Canadian Tire

[SunriseChampion]

We have also pretty much suspended buy anything except food. The list is getting long once things open up but, for now, I don't need stuff to accomplish things I can't do anyway. I have a room to paint and a snowblower to fix so it would be nice to get those out of the way, but, meh.

I like your attitude! Well played...."meh". Damn right, "meh".

 

[interchange42]

Finally, Crappy Tire has emailed that my order from Thursday is ready for pickup. All they needed to do was walk to the shelf and get it.

Well, you have to account for all that time they probably spent wandering around the store looking for an associate to ask what aisle the thing was in…

42

 

[Towered]

Ha, true. I used to manage a business unit that sold to Canadian Tire. I would attend their annual dealer conferences three things stick with me.

First, they called their retail model the "self shopping" model, meaning find it yourself with very limited to no involvement with the staff. This supports the hiring of mostly low skilled and low motivated staffers who mostly point you to an aisle or if they see you coming will run another direction.

Second, they rarely have what you want in stock - I attended the category manager in charge of tires' dealer presentation where she said more than 50% of people shop Canadian Tire online or instore for their tires, but fewer than 10% of Canadians actually purchase their tires there, because she claimed due to lack of stock and no ability to quickly get stock. Go to a Green and Ross tire centre and if they don't have the tire, they get it from their depot or another shop within a few hours. At Canadian Tire if they don't have it, they can't get the tire you need for days.

Third, none of the leadership have any passion or interest for the products. I remember a senior VP coming to my display booth at the dealer show and the category manager introducing me and saying I make X product for them. The VP only asked, does it sell, yes it does, good, next..... The category managers are purely analysts, staring all day at metrics, and they flip from tools to camping to christimas lights, and back and forth across all categories. No one becomes the CT expert on welding, for example, since the category manager won't have used a welding torch in their life and would likely be terrified of one, instead she (and they're almost all females marketing to a primarily male customer - which is why they've lost much of the male customer base) is waiting to get bounced to another completely unrelated category before long.

But it must be working for the bottom line, and industry insiders seem to love them https://strategyonline.ca/2019/04/02/how-canadian-tire-became-canadas-most-admired-brand/

Thanks for sharing that insight. It confirms my suspicions that CT is just a corporate entity run by pencil pushers who couldn't care less about what they sell as long as it sells somehow through marketing. It really shows in their stores. Just look at the ugly, utilitarian, dated interior design. The ignorant, ambivalent staff. The aisles crammed full of mostly low quality, made-in-China junk. And their auto service and parts department is absolute garbage. There's zero passion behind any of it. How it's so popular is beyond me.

 

[lenaitch]

But they sell stuff, lots of stuff, and I suppose that is their bottom-line point. In that sense they're kinda like Walmart. If you are looking for something and are willing to wait, they do have good deals on name brand products Paderno,, Dewalt, etc. Their in-house brands are 'ok' at best, but many seem to be happy with that. Our local store is absolutely jammed full of stuff. I don't know if or how much local management (I don't know if they are managers or franchisees) has control over what they stock. The physical footprint has nowhere to go and they are constantly trying to maximize their space, to the point that I honestly don't think many of the staff really does know where something is. They try - they are supposed to take you there rather than just tell or point, but often they are simply unsure. I often think it's part of their evil plan to want you wander about the store looking for something - you pass by more product.

 

[Mariner35]

Thanks for sharing that insight. It confirms my suspicions that CT is just a corporate entity run by pencil pushers who couldn't care less about what they sell as long as it sells somehow through marketing. It really shows in their stores. Just look at the ugly, utilitarian, dated interior design. The ignorant, ambivalent staff. The aisles crammed full of mostly low quality, made-in-China junk. And their auto service and parts department is absolute garbage. There's zero passion behind any of it. How it's so popular is beyond me.

As one of those "Pencil pushers" I can confirm to you that is overwhelmingly not the case. However, with a franchisee model, it is incredibly difficult to get 500 store Dealers to follow every single directive that us at head office give to them. They are free (for the most part) to go to any outside company and order these cheap "made in china" products to increase their margins and ultimately their profit.

