Canadian Tire has issues...

I'm not speaking for ALL Canadian Tire stores, just the one near me, this store always has issues with shoplifters, and I always see police cars in front of the store. I don't understand do they not have security cameras??? if they're having such issues they need to do something about it! or close down the store...I don't know.

Just a couple days ago I went in to purchase some earbuds, which were locked, so first I went to this CS desk near the paint section just to see if I could get someone to come and unlock the thing, there were 2 employee's at a computer, one was looking up an item and the other? keeping the other one company I guess..because they were talking nonstop and laughing their @sses off! while I stood there for 5 mins! after that I got annoyed and left looking for another "helpful" employee.
I found a woman, again asking if I could get some help, she said her shift was over but she could call someone to my aisle, so I went back to my aisle, waited there for 5 mins, no one came! went in the other direction and tried to find ANOTHER employee, found another employee, he said he'll be right back just has to get the key, so again I went back to my aisle and waited.....and waited.....and waited, after another 5 mins. I saw him casually walking by the other end of my aisle helping someone else! WTF!! so AGAIN I went and tried to find another employee, after going through the entire store several times I found employee #4 he said he doesn't have the key on him either but will call someone to my aisle(again with this story!!!) so I waited 10 mins. before some slob came to my aisle, took her 2 mins. to find the key on her! then she opened up the case, took the earbuds in her hand, THEN asked me if I had any other shopping to do....
I said yes, she said she will leave the earbuds at the cash register....I said why can't I have them in my hand? she said because it was locked up...(NOT an answer!) and then I asked, why do you guys do that? no other store(INCLUDING another Canadian Tire store) does this! she said, because it was locked away(..........................)
so I can't even have the item in my hand? the item that I'M paying for?? I can't even look at it!? this is ridiculous!

If I would have said no(which I have in the past) she would still, take the earbuds in her hand and without me touching them! the earbuds that I'm paying for, she would have me follow her straight from the aisle to the cash register immediately so she could personally hand over the earbuds to the cashier, NOT me, HER...........this is a joke, this whole store is one horrible joke.

This was nothing but a waste of my time! I honestly spent over 20 mins. just trying to find an employee! circled around the store at least 3x and standing in the aisle waiting impatiently!

This store has serious security issues, do they not have security camera's?? this is ridiculous...I will never step foot into this horrible place again. For goodness sake even WALMART has stuff locked away but when they open it with a key they always give you the item no problem, and the WalMart near me has never had any issues!! I'v never went to a store to purchase an item only to NOT be able to have the item in my hand wtf? whatever security issues they have is their problem! like wth is wrong with this store! fix it! or close down!

Very unprofessional employee's for such a horrible place.


(I'm not saying this about all Canadian Tire stores, no disrespect to any of you who work at Canadian Tire, this opinion is just for 1 store that I will never go to again)

Next time I will buy my earbuds at The Source, which are $1 more but I really don't care! and guess what they are not even locked up at The Source I can take as many as I want! why!? because their security is in working order! if anything should happen they know how to take care of it.

Anywho, sorry for my rant, but I'v just had it with this store. I have no problem going into another Canadian Tire store just not this one.

Have you guys experienced anything like this before where you weren't allowed to touch the items you were going to purchase? which stores have the worst customer service in your opinion?

Sorry you had this experience but to be honest, Michael's has the same policy. Any item that is locked up gets walked up to the cashiers by the employee.

This is not an issue specific to just that CT though. They must have security cameras, which will explain why the cops were there in the first place i.e. someone was seen shoplifting and the cops were called. Shoplifting happens the world over, and will continue to happen unfortunately. I mean big banks and vaults with all their state of the heart security systems still get compromise now and again.

Shoplifters also come in different flavours i.e. colours, age, gender, etc. Problem is like everything else in society, people have a preconceived idea of what they think a thief / drug user / dealer / terrorist / smuggler looks like, and only focus on that. E.g. if you put a bunch of say Black young group and White group in a store, you can bet that attention will be on the obvious group. I have seen elder people shoplift, as well as teenagers and no they were not minorities.

Certain items have to be locked up, and it's probably not just the store insisting on this, but their insurers requesting that they have in place security measures. It's no different to home or car insurance

I guess I was just more annoyed at the fact that I could not find a single helpful employee and it took me over 20 mins. to buy 1 item. I thought I was just gonna go in and out.

I'm sure it added fuel to the fire. I bet if someone had helped you immediately you probably wouldn't have batted an eyelash at it :) It's just a store policy but the employee could have explained it much better. Chalk it up to lack of proper training.

Retail job is just one of those things that most people do as a last resort. They couldn't care less about what you want or need, and it's not uncommon for staff to pass the buck or say they will be back.

..that's kind of sad, if it was my store I wouldn't want my employee's to walk around like a bunch of zombies not caring about customer's needs.. I wonder what kind of person owns this store..:/ other stores have really helpful employee's that care.
/also this store, is very hard to get out the door because their cash registers are all blocked, so in order to leave you have to go around ALL the cash registers to the end and then out the door..never seen anything like it/ they used to have self checkouts, now they got rid of them and blocked that whole area too.. so many problems this store is having..never seen anything like it..

Better off buying from The Source and paying a few bucks extra for their protection plan. You can replace broken ones 3x's if need be.

Customer service is going down the crapper these days. Again, it's because people are just doing these jobs to while away time, and to supplement whatever else they are getting elsewhere.

That sucks A007. Most of their stores I've been to could really use more employees for sure.

The Can Tire store here has pictures posted of shoplifters at customer service.

I think Can Tire stores are more aware of shoplifting because each store is privately owned and they keep track of how much stock they have of each item (it says on their handheld devices and computers). It probably makes the owner and the employees much more aware of the problem than stores like Walmart that don't track it the same way.

Yea, I just wish they could improve their stores..and employee's/ I didn't know about the posted photos of shoplifters, I haven't seen any of those..but then I rarely go to the CS section.

:mad: