Canadian Tire Gun Counters

[Dean2]

Was in the new Canadian Tire at Manning Crossing. Nice big well organised store. It has quite a bit of hunting stuff, some rifles and a large selection of ammo. Problem is the ammo is behind the counter, you can't read the boxes from the other side and they have no one there that knows anything about guns or ammo.

While I am very happy to see CT stepping into this space they are going to need to hire some people, or train some of their existing staff in how to sell these products. They don't need experts but they at least need to know what 30-06 and 270 ammo is. They also need a buyer that knows a little more about what to buy. Most of the stock was the cheapest, poorest built crap available on the market. Very little of what an average user would be looking to buy, let alone any high end stuff. I worry that lack of sales from having the wrong stock and no expertise will lead to many CTs abandoning this market prematurely.

[EZM]

Connect with the category manager and offer your assistance/advice.

CT can try out your recommendations in a pilot store, and if the results are good, you can rope them into a high prices "product expert consulting" agreement.

Opportunity knocks ..... will you answer the door?

[CaberTosser]

Every gun counter with ammo in the back should have laser pointers chained to the counter so that customers can direct the staff to what they want.

[ghostguy6]

Originally Posted by CaberTosser

Every gun counter with ammo in the back should have laser pointers chained to the counter so that customers can direct the staff to what they want.

Then the staff would be just like cats, they could pounce but still not get it

While I certainly like to see more stores carrying firearms and ammo I just can not justify paying their inflated prices for ammo. $100 for a flat of target loads when the same was $79 at Cabela's, $15 more for a box of .308 and $11 more for a box of 20ga when Wholesale Sports was still open. Occasionally they had some good deals on firearms but nothing that made me jump up and buy them.
I wonder if we will ever see re-branded Savage's being sold as Mastercraft (Mastercrap) firearms.
After Canadian Tire decided to drop the SKS's and generally lowered the quality of their entire product line, especially their hand tools, I no longer shop there unless I absolutely have to.

[Smokinyotes]

If you want to see a supply of rifles, ammo, reloading equipment and reloading components go the Neerlandia Co-op North of Barrhead. Their inventory makes Cabelas and P&D look pretty sick.

[Scott N]

My local Canadian Tire brought in firearms and advertised it quite heavily, now I noticed they don't have any firearms in stock any longer.

[Dean2]

Originally Posted by EZM

Connect with the category manager and offer your assistance/advice.

CT can try out your recommendations in a pilot store, and if the results are good, you can rope them into a high prices "product expert consulting" agreement.

Opportunity knocks ..... will you answer the door?

Interestingly I tried to do that a couple of months ago. I started with head office and eventually ended up talking to guys here in Edmonton regional office. They don't have a "Category" Manager for that specific area and the Sports guy was less than interested in helping out the franchise owners that were moving into guns. I got the clear sense that he actually hoped that whole segment would just go away. I think this is pretty much a franchise owner driven initiative from what I can gather.

May have to try talking to the Manning Crossing owner. With Cabela's right down the street he either needs to get serious about what he is doing or he is going to get kicked by Cabela's.

[BIG AL]

The gun/ammo aisle in the Camrose Canadian Tire is gated. You have to ask an employee to unlock the gate if you want to walk down the aisle to have a look. A real pain, and inconvenience!

[BlackHeart]

Originally Posted by BIG AL

The gun/ammo aisle in the Camrose Canadian Tire is gated. You have to ask an employee to unlock the gate if you want to walk down the aisle to have a look. A real pain, and inconvenience!

Its a trend in plenty of Canadian tires to lock shelves behind gates.
The Spruce Grove store....I swear has isles and isles of nothing but locked shelves.....to look at a $12 socket I had to have the clerk unlock the cabinets, stand there while I compared things, then take it to customer service herself.

Next item up....more locked shelves and waiting for a clerk to finish with another customer on a different locked shelf, to unlock the next shelf I wanted something from.

Its a sign of what is happening with this org as a result of what has happened.....and its not what most would think.

[CaberTosser]

Originally Posted by BlackHeart

Its a sign of what is happening with this org as a result of what has happened.....and its not what most would think.