I promise you the passion is there. I see it everyday. The frustration is also there. For example, We have put forth many Auto Service and Parts initiatives that would give most dealers more than enough to increase the quality of their service departments. Some adopt them and the ones that do tend to be more successful. The ones that don't are usually a part of the "old guard" who think they know better than the corporation.

The Dealer model while it has its pros has definitely handcuffed us and our ability to modernize the entire store network. If you want a good case study just look at how long it took for us to have a robust online presence. It wasn't because the systems weren't ready or the corporation didn't want to go full steam. It was because the dealers didn't want to lose out on sales.

 

[Mariner35]

Ha, true. I used to manage a business unit that sold to Canadian Tire. I would attend their annual dealer conferences three things stick with me.

First, they called their retail model the "self shopping" model, meaning find it yourself with very limited to no involvement with the staff. This supports the hiring of mostly low skilled and low motivated staffers who mostly point you to an aisle or if they see you coming will run another direction.

Second, they rarely have what you want in stock - I attended the category manager in charge of tires' dealer presentation where she said more than 50% of people shop Canadian Tire online or instore for their tires, but fewer than 10% of Canadians actually purchase their tires there, because she claimed due to lack of stock and no ability to quickly get stock. Go to a Green and Ross tire centre and if they don't have the tire, they get it from their depot or another shop within a few hours. At Canadian Tire if they don't have it, they can't get the tire you need for days.

Third, none of the leadership have any passion or interest for the products. I remember a senior VP coming to my display booth at the dealer show and the category manager introducing me and saying I make X product for them. The VP only asked, does it sell, yes it does, good, next..... The category managers are purely analysts, staring all day at metrics, and they flip from tools to camping to christimas lights, and back and forth across all categories. No one becomes the CT expert on welding, for example, since the category manager won't have used a welding torch in their life and would likely be terrified of one, instead she (and they're almost all females marketing to a primarily male customer - which is why they've lost much of the male customer base) is waiting to get bounced to another completely unrelated category before long.

But it must be working for the bottom line, and industry insiders seem to love them https://strategyonline.ca/2019/04/02/how-canadian-tire-became-canadas-most-admired-brand/

This, unfortunately, is the weakness of some of the Merchandising team and it is a shame. I will say there are a few who are experts. Having worked with most of them, The Auto Category Managers are all extreme "car heads" and have only worked in the Auto department, some of them from when they were apprentice mechanics in various auto shops. The Hockey Category Manager is an ex-NHL player.

The vastness of the product assortment would cause this kind of inequality in expertise. I mean who is really going to want to be the expert of selling garage storage hooks and nails

 

[Mariner35]

This, unfortunately, is the weakness of some of the Merchandising team and it is a shame. I will say there are a few who are experts. Having worked with most of them, The Auto Category Managers are all extreme "car heads" and have only worked in the Auto department, some of them from when they were apprentice mechanics in various auto shops. The Hockey Category Manager is an ex-NHL player.

The vastness of the product assortment would cause this kind of inequality in expertise. I mean who is really going to want to be the expert of selling garage storage hooks and nails

@Admiral Beez Read your reply in my email but can't see it here. For what it's worth, you're not wrong. I make sure my team and I spend as much time as possible in our stores and we are quite far removed from store operations. I'm often in store 3-4 times a week on my own time asking questions

Dealers often do know ALOT more in terms of what our communities want and need. They have such a passion for their business and the customers and communities they serve. It is the biggest pro of the dealer model and why I wouldn't ever want to get away from it.

My only point is there are people in the corporate structure who are not mere pencil pushers and don't just punch numbers into spreadsheets and reports. People that actually want to work with the dealers. The rift between dealers and corporate was forged a long time ago and the only way the company can succeed is if there are people who want to fix it.

 

[Admiral Beez]

My only point is there are people in the corporate structure who are not mere pencil pushers and don't just punch numbers into spreadsheets and reports. People that actually want to work with the dealers. The rift between dealers and corporate was forged a long time ago and the only way the company can succeed is if there are people who want to fix it.

