Holidays | Did Le Panier Bleu miss the boat?

Consumers hoping to do their holiday shopping on the Panier Bleu transactional site will have to wait until next year. A little less than a year after the announcement of the implementation of a transactional platform, scheduled for this fall, the project is still pending. If Quebec traders wanted to take advantage of this windfall, they will probably have to wait.

Nathaelle Morissette
Press

The Minister of Economy and Innovation, Pierre Fitzgibbon, will make an announcement on this subject during the first months of 2022. The Managing Director of Panier Bleu, Alain Dumas, for his part, ensures that the project is “moving forward”, without giving a deadline. Since its creation, the non-profit organization (NPO) has received $ 4.4 million in grants from Quebec.

When it was launched by François Legault’s government at the start of the pandemic, the Panier Bleu, whose objective is to stimulate local purchasing, had come under strong criticism, since it did not allow consumers to make transactions. We even compared the platform, on which there is a directory of Quebec merchants and products, to the Yellow Pages.

In order to counterbalance Amazon, in January of this year, Alain Dumas – who was then in the company of Minister Fitzgibbon – announced that a “marketplace” bringing together all Quebec retailers who wished to join it would be ready this fall. , just in time for Christmas shopping. The idea was to make it possible to make purchases directly on the site. It was announced that Desjardins and the National Bank were jointly investing $ 600,000, to which was added $ 300,000 paid by the Blue Basket. The identity of the company or organization that will run this platform is still unknown for the moment.

In a statement sent to Press by email on Tuesday, Mr. Dumas made no secret of the fact that he wanted to take his time. “The Panier Bleu project is progressing and we are confident of achieving the objectives we have set for ourselves. That said, we make sure to do things right and we take the necessary time to ensure that we meet the needs of Quebec merchants and continue the movement in favor of local and proximity purchasing. ”

Asked about this more than a week ago, at the end of the inauguration of the Winter Farm business, Mr. Fitzgibbon for his part replied that he should “make an announcement in the first quarter 2022 ”.

“We promised, we want to look for a transactional site, he assured. I think it is even more necessary, we are emerging from the pandemic, consumer habits have changed. Of course there is Amazon, Amazon will stay. But if we can allow our local producers to have a platform… We are working with different players. ”

The current Blue Basket site provides access to a bank of products and shops. When the consumer clicks on the desired puzzle or sweater in order to purchase it, for example, they are redirected to the website of the company selling it and can then proceed with the transaction.

Other ways to buy from Quebec

In addition, if he welcomes the idea of ​​creating a market place in Quebec sauce, François Vincent, vice-president Quebec of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB), affirms not to have felt any disappointment among his members in relation to the completion time of the platform. “We can already [acheter] Quebecois online. Just make two or three more clicks, he recalls. Whether there is this tool or not, the key is to change consumer habits. Every day is a fight to promote local purchasing. ”

In light of a survey conducted over the summer by the CFIB among its members, the design of a website dedicated to buying in Quebec is one of the measures to be favored in the promotion of local purchasing for only 29% of respondents. By comparison, 53% believe that we should “encourage government ministries and agencies to source more from local SMEs” and 44% believe that we should “intensify communication campaigns to encourage local purchasing “.

For his part, the Director General of the Quebec Retail Trade Council (CQCD), Jean-Guy Côté, would like to point out that such an initiative is not done “on a corner of the table”. “It is clear that we hope that this will be put in place as quickly as possible. But you have to come up with a well-crafted strategy. The worst that could happen to them is that there are bugs. ”