As the after-shocks of the pandemic lockdowns continue to be felt and various wars drag on, it’s not surprising to hear that the marginal consumer is cutting back. What’s really notable is that historically Canadian Tire has often been touted as a recession-proof company. Maybe not anymore.
Consumer weakness spilled into full view in Canadian Tire Corp.’s third quarter as its customers curbed spending on non-essential items, pushing comparable sales down 1.6 per cent relative to the previous year.
Spin Master Corp., a Toronto-based toymaker that sells brands such as Paw Patrol and Bakugan, reported a 29 per cent decline in gross sales of toy products in Canada in the first nine months of the year, compared with a 20 per cent drop in the U.S.
When your dollar doesn’t go nearly as far as before, you cut down on the non-essentials, and Canadian Tire is 90%+ non-essentials.
Yup. A store full of bargains.
Definition of a bargain: something you don’t need at a price you can afford.
Last time I was at a CT, I was shopping for a rice cooker. No deal. Sure, they had some of those idiotic pod coffee machines, but no rice cookers. A short drive to Wallmart, $12.99 later, I had a rice cooker.
PS:
We have indeed been taken over by pod people.
That’s a damn shame, because you can cook a lot of different foods woth them. It’s also hard to best the value of rice.
In Canada:
Essentials is food, shelter, energy and some tool to use that energy to heat your shelter in the winter.
Non-essentials is everything else.
There are people on this Earth who only have essentials, their lives are Hobbsian.
Our own leaders want that misery inflicted on us.
CT is basically Wallmart – food and + a garage now, except, unlike Wallmart, CT has dumb teens to misinform you on the location and features of their products, whose pay is baked into their prices.
Princess Auto is now what CT once was.
Paw Patrol is likely enjoying the broke part of going woke, a trans character in a show about dogs isn’t what most parents are looking for.
What!? The Consumer doesn’t have a spare $2,000.00 laying around to buy a Canada Goose fur-lined parka?
Those who don’t are nothing but leaches, eh?
I’ve noticed more shitbox cars on the road.
Seems like the ’80’s have returned.
Makes and models? Methinks you are full of it.
In the 80s, a shitbox could be had for less than 10 grand.
I remember back to the mid eighties one could buy a Nissan King Cab entry level 2.4 litre
pick up off the dealer’s lot for under $8 grand…. Nothing fancy but effective.
Many people are driving their older cars until they finally crap out. We have a four year old SUV and a 17 year old sedan. The 17 year old vehicle is used every day.
2005 Toyota pickup w/185,000 miles
1999 Honda sedan w/212,000 miles
The Honda is driven daily (30mpg) with fingers crossed. I wish I could buy this vehicle again, brand new.
Canadian Tire reward points are basically crypto currency, so there’s that.
Take it away Tom…..
https://youtu.be/jt0qVqwDUUA?si=x2wakN35e2Zc8zSt
Oh, so the invisible hand of the free market can’t be legislated out of existence then?
Someone better warn the cabinet that someone has to tell PM Leisure Suit Larry.
CT branched out into markets that have better prices elsewhere. Buying something at full price at CT is silly. They also may have overextended themselves via their acquisition train to beyond what they were capable of supporting. But hey, it’s “a lot more than just tires.”
Oh I don’t know, it may have had something to do with yelling at customers about mask wearing as well as selling cheap crappy junk products that break after one use…ie Mastercrap.