Good points and I wish them good success. I deleted my earlier post as I was getting too inside baseball for the forum.

Now, how do I go about returning my groomer product and exchanging it for the better one? I can't go into the stores. Edit, all good

 

[SunriseChampion]

As one of those "Pencil pushers" I can confirm to you that is overwhelmingly not the case. However, with a franchisee model, it is incredibly difficult to get 500 store Dealers to follow every single directive that us at head office give to them. They are free (for the most part) to go to any outside company and order these cheap "made in china" products to increase their margins and ultimately their profit.

Cool story but then why is all house branded product dodgy Made in China rubbish?

 

[SunriseChampion]

The vastness of the product assortment would cause this kind of inequality in expertise. I mean who is really going to want to be the expert of selling garage storage hooks and nails

I don't know.....maybe someone who has been involved in building homes and knows their way around the strengths and weaknesses of differing materials and designs?

 

[lenaitch]

I don't know.....maybe someone who has been involved in building homes and knows their way around the strengths and weaknesses of differing materials and designs?

CT is not really targeting that market. Their main market is folks who want a local walk-in store that enables them to be decorative/crafty/DIY-y, etc. on a budget. Even big-blue and big-orange struggle with this, although I believe their relationship with product line suppliers is different. At the retail floor level, in the beginning, I saw lots of sales folk who were ex-trades, ex-specialty store, etc. for whatever reason. That is really rare now.

 

[Admiral Beez]

Cool story but then why is all house branded product dodgy Made in China rubbish?

It wasn’t that way when I was a kid. Mastercraft power tools were equal to 1980s Craftsman, all metal construction. But it’s price, we can’t afford it. We don’t realize how consumer buying power has significantly declined since the 1970s, driven by globalization and the high cost of quality production and materials relative to the post war to 1980s.. We don’t want low China quality, but we insist on low China price.

Here‘s an excerpt from a 1963 Canadian Tire flyer. See #9 Heavy Duty Scroll Saw made in Canada or USA, $39.95.

That’s $341 today, but that'll only just buy you the cheaply specified, made in China model, when it's on promo from its regular $399 price point. A made in USA (or Canada) scroll saw that‘s equal to what Canadian Tire was selling in 1963 will cost you at least $1,500.

I used to exhibit at the International Hardware Show in Cologne, and a full four show halls were dedicated to China suppliers. A walk through there was depressing display of knock offs and ridiculous Chinglish plays on brand name knock offs.

They did have fun with the flyer back in the 60s https://ocanadablog.com/2014/06/20/the-sly-humor-of-vintage-canadian-tire-catalogues/

 

[gabe]

It wasn’t that way when I was a kid. Mastercraft power tools were equal to 1980s Craftsmen, all metal construction. But it’s price, we can’t afford it. We don’t realize how power consumer buying power has significantly declined, driven by globalization and the high cost of quality production and materials relative to the post war to 1980s.. We don’t want low China quality, but we insist on low China price.

Here‘s an excerpt from a 1963 Canadian Tire flyer. See #9 Heavy Duty Scroll Saw made in Canada or USA, $39.95.

That’s $341 today. That’ll buy you the made in China model https://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/maximum-scroll-saw-18-in-0556706p.html#srp. A made in USA (or Canada) scroll saw that‘s equal to what Canadian Tire was selling in 1963 will cost you at least $1,500.

They did have fun with the flyer back in the 60s https://ocanadablog.com/2014/06/20/the-sly-humor-of-vintage-canadian-tire-catalogues/

I got a drill and saber saw my grandfather bought in the 60s, from Sears. made In USA, it still works after 50 years! Talk about quality.

 

[Admiral Beez]

The only power tools I buy today are made by Bosch. Still China made, but at least with a modicum of made in Germany tolerances and spec. Everything else is badge engineering.

 

[Towered]

I don't know.....maybe someone who has been involved in building homes and knows their way around the strengths and weaknesses of differing materials and designs?

Ideally yes, but why would a knowledgeable veteran of trades go slum it at CT for a paltry retail paygrade?