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Another Retail Invasion Fails
Lowe’s has surrendered in the retail battle for Canada’s hardware soul. Much like the $2.1 billion beating that Target took in 2015. Lowe’s has sold its Canadian operations for $400 million to a Wall Street private equity group. Lowe’s entered the treacherous waters of Canadian retail in 2016 with the $2.4 billion purchase of Rona. (A large independent retailer of lumber, construction materials, and related hardware).
Why do American retailers fail here? Do executives get off the plane, see McDonald’s, Wendy’s, and Burger King, notice no language barrier, and start making incorrect cultural assumptions that drive their Canadian subsidiary to ruins?
The sad tale of corporate incompetence that once was Target Canada has made for several interesting books and business-school case studies. Mostly blaming the consultants (SAP) who created an inventory system that couldn’t function with bilingualism, metric, or dollar conversions. It was a train wreck of epic proportions, but management was undeterred to opening 133 large store locations with the unproven inventory system.
It’ll be interesting to see what went wrong with Lowe’s that caused them to throw in the towel after five years. (The outlook for the Canadian economy probably was a factor in forcing the timing on this as well)
The official reporting from the Financial Post.
Published in Business
Because its metric, its french, its backwards. Frankly as good as an explanation as google came up with.
Sometimes someone just wants a small number to be better than a big number, versus a big number better than a small number.
Another example: womens’ waist size vs chest size.
Actually the women like being ageless.
Women have been so hard hit, they’ve been scientifically erased. They’re now mythological creatures who receive babies from Storks. The unsettling settled science of the last 5000 years must be rewritten because it completely disregards how we feel about our socially constructed and imagined bathroom equipment.
Not when it comes to dudes and their cars. They want the more of everything… Horse Powers, Torques, Miles in an hour or a gallon… Moar!!!
They want lower wind resistance!
There I’ve run rings around you, logically!
Yes, but this is why we dont sell cars based on wind resistance …
But that’s all true. Women are mysterious goddesses who who are said to give birth to storks carrying babies in their beaks.
Just hope the beak isn’t sideways.
I think it’s open to carry the baby, but I’m not a biologist.
Too much salt.
No, but that’s why I don’t go to Round Table.
Next time try Pacifico, it’s much better than Corona.
I’ll keep it in mind and give it a try.
Their breakfast sandwiches are teeny compared to the macDonalds equivalents.
Or Jack-In-The-Box! (I think the McDonald’s ones have been getting smaller, actually.)
Get them on a bagel instead. Its the same price but twice the size.
I sometimes hit the Tim’s on East Lake BLVD before work and have the Maple Bacon Breakfast Sandwich on a bagel.
I could see it being double the “bread,” but not the meat/cheese/etc.
Yes, but its more filling.
Plus they serve breakfast all day — a big selling point for those of us who are decidedly not morning people!
And there is a Tim Horton’s in Bellfontaine, Ohio, that had good coffee in 2008, in the week before the stock market went into free-fall. I got my coffee there several times. It was not as good as what I make at home with freshly roasted beans and a French press, of course, but it was good for coffee on the road. I haven’t been able to repeat the experience since then, but I still do get a coffee at Tim Horton’s sometimes. I’ve been back to Bellfontaine since then, too.
A lot of coffee shops don’t make coffee that’s anything special, either.
I hated Timmy’s coffee until they brought out the dark roast. its pretty good.
As an apprentice coffee snob, I prefer lighter roasts, though not the lightest roasts. The problem is, there is not much point unless I’m drinking my coffee leisurely out of a ceramic mug in a quiet place where I can savor it.
For drinking and driving, darker roasts are better.
Most coffee shops (including some chains) that do their own roasting do it way too dark. So if I want a dark roast, I might select one of their light or medium roasts.
Also, if the coffee is going to be put into a thermos, a non-acidic coffee like Sumatra Mendheling from a dark roast can still be drinkable following the abuse.
On an all-day bicycle ride I’ll try to stop at a Tim Hortons, McD, or gas station (you can find decent, fresh-brewed coffee in a lot of gas stations these days) and order a large coffee. Most of it gets poured into my Fellow thermos to drink later. The remainder will quickly cool to drinking temperature, and I’ll have that with my food and then get back on the road quickly. Later in the day I might stop and set up my Helinox Chair Zero in a shady spot and sip on my coffee while checking Ricochet to make sure everybody has been behaving well. Dark roasts work best for that.
Unfortunately, since 2008 Tim Horton’s has changed their coffee, based on the last few times I’ve had it when up that way. I used to get Tim Horton’s food and coffee regularly when I lived in central Ohio and would make sure I brought some of their coffee with me once I moved away. However, sometime in the mid 2010s they changed their standard coffee from something that I perceived to be a Kenyan coffee to something else altogether that was not nearly as good. Unfortunately, I don’t know that any of their blends are what they were selling when you had it.
I was reminded of another American Juggernaut brand that failed in Canada.
Krispy Kream. (no wonder kids can’t spell) – while they haven’t left – they only have 11 stores for the entire country.
That’s the Canadian market.
If you are a donut company thats all well and good but you need to be known by your coffee.
I am not a coffee drinker, I didnt like the Krispy Kreme doughnut – way too sweet. Krispy Kream was only in town for about a year, before the store closed.
P.S. It’s Kreme. Krispy Kreme.