Questions

What is NotFiftyOne?

A shopping tool that follows the dollar. Every vendor gets a score for how much of what you pay stays in Canada, worked out from who owns it, where it makes things, where its people are, and where its inputs come from. Each of those comes with the evidence. The vendors are then ranked by category, so the decision in the aisle takes a second.

Why the name?

Canada is not the 51st state. The mark is a 51 under a no sign. Where a dollar goes is a small vote on the question, and most people cast it a few times a week.

What does the score mean?

A number from 0 to 100. Roughly: the share of a dollar spent with that vendor that stays in Canada. 100 is a business that's Canadian-owned, makes its products here, employs people here, and buys its inputs here. 0 is a fully American one. A Canadian store selling American goods lands in the middle.

It's an estimate from a fixed formula, not an audit. Two vendors can both score 60 for opposite reasons. The vendor page shows which reasons.

How is the score calculated?

Four factors, each researched separately, each with a weight out of 100:

• Ownership35 Who gets the profit. A corporate registry or a filing beats the About page.
• Manufacturing30 Where the goods are made. For a service, where the work is done.
• People20 Where the head office is and where most of the staff work.
• Inputs15 Where the main inputs come from, and whether the business reaches you only through a US platform or US fulfilment.

Each factor is written down as a mix that adds up to 100%: how much of the ownership, the making, the people, or the inputs sits in Canada, in Europe, elsewhere, or in the United States. Each region has a multiplier.

Multiply the mix through and you get the factor's value: all-Canadian is 100, all-American is −30. The American multiplier is negative on purpose. American exposure in a factor pulls the score down; it doesn't just fail to add. The score is the weighted sum of the four values, held between 0 and 100.

Take a vendor that is 100% Canada in ownership, 60% Canada and 40% United States in manufacturing, 100% Canada in people, and 50% Canada and 50% United States in inputs.

• Ownership: 100 × 35% = 35
• Manufacturing: 48 × 30% = 14.4
• People: 100 × 20% = 20
• Inputs: 35 × 15% = 5.3

Total 74.7. That's a "Reach for". Notice what 40% American manufacturing did to that factor: 48 out of 100, not 60.

What do "Reach for", "Middle shelf", and "Skip" mean?

Reach for is 70 and up. Middle shelf is 40 to 69.9. Skip is under 40. The shelves colour the badges and sort the grocery aisles. They don't change a single number.

Why does the score change depending on where you buy?

Because the store gets a cut. Buy straight from the vendor and the score stands. Buy through a Canadian grocer and it's 90% of the score; through Amazon.ca, 75%; through a US retailer, 60%. It's why the same jar of jam ranks differently at Sobeys and at Costco.

A vendor appears in the grocery aisles only when a fetched page put it on a chain's shelf: the vendor's own stockist list, a chain's product listing, or a flyer. The flyer check runs every time a card is scored and covers Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg and Halifax, so a brand that is never on sale can be missing from the aisles while still sitting on the shelf. Loblaws, Sobeys, Metro, Save-On-Foods, Co-op, Giant Tiger and their banners count as Canadian. Costco, Walmart, Whole Foods count as American, because they are.

What does the "switch" flag mean?

One American hand on the wheel: a US parent, a factory that only exists in the US, or a product you can only buy through a US channel. The flag sits beside the score with a one-line reason and never changes the number. Canada Goose carries one. Bain Capital of Boston holds about 55% of the votes, according to the company's own filing with the US securities regulator. The parkas are still sewn in Canada, and the score gives it that. The flag says who decides.

Where does the evidence come from, and how far can it be trusted?

Every factor on a vendor page shows what it rests on: corporate registries, filings with securities regulators, the vendor's own site, the press, directories, and for the grocery aisles the week's flyers. Each factor also carries one word for confidence. Verified means a registry, a filing, or a regulator said it. Reported means the company said it, or the press did. Inferred means the researcher reasoned from indirect signs, which is a polite word for guessed.

A vendor's confidence is the lowest of its four. A high score marked inferred is a to-do, not a recommendation.

Ownership gets a stricter standard than the rest, because "foreign-owned" is a claim about a real company that has to survive being challenged. It needs a primary source, or two independent ones with at least one in the press. A directory listing on its own proves nothing. Directories copy each other.

What does the one-line summary under a vendor's name mean?

It reads the mixes back as words. "Canadian-owned · made in Canada · based in Nova Scotia" is owned by, made in, based in, plus the switch reason when there is one. The head office is never dressed up as the factory. A company can be based in Ontario and make everything in Vietnam, and the line will say the first and not the second.

Why is a familiar Canadian brand scored low?

Ownership, nearly every time. It's 35 of the 100 points, and a brand that was born here, still makes things here, and still puts a maple leaf on the box can send its profit to an owner somewhere else. Roots is about 52% owned by funds run by a New York private-equity firm; the number is in its own quarterly report. The score follows the profit, not the story on the package. The vendor page shows which factor took the points and the document it came from. There's a whole list of these: Not as Canadian as you think.

What does "Not scored yet" mean?

Found, queued, not yet researched. Scoring happens in small batches, one category at a time, and each vendor takes real reading. Queued vendors sit under a category's ranking until their turn.

Why isn't a vendor listed?

Coverage grows a category at a time and is nowhere near done. There's no form for suggesting a vendor yet.

How current is this, and what is "Method version"?

Every score records the formula it was computed with. Method version 1 is the only one so far. If a weight or a multiplier ever changes, that's a new version: every vendor is re-scored under it, and no old number gets quietly rewritten. Companies get bought and sold and factories move, so any score can go stale. The evidence on each vendor page carries its own dates.

Is NotFiftyOne affiliated with any brand or retailer?

No. No vendor pays to be listed, scored, or ranked, and no retailer had a say in the formula.

Who is behind it?

One person, in Canada.