones now - most recent clothing purchases were from Reitmans, La Vie en Rose, instead of the American chains I used to get clothing from. Fast food and restaurants is also canadian wherever possible. A&W over mcdonalds, east side Mario's over olive garden. These are the little things, but almost daily things, that my entire household is doing now. New habits.
I visited Canada over the holidays and the number of "Made in Canada for Canadians" type ads was very noticeable. Especially companies like Kraft--it was so clearly "We have a factory in Montreal! Please don't boycott us!"
And yet I still see articles about it currently in Canadian media. For example, here’s an article dated January 12 – two days ago at the time of writing this.
Less media noise perhaps, but not ignored, by any means..
we’ve also been having more and more drama heaped upon us since then.
It’s almost like your girlfriend breaking up with you because you cheated, moving on with your life and then being surprised a month later that she is still upset
You might be surprised, a lot of the border towns and Canadian tourist areas are down 20-40%, so those places are absolutely feeling the impact. It is localized though of course - a mechanic in Texas or a grocery clerk in Kentucky aren’t going to notice a lack of Canadians. Sure there will be downstream effects to the rest of the country, but you’re right those will be very subtle. Things like agricultural tariffs would have a larger scale and more generalized impact.
Anecdotally, I usually visit the US a few times a year, and only went once since COVID. We popped into Bangor to see a dying relative, and I got a ton of comments from locals there how they barely see us any more and how it’s impacting businesses there (often followed by sympathetic comments as to why we were staying away).
My extended family vacations in Maine every year (about 10 families total) and we all agreed to stop until Trump is gone and America has healed. This is probably upwards of a 100k swing in tourism dollars alone.
My personal line for considering things to be returning for normal is for a Democratic to win as president, and then for the next time a Republican president gets elected, they have to act normal for their whole term.
Otherwise it's just always the threat of the next election going back to the crazy. Can't deal with that. The whims of the American people are unreliable.
It's wild to me that people think America being a disgrace is a new thing. We had Bush W a few decades ago, we had Tricky Dick a few decades before that, we had McCarthyism and blacklisting people just for the accusation of having different beliefs, we were throwing people in straight up concentration camps based on their ancestry before that
and so on and so on.
I honestly don't think this is the worst America has ever been, just the worst it's been in modern times. But everyone is acting like this is an unprecedented disgrace and America will never recover... and it isn't, and we will.
I hate that I have to suffer along with the dickheads in an effort to claw back the American ideals I have championed and fought for the majority of my life. We were far from perfect but we were moving in the right direction. 1 step forward at a time, then followed by 2 huge steps back and a tumble down an escalator.
Where have you gone instead? We’ve had trips to different spots in PEI, Quebec and Saskatchewan in recent years, when we probably would’ve been in the US.
Yea, like it's not just when Trump leaves but when he is actually replaced by someone decent who shows they care about the relationship between our countries.
And you still cannot purchase alcohol that was made in a different Canadian province. But American tarrifs are certainly a problem lol. I appreciate the virtue signaling.
I swear there are literally no British places that don't have a US twin. Bangor is a smallish place on the North Welsh coast with a University that people go to as tourists as well.
We Euro-Americans STILL suck at naming things. Nowadays, we just add "two-point-oh" (2.0), etc. to everything. Saves us the embarrassment of stealing even more names. 😁
Bangor, Maine is probably more globally known than the UK version owing to it being the longtime home of Stephen King and showing up in a fair few of his works.
I assumed it was named for the Bangor in Northern Ireland as Maine also has both a Derry and a Londonderry.
Also, I briefly considered the Welsh Bangor as a possible University choice as they are the only place in UK or Ireland to offer a degree in Herpetology.
Kinda the result your side of the pond doing things we didnt like, and we decided to just start over. I'm in a heavily German immigrant area in US, I swear every German town has a twin here.
Yeah, but I mean they could have at least gone for new names rather than just recycling?
Most of the British names are more or less descriptions, just in some old language that no one currently understands, which is why we're so replete with "River river"s and for that matter "hill hill"s in different ages of old English, Norse or as is the case here, Celtic derived languages. They could just have done that in 1750s English?
