Globe and Mail's ReportonBusiness.com reports that Toronto-based Canadian Tire is ceasing use of printed catalogs and moving online:
Canadian Tire Corp. is quietly phasing out the printed edition of the catalogue it has been publishing twice a year for almost nine decades, with a whopping current print run of 6 million copies an issue – in favour of taking the publication entirely online.
But the Toronto-based retailer is not going out of its way to break the news to customers used to the sound of the catalogue thudding through their mailboxes each spring and fall, or picking them up in one of the stores.
The only hint it's giving is to say in its latest advertising flyer and on its website is that its spring-summer catalogue is “on line, available only at CanadianTire.ca.”
Interesting that they are quietly dropping the printed version of the catalog. It appears that the issue is purely financial, "Ms. Gibson would not say how much money the decision will save the Toronto company on paper, printing and mailing costs, citing competitive reasons." Canadian Tire Execs might want to take a look at Hasbro’s venture into printed catalogs and multichannel marketing.
Coincidentally Canadian Tire Corp. announced this on the day Greenpeace activists attempted to open a huge 100-foot long banner in the mall on Toronto that read "Sears, Best Buy, Indigo Books, Toys "R" Us, Canadian Tire and Kleenex = Boreal Forest Destruction."
Discussion
By David Watson on Mar 31, 2008
The reason for doing this was not the usual "print" vs. "on-line", consideration. Canadian Tire does very little on-line sales. The main use of their web site is for customers to look at things, and check prices before they go to the store. The reason they are getting rid of the printed catalog is the long lead time on prices and with currency instability between the US and Canada it is hard to predict prices months in advance. Which results in either lossing profits, or sales, if they are priced too high compared to Wal-Mart. Canadian Tire customers expect to pay the price printed in the catalog. By using an on-line catalog prices can be adjusted as necessary, reinforced by the printed flyers, which they print in the many millions. It is Quebecor that printed the catalogs, just another problem for them. (This information comes from an inside source at Canadian Tire.)
By mike despres on Apr 12, 2008
I do not believe for one minute that CT is concerned about long lead times on prices. But do believe that CT has become another corporate entity infested with people that have no regards for the strong traditions that originately built it in the first place.How about the poorer people in the country who do not have computers.I guess they are turning their backs on them also. I have a computer and will be damned if I will be forced to shop on-line. I will instead Boycott Canadian Tire.No printed Catalog ---No business.CT should remind themselves by remembering what happened to Eaton,s in Canada when they figured they were too" Good for the Common People". They also scrapped their catalogue.They have tried to Keep Up with The "Home Depots"by building big stores worth millions when all they had to do was carry the stock they advertised in their catalogues in the first place. In my local store here in Cochrane,Ont we were lucky to find one or two items instockof anything advertised in the flyers ,until the week before the "Home Depot" opened. Then the stock was endless,and magically appeared overnight. Everybody in town was shocked. Who says Competition isn,t good !!!Now they are talking about a bigger store. Why ???So they can fill yards and yards of shelving with empty storage containers.Who needs to display fifty garbage cans. At least when you go to a home depot you have selection.Sure you may pay more,but you can pretty well find anything you need there.I was never a big supporter of Walmart or Home Depot but now that CT has shown its Colors has ChangedFrom a Canadian Store who respected tradition and people, to a Corporate entity who Cares Less About People then I guess its time the rest of us change to.I will no longer buy things at Canadian Tire, And I spend thousands every year.Plus I will encourage as many people as possible to also Boycott CT.Maybe you can fill you store with Greenpeacers,see how much they spend compared to the Common Folk of this Country !!!!!
By John Roberts on May 02, 2008
You've got to be kidding me -- why are you so angry? As a kid, I loved readng the Canadian Tire catalogue as much as anyone - particularly around Christmass time; however, nothing is constant as change itself.
Canadian Tire Corp. (CTC) does not have it in for the "Common Folk" -- that's just a personal rant on your part. The Company is merely trying to profitably serve its customers in a changing world. Would you rather CTC lose money on catalogue sales and go under. Then, I suppose you'd have to shop at one of the US based big-box stores you love to hate.
Here's how I see it:
- CTC will be deploying the Web to offer customers better service, real-time information on price and avialability;
- the environmental issues associated with harvesting wood-fibre, the energy and carbon footprint associated with making paper (second largest industrial use of energy), print cataluges, etc. will be eliminated; and,
- CTC will lower its costs, enabling them to be more competitive and pass on the savings to its customers.
BTW, I have a lot of family in rural Canada, many in their 60s, some in their 80's and 90's, and all of them use a computer. It is not a matter of money (computers are dirt cheap, or skill, it's just a matter of taking initiative and responsibility for adapting to chainge.
This is a good thing.