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Monday, November 01, 2010

apparently Ottawa does not have enough places to buy food...

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...because now "Canadian Tire is consistently working towards becoming a one-stop shopping destination for our customers" by expanding its food program to all Ottawa locations.

This, according a release I got in my inbox today. LOL.

The strategy here is, frankly weird. CT cares enough about promoting its food that it has procured the services of a PR firm to SPECIFICALLY promote food in its Ottawa stores to Ottawa food bloggers.

For those not in the know, CT is a Canadian icon, classically a tire/hardware/outdoors store, more recently popular for small appliances and housewares, and now seems to be attempting to turn itself into more of a Walmart than a friendly hardware store.

Anyway, CT is popular because of their frequent fabulous sales (think: 70% off expensive things like tools and pot sets). I'm not sure why they think they need food to get more people through the door.

Especially when I just checked out CT's online flyer, and it MENTIONS that there is food, but the only specific examples are sugar and chocolate. Which, *clearly* will motivate the average food buyer to run right out to Canadian Tire. Really, it's exactly what I'm seeking the day after Hallowe'en. More sugar and more chocolate. :p

So, while I may check out the food section of CT when I'm there, I seriously doubt that this is a move that's going to drive up traffic to their stores. Especially when the CT nearest me is located right across the street from a large grocery store, a medium-sized grocery store and a walmart. Also odd is there is no online version of the news release I was sent (trust me, you're not missing much). Weird, weird, weird.

With all that, welcome to NaBloPoMo. Where I attempt to dig myself out of my blogging funk. :p Thanks for reading! I swear I will share more recipes soon, bear with me.

5 comments:

PG said...

Seems about as appealing as groceries at Walmart. I've only purchased groceries at Walmart one time when I was in California and didn't know where else to go. Was shocked at the high proportion of pre-packaged foods to fresh food.

Mary said...

I learned about this last month, when I returned a rental truck around the corner from the CT on Carling. I was walking home, saw the sign, and decided to check it out. I ended up getting milk, juice, eggs, cereal, and plain yogurt. They also had 1kg bags of frozen raspberries and sour cherries, along with lots of packaged stuff. I was really surprised, and am now a bit nostalgic, because the closest grocery store in my new neighbourhood is a Giant Tiger, and that's even scarier!
:)

Lana said...

I got that release too and saw groceries and tires in the same sentence and hit delete.

Janny A. said...

Saw this one on the news last night and almost thought it was a joke! Maybe they are aiming towards the single guys that spend too much time at CT, and for them it'd be convenient? I dunno, but it's odd for sure...

foodiePrints said...

Precisely what Lana said!

Saw the flier on the weekend, and thought...Hey, I've read this was coming somewhere before... * Recycle * :)

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