Twenty miles south of Vancouver, British Columbia, on a peninsula that hangs down into U.S. territory and is officially part of Washington State, the tiny five-square-mile U.S. enclave of Point Roberts is accessible by land only through Canada.
Created by the stroke of a pen in 1846, when the U.S. and Great Britain established a border along the 49th parallel, the “Point,” as residents affectionately call it, is closer to Canada than the U.S. This means that the population of about 1,200 year-round residents have relied on the steady stream of visitors from Canada to keep their businesses solvent.
“Canadian customers are part of who we are and part of who we have always been.”
The friendly cross-border relationship began to crumble, however, when President Donald Trump took office in January 2025. As Trump systematically imposed tariffs on Canada and threatened to annex the country as the 51st state, a long-established equilibrium was thrown off balance.
This past July, the president signed executive orders to increase tariffs by 50 percent on a range of Canadian goods, including beer, wine, honey, fruit, and dairy products; in August, trade talks meant to mitigate the tariffs collapsed.
Canadians have reacted with a strong show of national unity by limiting travel to the U.S. A February 2026 Bank of Canada survey shows there were 10 million fewer trips to the U.S. by Canadians in 2025 than in 2024—a drop of 25 percent.
The fallout from the international trade war has left Hayton’s grocery business—and the food bank and customers that depend on it—in a precarious position.
“Canadian customers are part of who we are and part of who we have always been,” says Hayton, who has seen business at the International Marketplace decline by almost 50 percent.
Now, she and other business owners are scrambling to remain open and devising ways to lure Canadians back to Point Roberts.
A Food System Built on Cross-Border Shoppers
A recent advertisement for the International Market, which has lost customers amid the U.S.-Canada trade war.
Rather than a downtown core or quaint main street, the Point has a north-to-south main drag called Tyee Street, which is lined with several gas stations and the Marketplace. Homes are scattered throughout the enclave, on large rural lots. A marina along the southern shore serves as a hub for a handful of seaside restaurants that overlook quiet, sandy beaches and cottages.
The pace of life is slower here. It is a place where you can leave your front door unlocked as you go about your errands, neighbors know neighbors, and everyone looks out for each other.
Food security in Point Roberts has always been intricately linked to Canada. Before it had a grocery store, residents relied on small corner shops or travelled to Canada or Bellingham, Washington, for groceries. When the first iteration of the Marketplace opened in 1982, residents no longer had to cross an international boundary to shop; they finally had meat, dairy, and frozen foods readily available.
Hayton purchased the operation in 1998. At more than 33,000 square feet, the Marketplace is now the largest commercial structure in Point Roberts. It sells everything from greeting cards to cheese—and is the only source of fresh produce in the enclave, which lacks commercial agricultural production and market gardens. During lunch hours, the deli section serves as a gathering place for locals.
It used to be that on a summer weekend, the parking lot at the Marketplace—whose front entrance bears symbolic side-by-side Canadian and American flags—would contain more cars with Canadian license plates than those from Washington. Cross-border shoppers would fill up on cheap gas and stop at the Marketplace to grab some cheese and eggs on their way back home. Now on a weekend, the lot is barely half full.
Hayton does not completely blame the tariffs and the Trump administration’s annexation threats for the decline in her business. Many of her difficulties started when the COVID-19 pandemic closed the border for 20 months.
Although grocery items remained an essential supply and the trucks carrying them still crossed the border, customers from both Canada and the U.S. stayed away due to pandemic restrictions.
“In 2024, things were starting to look up again,” she says. “Then all the rhetoric about the 51st state [started].”
“I would love to have fresh produce delivered every single day, but when that truck costs me $1,000 to come across the border, I can’t do it.”
Despite its vital role in the community, keeping it stocked has some unique challenges. A U.S.-based wholesaler provides the inventory, which crosses the U.S./Canada border, travels through Canada, and reconnects to the U.S. in Tsawwassen, British Columbia, before finally reaching the grocery store shelves.
Because the goods move through Canada “in transit,” the store does not pay duty on them, Hayton says. But that does not mean there’s a constant daily stream of food into the enclave—especially now.
“I would love to have fresh produce delivered every single day, but when that truck costs me $1,000 to come across the border, I can’t do it,” she says.
With fewer customers, Hayton is looking at creative ways to keep operating expenses in check. Limiting food orders to every two or three days and reducing her operating hours is one way she can do that.
The complexity of getting goods to the enclave and the cumulative loss of business would have many business owners calling it quits long ago, but Hayton’s sense of responsibility, as the only grocery store on the “Point,” fuels her determination to keep going.
