It’s been nearly a month since the Canadian Tire store was temporarily put out of action by a devastating fire and it’s still a pretty big topic of conversation between Fort Franciscans. What we really want to know is, when’s it going to reopen?
It’s our job at the Times to answer such questions, but in this case, we have so far failed our readers. Not for lack of trying. We’ve called and messaged both local management and the Canadian Tire corporate head office multiple times and received no response.
It must be noted that neither the store nor local management are under any obligation whatsoever to tell us anything about their operations. But in a small community like ours, you can’t blame us for itching to know more. And to get back in there.
The silence is unlikely to lose the store customers; with limited retail options, we rely on Canadian Tire for quite a few essentials. Nor is likely to erode our trust all that much – after all, the chain has been in our lives for generations and its quality will be all we’ve come to expect when we can get back in there.
As much as we’d love to satisfy our curiosity with the gory details, it is literally none of our business. However, I am left wondering if there was something of an opportunity missed here for a big business to demonstrate its sense of community.
Canadian Tire is a publicly traded company that operates under a dealer-owned model. Each of its 504 stores is run by an independent associate dealer, not corporate managers. This system grants each dealer ownership of the store’s operations, staffing and local decisions but requires dealers to follow corporate standards, branding and product lines.
It’s one of Canada’s most iconic brands, right up there with Tim Hortons and Hockey Night in Canada and it’s everywhere – even the Times office in which I write this was once a Canadian Tire store, as many will recall. And it’s a retail powerhouse. If you count the host of other brands owned by the company – Mark’s, Sport Chek, PartSource, gas stations and Party City Canada among them – Canadian Tire operates about 1,700 locations across the country.
Under the dealer model, crisis communications are generally handled by Canadian Tire’s head office in Toronto. That may well explain why local management have been unable to give us any information about a reopening schedule, what exactly was damaged and how and how much was lost in dollar value.
And there’s no doubt that this was a crisis. The blaze came at the worst possible time for a retailer – just a few days before Christmas when shoppers were mid-frenzy, making sure they cross everything off their gift lists. It must have been particularly devastating for the employees who were likely furloughed or laid off just before the holiday season.
What we do know is that a fire broke out late at night around 11 p.m. on Dec. 18, and after an OPP investigation a 15‑year‑old was arrested and charged with arson, break and enter, uttering threats, failure to comply with probation and mischief. The youth’s identity is protected from publication under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, which the Times respects in all cases where a minor is involved.
We also know that when a retail store experiences an interior fire, especially one involving smoke damage and sprinkler activation, repairs can take weeks to months. We’ve features photos of the many tractor trailers that have come to haul away the damaged goods.
Before the store reopens, there will have to be structural and electrical inspections, smoke remediation, inventory loss and restocking, insurance assessments and safety approvals. Employees laid off will have to be contacted to see if they’re able to come back. I’m sure there are some very busy people behind the scenes doing their best to get the store up and running.
The bottom line is that it will likely take a few months to bring the store back to operational status. When it reopens, I for one will visit ASAP to make a few purchases I’ve put off since it went out of service.
But I will be left with a very small sense of dissatisfaction that a big corporation with a big local footprint didn’t care to share its woes, to prove itself a true part of our community by keeping the town that depends on it for so much in the loop. It may be a small thing, but remaining silent for so long is a miss: it shows a lack of understanding of the market in which it operates.
Canadian Tire could have deepened its emotional impact on customers. It could have put a human face on a terrible situation in a place where human connection runs deep. It could have shown itself to be locally involved, an integral part of the Fort’s human ecosystem, not just some faceless corporate titan.
Again, it’s not a huge deal. But it wouldn’t have hurt. I’ve heard nothing but sympathy for the owners, managers and employees from the many people I’ve had conversations with. But that is tinged with just a little bit of consternation that we haven’t had an update.
It’s not idle curiosity or a morbid need to know details or the awful destruction – in a town like ours, when we want to know more, it’s because we care an awful lot about those who live and work here.