Are you referring to this incident? Anyone could go to the lawn and garden dept of a CT or any hardware store and better armed than she was....

: https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/woman-...2018-1.3672699

[Bushrat]

Originally Posted by Dean2

Was in the new Canadian Tire at Manning Crossing. Nice big well organised store. It has quite a bit of hunting stuff, some rifles and a large selection of ammo. Problem is the ammo is behind the counter, you can't read the boxes from the other side and they have no one there that knows anything about guns or ammo.

While I am very happy to see CT stepping into this space they are going to need to hire some people, or train some of their existing staff in how to sell these products. They don't need experts but they at least need to know what 30-06 and 270 ammo is. They also need a buyer that knows a little more about what to buy. Most of the stock was the cheapest, poorest built crap available on the market. Very little of what an average user would be looking to buy, let alone any high end stuff. I worry that lack of sales from having the wrong stock and no expertise will lead to many CTs abandoning this market prematurely.

I dunno, in our CT the cheap stuff sells about 5-1 over the $800 - $1500 guns and the over $1500 stuff sits there forever. The cheap guns seem to be the majority of sales.

What you consider the average gun user isn't average. We gun loonies on sites like this seem to forget we are but a tiny portion of the market and the main sales are cheaper guns to people who don't always care or are interested in being connoisseurs. They want something they can hunt with, their kids can abuse and not have a lot invested in it and forget about it till next season. Family budgets are pretty tight for most people and fancy firearms are not a priority for the majority of folks many of which wouldn't know the difference anyway. They just want it to go bang and kill a critter at 100 yds.

[jeprli]

Southland and mcleod CT store has been my go to shop since ws closed. Enough of everything and from what I gather they will improve. Reloading supplies, guns ammo an everything else that goes along. For average guy like me it covers pretty much anything I need. If they do not have a certain rifle in store an can get it from supplier they will happily order it in. Guys that work there seem to know what they are talking about.

[Dick284]

DV CT has signage to please be patient, as they have staff waiting on PAL’s(required to handle/sell guns and ammo)

Looks like the new franchise ownership is upping their game.

[mattthegorby]

Originally Posted by jeprli

Southland and mcleod CT store has been my go to shop since ws closed. Enough of everything and from what I gather they will improve. Reloading supplies, guns ammo an everything else that goes along. For average guy like me it covers pretty much anything I need. If they do not have a certain rifle in store an can get it from supplier they will happily order it in. Guys that work there seem to know what they are talking about.

I am glad to have them in the South for sure. Really handy to go grab some ammo or whatever. Guys are alright there, one young guy really knows his stuff. The older guys probably do as well, but don't seem interested in showing me any guns or discussing ordering.

[58thecat]

Originally Posted by Dean2

Was in the new Canadian Tire at Manning Crossing. Nice big well organised store. It has quite a bit of hunting stuff, some rifles and a large selection of ammo. Problem is the ammo is behind the counter, you can't read the boxes from the other side and they have no one there that knows anything about guns or ammo.

While I am very happy to see CT stepping into this space they are going to need to hire some people, or train some of their existing staff in how to sell these products. They don't need experts but they at least need to know what 30-06 and 270 ammo is. They also need a buyer that knows a little more about what to buy. Most of the stock was the cheapest, poorest built crap available on the market. Very little of what an average user would be looking to buy, let alone any high end stuff. I worry that lack of sales from having the wrong stock and no expertise will lead to many CTs abandoning this market prematurely.

Jeepers did you talk to the manager/owner and express this concerns, our crappy tire here rocks because people talked and others listened, real easy solution.

[Dean2]

Originally Posted by 58thecat

Jeepers did you talk to the manager/owner and express this concerns, our crappy tire here rocks because people talked and others listened, real easy solution.

I would NEVER post something like this without having tried first to deal with the issue with the company. To do so would not be fair to them, and pretty much amounts to whining in my view.

There was np owner in when I was there. No manager available. Left a message asking one of them to call me. Almost a week gone by, no call back. I may try again if I go back in there but probably not real hard given how little effort they have put into getting back to me. Your customers should not be your quality control inspectors. That said, glad it worked out in your area, gives me an incentive to try again here.