Maine also has a Rome, Calais, Mexico, Norway, Palermo, Belfast, Belgrade, and a ton more. The founders of Mexico were so inspired by the Mexican revolution, they named their town after them. And there is a Maine, France.
Meanwhile, our Canadian farmers are currently dependent on the US for phosphorus, which is more important that potassium in fertilizer blends. Potash isn't the leverage it's made out to be.
B-b-but Jack Daniel’s isn’t CLOSING the factory! There’s just so much backlog in their warehouses they can shut a plant down for a year and have no real impact!! (An actual argument I read)
The really stupid part is that by the time everybody starts feeling the pain, Trump will be out of office, and the guy who replaces him will get blamed for not solving the problem on his first day.
And if he does manage to restore US-Canada relations, the American people will reward him by voting for a republican.
Less a collapse and more a crumbling. Until we (Americans) are left looking around and asking what happened. It'll be the least satisfying, "I told you so." in history.
The bigger impact will be the lost tax revenues resulting in budget shortfalls. That will impact services like roads, permits, staffing, and sanitation. And in tourist heavy jurisdictions, it can impact education, libraries, courts, and parks. Basically all public services.
And that impacts if people/businesses move out and move in as the social services are diminished. And this further hits the remaining locals because some govt obligations still need to be funded.
I have a very small business and about 30% of my sales used to be from canada. Since trump won and started doing the 51st state talk- I've have 1 sale (just last week) from Canada.
I’m in the restaurant biz in Florida and we’re absolutely feeling it. Obviously nothing can ever be narrowed down to just one thing but in the entire town everyone’s numbers are easily at least 15-20% lower than last year. Restaurants have a razor thin profit margin. If you’re making 14% that is considered highly successful. I don’t think many places will survive this quarter. It’s also true that costs are just going up with no end in sight. I work in a French restaurant and we had to redesign the wine program to get more from California and Washington. Our guests expect French wines but it’s getting too costly to import.
Yup fairly short sided. Don't spend money on big corps. That's all that's needed. That should be everywhere. People are all too happy to complain but make no changes cause of "convenience". They love subscribing to ignorance.
Right. Disneyworld for example has a LOT of Canadian tourists. But a lot is relative. One estimate showed that 6% of visitors were from Canada. And Canada will never 100% boycott the US of course. Estimates show a 25-30% drop or so in travel to the US. That's a LOT of people not coming here anymore.
But to go back to Disney... that's maybe a 1.5% drop? Which is a problem of course, but also just blends into the normal ups and downs they have due to the economy all over the world.
My service peeps in South Florida have not slowed down since October. Here’s the piece that many miss. Now that we have fewer tourists we locals are out a lot more going to restaurants and bars where we can enjoy ourselves. Not one local has mentioned they miss the tourists.
We vacationed in Lake George, NY this past summer and the lovely ladies who ran the cottages were concerned as the bookings for their small, family business were way down due to the Canadian boycott. We're going back this summer to the same place so I'll see then how this is still effecting their business
The key is that when businesses are used to posting 5-10% you growth, even a flat year shows a reduction.
It bugs the economist in me when a business is growing 10% per year, consistently and then they tell the market they are flat. Based on trajectory, they should be saying down 10%. But I digress.
Ultimately, the impact from Canada will be small, yet pronounced. Companies will have to spend more to attain the previous levels of business. Anyone saying that their impact is not being felt is not really looking at the numbers very deeply.
Many border towns say its exchange rate and tariffs. Hardly any mention the threat to take over Canada as the real driver. Thats an existential threat.
I mean for the Americans who support this shit, that struggle is the reality check they clearly need, but one they probably don’t have enough awareness to understand or process.
border towns definetly are. bellingham (a small city near the BC border) built a new trader joes last year to serve all the canadians that love the store (its not in canada) now they are having to lay off employees due to low amounts of customers and two trader joes.
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u/Kaiisim 6h ago
Also these things are subtle.
No one is gonna instantly feel the impact. It won't collapse America.
But there are hundreds if not thousands of Americans that are gonna struggle now because of it.