Buying Canadian This Season? Our Local Shops Need You, Too.
Across Nova Scotia, people are making a conscious effort to buy Canadian. We are choosing local shops, artisans, and small businesses over big box chains. It’s a movement rooted in pride and purpose: keeping money in the community, supporting jobs close to home, and strengthening our provincial economy.
But as shelves fill and holiday demand builds, another reality sets in. Many of those same local shops are struggling to find enough staff to keep up.
Retail is at the heart of this seasonal surge, yet countless small businesses are facing shortened hours, limited stock rotation, and customer service gaps simply because they don’t have enough people to help.
This is also true for bigger stores where holiday sales make or break a business and companies.
The Local Retail Challenge
The fall-to-winter transition brings both excitement and anxiety. The holiday season represents their biggest sales window of the year, but many lack the team needed to handle it.
Nova Scotia’s unemployment rate remains steady, but the number of people available for part-time, short-term, or flexible work is far greater than most realize. Many of them, skilled, experienced individuals, aren’t applying to full-time retail roles because they can’t commit to a rigid schedule. They may be managing chronic health conditions, caring for family members, or balancing other responsibilities.
That doesn’t mean they don’t want to work. It means they need a different kind of opportunity.
Temporary Experts bridge that gap by connecting businesses that need short-term help with people who have the skills, reliability, and professionalism to deliver flexibly working for the workers and the employers.
Retail Work, Reimagined
Short-term retail help might look like:
- A few shifts each week during peak shopping hours,
- Weekend help at holiday markets or pop-up shops,
- Evening shifts for stocking, decorating, or wrapping,
- Or a two-week project helping organize back-room inventory before sales begin.
These smaller, focused commitments make it easier for both sides, employers get the coverage they need, and workers can contribute meaningfully without overextending themselves.
Why This Matters for Nova Scotia
When local businesses can stay open longer, serve more customers, and meet demand, the benefits ripple outward. More local sales mean stronger communities, steadier small-business growth, and greater resilience across our province.
Buying Canadian is an act of support. Working Canadian is, too.
Every short-term retail shift filled, every small shop that stays open late, and every customer served by a smiling local face contributes to the same goal: keeping Nova Scotia’s economy vibrant, inclusive, and close to home.
Ready to Join the Movement?
If you’re a retailer gearing up for the holiday season, now’s the time to build your bench. Create a project on Temporary Experts and find flexible, short-term help in your area, fast.
If you’re someone looking to earn extra income this season, or just want to be part of your local community again, create your free profile today. Choose your hours, set your pace, and find work that fits your life.
When you shop Canadian this season, remember… local businesses don’t just need customers. They need people!
