It Takes a Lawyer to Shop at Canadian Tire

If the title of this post makes you think that you're about to read a rant against Canadian Tire, right up front I'll say that this isn't the case. Actually this is about something that happened that caused me to laugh and wonder about the marketing smarts of this retail giant and, for that matter, some of their competitors. Let's begin with a bit of make-believe.

Imagine that your favourite retailer tells you that it has opened a new store. This one is closer, offers a wider selection and promises a convenient shopping experience. Enthusiastic about this welcome development, you make your way over to this new store to check it out.

When you arrive at the store you see a confused mass of people near the entrance which is blocked by a line of burly security guards. You move closer, curious about what's is going on. On the wall above the guards is a large billboard display with a lot of text in small typeface. Most of the faces are looking up at it with looks that range from bewilderment and boredom to anger. You sensibly pay no attention to all of this and move through the small crowd. A guard blocks your path and hands you a slip of paper.

He tells you that you must sign the piece of paper before entering the store. His demeanour brooks no argument. You soon see that the paper contains the same text that is up on the billboard, and it contains a lengthy legal agreement. Skimming the text you see a lot of legalistic language about what you are and are not allowed to do in the store, various privileges that you grant to the store over you and your private information, and so forth.

It's all a bit much to read and to understand, and especially not now that you are here at the store and ready to spend your money. You are a long-standing customer of this retailer so you have some loyalty but you also are annoyed at this encumbrance. So what do you do: toss the paper on the ground and leave or sign it without really reading it and go about exploring the store? You notice that most people in the crowd make their decisions quite quickly, by signing the paper and walking through the entrance.

This story is just a bit bizarre, yet it is exactly what happens when you attempt to use the Canadian Tire app on the Android Market. If you don't accept the enormous legal agreement and all of its terms and conditions, the app exits and denies you the opportunity to shop at Canadian Tire. This is a peculiar way of doing business for a retailer, especially since the market is very competitive, and is about to become even more competitive now that Target, the US retail giant, is moving into Canada. It's astounding to me just how oddly many companies behave on the web or in the newer mobile app world; they either have a terribly low opinion of their customers or they value internal corporate processes more than reaching out to their customers.

Speaking of Target, I decided to check out their app and that of a few other large retailers to see if they were any better. Target does not force you to agree to terms and conditions when you enter the app; they are available to view at your convenience. Well, almost but not quite. When I attempted to do so the app froze during the download. It did this every time I tried. So much for quality.

Best Buy did better, being more welcoming and not misbehaving, but they scored poorly on geographical awareness. It was funny how they successfully used my location to correctly determine my postal code, but when it tried to find the nearest store it choked because it only understood US zip codes. This is clearly only intended for the US market. That's fine if that's their intention, although they should have considered putting a geographical restriction of the app in the Android Market -- which is supported -- to avoid consumers a substantial number of potential customers.

I don't use mobile phone apps for shopping so all of these inconveniences don't impact me. I downloaded the Canadian Tire app to do some research on smart phone apps for my own business reason. That reason was enough to get me to finally agree to their conditions; the research requirement was of greater importance than worrying about the terms and conditions. Although I got what I came for, I am still left shaking my head at Canadian Tire's clumsy entrance into the mobile app world.