What’s with Canadian Tire these days?

[Ceiling Cat]

They own Canadian Tire Financial Services, which can make them more money than retail stores.
Credit card customers are a cash cow to them, if they piss you off just threaten to go to Presidents Choice. You will see how fast they french kiss your puckering butt hole. How valuable is a card holder? They offer you $20 in Canadian Tire Money if you apply for a card at CDN Tire, They offer $25 in points at Shoppers, and $20 in points at Presidents Choice, because they will make it back on most people really fast. ( Not on me, I never paid interest charges. Cats are too smart to fall for that old scam )

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Tire_Financial_Services

 

[Robinto]

Canadian Tire profits rise 21% in third quarter 2010

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/canadian-tire-hikes-its-dividend/article1794867/

No matter.

I'm no Warren Buffet, but I bet he has some rules along the lines of investing in companies who's product or service you like, as opposed to those companies that you've become so fed up with, that you have decided to try and never patronize again.

 

[Ceiling Cat]

I hate Canadian Tire, but I have to shop there because there are not too many places where you can buy auto parts and auto related products. I also shop there because I never pay full price for anything, I buy before I need the item and at 50% to sometimes up to 80% off regular price. Why pay full price when you do not have to?

Before Rubby chimes in with YOU ARE CHEAP! I will tell him that THATS THE WAY RICH PEOPLE GET RICH.

 

[Asterix]

So you're rich as well?

 

[Ceiling Cat]

Lets put it this way, I can afford to buy things before I need them so I do not have to pay full price, and I can afford a better class of SP and do not have to go to St. Jamestown for alley skank like Rubby does.

 

[Robinto]

I hate Canadian Tire, but I have to shop there because there are not too many places where you can buy auto parts and auto related products. I also shop there because I never pay full price for anything, I buy before I need the item and at 50% to sometimes up to 80% off regular price. Why pay full price when you do not have to?

CC describes in part the single most important part of their success thus far -
the lack of competition in the automotive area. If I needed a new taillight tomorrow, I'm not sure where I'd go. But I'll bet I can figure it out.

Any suggestions?

As far as their 'other stuff' market goes, except in rare instances, such as certain catalogue sales, Walmart is cheaper for almost everything.

And for specialty sale items, lately, I have become aware that almost every item that gets featured in the catalogue - (including the little Coby camera I wanted to look at) is usually cheaper on Amazon.com. $39 at CC but $29 on Amazon. The only problem with Amazon, is that only a fraction of the sellers will ship to Canada.

I imagine, at least hope, that this will change in the near future.

 

[Keebler Elf]

Canadian Tire (like a lot of retailers these days) for the most part treats their employees as disposable. That is reflected by the attitude of said employees. If I don't really value my job because I can quit this morning and get another mindless retail job by noon, how much do I care about my minimum wage job and how much shit am I going to take from my dictatorial manager who couldn't get any better job than being a manager at Canadian Tire?

The answer is, "Not Much." Which is why the attitude of so many retail employees' sucks. They don't really value their job because there isn't much to value, and so they deliver the corresponding amount of effort.

If you want really good customer service-oriented employees, you've got to invest in them with training and pay them well. Not for the sake of paying them well, but to entice them to stay and get better and not jump to the next job that pays a quarter more an hour. But that's not CT's labour model; they want the cheapest help they can get. Which, to some extent, is understandable considering that they're going up against Walmart...

My question is, why the fuck are you going to stores in person without calling first? Yeah, their inventory system is inaccurate but if it says they have 10 chances are they'll at least have 1 (if it says they only have 1, I move on to the next store).

I have a different problem with my local Canadian Tire. For whatever reason, it's always out of stock. You'd think it must be really busy but the store just down the street always has plenty of stock so if I'm looking for a popular item I don't even bother with my local CT, I just go to the other one down the street. Usually works like a charm.

 

[capncrunch]

The only problem with Amazon, is that only a fraction of the sellers will ship to Canada.

Are you sure about that? I've ordered through Amazon.ca which, as far as I know, has virtually the same stuff as Amazon.com and never had a problem. The only item I can think of which wasn't available on both was when the Kindle was first released. It was available through the .com address but not the .ca address.

 

[Ceiling Cat]

At my local CDN Tire there are not too many faces I recognize from previous visits. The young people rarely stay more than 18 months. The only people that stay for years are old douche bags that have no other special skills and one guy that runs the auto parts department, He is 4 ft. 5 in. with his brush cut to make him look taller and very angry. I suppose he is still there because there is not much demand for Napoleon impersonators these days. He has been at the local CDN Tire for 4 years +, which is a record for people under 35.

 

[Greekstar]

CTC is trying to "upscale" their image and adding "higher end" crap where they can improve the margins is part of it. In time it will be only a housewares store and the automotive section will be at their "Parts Source" stores or whatever they call it. Then they'll sell that off and start to offer some cheap housewares in the Parts Source stores gradually increasing this until they call themselves "Home Parts Source" then start upscaling their image.........

 

[Robinto]

Supposedly, Walmart has a pretty high job satisfaction rating amongst its employees compared to many other stores surveyed.

The amount an employee gets paid, has less to do with job satisfaction than some people who posted here think.
I believe you could double the salary's of those Keele St redshirts, and they'd be happy about that for a while, but go right back to being surly, disgruntled, lazy bastards. Double it again, and they'd still hate the work, hate the store, managers, customers, their lives, whatever.

