Lies, damned lies, and statistics

Sign on the exit door at Rona, Vancouver, BC

I saw this sign on the door at a Rona store. Based on this one could assume that lots of the stuff that Rona sells is made in Canada. But that is not what this says.

84 percent is purchased in Canada. There are no listed statistics about how much is actually made in Canada. And there is no indication if this figure is based on the dollar value of purchases or the units purchased.

And the consumer who was not paying attention might not sort out the semantics and draw the obvious conclusion that buying from a Canadian supplier does not mean that the goods purchased are made in Canada.

I wonder what percentage of the products that Rona sells are actually made in Canada. Instead of 83% I would guess that it is probably closer to 16%.