By Tom Parkin
May 27th, 2025
BURLINGTON. ON
Sales at building and garden stores are falling, most sharply in Ontario, a possible index of household discretionary income.
May is when sales of building and garden supplies peak each year as Canadians get ready to plant and start summer household repair projects.
But for the past three years, Canadians have been pulling back on that spending, and regional patterns echo other data about household financial strength.
Building and garden store sales down 8% from 2022 to 2024
In May 2022, sales at building and garden centres hit $5.70 billion, according to Statistics Canada inflation-adjusted data. But May sales have fallen in each of the past two years, peaking at $5.34 billion in May 2023 and just $5.27 billion in May 2024.
Totals sales for 2022 were $50.1 billion, $46.6 billion in 2023 and $46.0 billion in 2024, an eight per cent fall. And the spending declines come despite Canada’s population increase from about 39 million to 41 million.
The decline may be another signal that the cost of essentials — housing, transit, food and monthly bills — are eating up a larger share of income, causing many Canadians to cut back where they can, affecting retail sales and employment.
But the latest data from Statistics Canada, released Friday, does offer a sliver of hope that more Canadians are feeling able to spend on their home environment in 2025.
Ontarians have been pulling back on garden spending in each of the past three years.
In March 2025, the latest month reporting, Canadians rang up $3.24 billion in sales at building and garden centres, slightly up from $3.22 billion in March 2024. Sales in March 2023 were $3.30 billion and in March 2022 were $3.93 billion.
Ontario spending declines fastest
While in March 2025 Manitobans spent 10 per cent more at garden and building centres than in March 2024 and Albertans spent nine per cent more, Ontarians’ March spending fell nearly four per cent from a year ago. The second largest annual decline was in Quebec, where consumers pulled back one per cent.
Weak sales at Ontario building supply centres may help us understand why Ontario had GDP growth of just 1.2 per cent in 2024 and the second-highest rate of unemployment in April, 7.8 per cent.
Ontarians have been pulling back on building and garden spending in each of the past three years with lower peaks in May and deeper troughs each February. Last week’s data release showed $1.10 billion in Ontario sales in March 2025. In March 2022, sales were $1.53 billion. While several other provinces have seen declines, Ontario’s has been the fastest.
Consumer spending is by far the largest component of GDP, about double the amount contributed by government and business spending combined.
Weak sales at Ontario garden and building centres may help us understand why Ontario had GDP growth of just 1.2 per cent in 2024 and the second-highest rate of unemployment in April, 7.8 per cent: businesses extracting wealth from households have put consumers under attack and in retreat, starving other businesses and any need to hire workers.
The data below is interactive.
When your rent takes more than 50% of your pension then plants are not even on the list. Rents are out of control.
My expenditure on annuals(except veggies) has become next to nothing, I just cannot justify the money on something that lasts a few months. I grow a few annual flowers from seed. My seasonal pots are now filled with perennials that can overwinter. I spend my gardening money mostly on trees and shrubs, and these are native to my area. I buy only native tree species, and try for species shrubs, but depending on how large they get I sometimes get nativar shrubs, after I’ve done my research and know that they have excellent pollinator value.
The answer is in the title of the article. What an abstract approach to illustrate what most of us already know.
I think a lot of the reduction in buying garden supplies is due to significant price increases. Potted plants I used to buy a few years ago for $19.99 are now $29.99.
I just wait a few more weeks and get less variety but lower prices.