I had crap jobs I liked, and crap jobs I hated while I was younger. How I was treated by my managers had a lot to do with it.
And I'm pretty sure that most of these suspect Can Tire stores are simply mismanaged.

Hey Capn. I just did a quick search of Amazon.ca and you're right. I was surprised to see the amount of available stuff. Last time I looked on ca, way back when, I could only find books.
Good news. Thanks. Hope this works out.

 

[Robinto]

My question is, why the fuck are you going to stores in person without calling first? Yeah, their inventory system is inaccurate but if it says they have 10 chances are they'll at least have 1 (if it says they only have 1, I move on to the next store).

I missed this. But you sort of answered your own question. Because obviously, neither of us trust them to give an accurate answer to the "How many in stock?" question.
It's clearly in their corporate (individual store) interests to lie. If they say one, or more appealingly, two, and the customer shows up 15 minutes later to find none, then the customer can certainly try another store, but alternatively may very well buy something similar but more expensive, or maybe something else entirely on the way out the door.

I believe this company utilizes "bait and switch" marketing on a regional level, as a corporate policy. Why not as a store policy, one-to-one with customers?

Obviously, not every item in the catalogue is bait and switch. Sometimes I'd go in, and see hundreds of the items advertised.

Other times, a store would order only a couple, or evidently, sometimes, none at all.

It seems clear to me, that the Eglinton store ordered none, and lied to me about about it.

If you want to hear the whole back story, it went something like this.

The first redshirt I talked to, a woman, said she didn't recognize the item. "I never saw these..." she said. She asked another redshirt, who originally said they had none. He said, "Only the such-and-such store, (I think he said Sheppard) got 16."

I said to him, "This is a regionally advertised catalogue item. Are you saying there are only sixteen units available? In one store?"

Now the back pedalling began.

"Oh, uh, we had a whole shelf of them, but they're all sold."

"It's ten AM, on the first day of the sale. All gone? Regionally?"

"Uh, yeah. Uh, sorry. A whole shelf of them. But they're gone..."

The other redshirt, obviously not understanding the subtext, helpfully volunteered, "I never saw them..."

I muttered bullshit, and pretty much gave up on CT.

To hell with them.

 

[Social Gent]

Robinto, according to their customer service "hotline", stores will honour sale prices for 7 days after the sale technically ends - without even having a rain-cheque.

Saved my butt when it came time to get one of those "herb growers" last week as a x-mas gift.


For the most part though, CT can be quite the crap-hole when it comes to actual customer service. Very rarely do you find a staff member - even the mechanics - who actually know what they are doing.
Like the time they decided while working on my truck (I only took it to them because the one person F*d up and said I could use my CT money to pay for auto work) to crimp the wires for my audio-system's fuse to another set of wires, and crimped it so hard it actually de-sheathed them... Yeah, that small engine fire on the side of the 403 was quite awesome :S

 

[Ceiling Cat]

Robinto, according to their customer service "hotline", stores will honour sale prices for 7 days after the sale technically ends - without even having a rain-cheque.

This I have to check out, that means you get this weeks specials as well as next weeks at the same time. What is the number of the hotline?

 

[zarbe]

with the inventory system canadian tire uses, its not updated as soon as a transaction occurs. its updated after each store closes. the best way to get the item is to ask the associate to call that store and ask them to put the item on hold

 

[Social Gent]

This I have to check out, that means you get this weeks specials as well as next weeks at the same time. What is the number of the hotline?

Their customer service line, I believe. Off the website or flyer.

My brother called when I was looking for a gift for his wife - was going to get that herb grower that was in the two week advertisement, but I had the wrong '2 week' period in mind. So yes, he called, and they told him stores will honour the sale price for an extra week on things.

 

[Social Gent]

with the inventory system canadian tire uses, its not updated as soon as a transaction occurs. its updated after each store closes. the best way to get the item is to ask the associate to call that store and ask them to put the item on hold

Yes, I was going to mention this too. Zarbe is correct, like with most chains, their stock update system doesn't have an "immediate" calibration to it. It is updated every night after all the stores close. Best solution if they are being terrible at serving you, the customer; tie up one of their staffers and a manager while they stare at the phone, their list of other stores' numbers, while they both flip through the advertisement as though the product you are looking for from page 3 is going to magically pop-out from between the pages as if they were in a Disney movie.

 

[Rockslinger]

Lets put it this way, I can afford to buy things before I need them so I do not have to pay full price,

Too bad this strategy doesn't work for SP's. Hee, hee, hee.

 

[Samurai Joey]

I find it interesting how so many of the people here on TERB actually still shop at Canadian Tire (or have shopped at Canadian Tire enough to give a concerted opinion) given that (with the possible exception of the automotive parts section) almost all items available at Canadian Tire are also available at other stores, whether they be Walmart, Sears, or any of the smaller retail stores in Eaton Centre, Yorkdale Mall, Fairview, etc.

As for myself, I have not been inside a Canadian Tire store in years, and have no plans on doing so any time soon.

BTW, my ex-girlfriend used to work briefly as a cashier at Canadian Tire and she told me that it was possibly the worst job that she has ever had in her life, which pretty well confirms the speculation of some of the posters here on why so many of the employees are customer-unfriendly.