Lowe’s growth strategy for 2025 includes investment in its range of services for its contractor customers, which now account for 30 percent of Lowe’s overall sales. In early 2025, the company is relaunching its pro loyalty program as MyLowe’s Pro Rewards, designed specifically for the small-to-medium pro. Lowe’s is also bringing its DIY and pro loyalty programs onto one platform.

(Get the full story on Lowe’s growth plans in the next ear-splitting edition of our weekly flagship publication, Hardlines Weekly Report. Click here to get your own four-week complimentary trial subscription!)

Montreal-based JRTech Solutions has expanded its agreement with supermarket chain Sobeys to deploy some five million electronic shelf labels (ESLs) across Canada. The deal grows on the initial order from Sobeys, announced June 2024, for ESL deployments in 50 Sobeys stores. The deployment is expected to be completed by April 30, 2026.

Costco Wholesale Corp. reported its first-quarter earnings yesterday, seeing revenue grow 7.5 percent, to US$62.15 billion, compared with the same quarter last year. Net income of US$1.8 billion was up 13.2 percent from Q1 last year. E-commerce sales increased 13.0 percent. Same store sales were up 5.2 percent in the U.S. and 5.8 percent in Canada. Costco operates some 108 stores in Canada and approximately 614 in the U.S.

RONA inc. has announced it will convert 15 of its big box stores in the province of Quebec to the RONA+ banner by May. “The company continues to reposition the RONA brand, which is now its sole retail brand in Canada,” RONA stated in a release this morning.

“With these new conversions, we are investing significantly to make our new big box store model available to more consumers in the province,” said Sylvain Proulx, regional VP, stores in Quebec. “Our priority during this transition is to offer our customers the best possible experience, and we will continue to serve them with the same passion.”

The 15 stores that will soon be converted are:

• RONA L’Entrepôt Laval – 3065 Boul. Le Carrefour, Laval, QC
• RONA L’Entrepôt Saint-Laurent – 3600 Boul. Côte Vertu, Saint-Laurent, QC
• RONA L’Entrepôt Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville – 1221 Boul. des Promenades, Saint-Bruno, QC
• RONA L’Entrepôt Trois-Rivières – 4025 Boul. des Récollets, Trois-Rivières, QC
• RONA L’Entrepôt Chicoutimi – 465 Boul. du Royaume Ouest, Chicoutimi, QC
• RONA L’Entrepôt Gatineau – 777 Boul. de la Cité, Gatineau, QC
• RONA L’Entrepôt Mascouche – 175 Montée Masson, Mascouche, QC
• RONA L’Entrepôt Anjou – 7273 Boul. des Galeries d’Anjou, Anjou, QC
• RONA L’Entrepôt Gatineau (Le Plateau) – 165 Boul. du Plateau, Gatineau, QC
• RONA L’Entrepôt Joliette – 2000 Boul. Firestone Est, Notre-Dame-des-Prairies, QC
• RONA L’Entrepôt Saint-Eustache – 440 Rue Dubois, Saint-Eustache, QC
• RONA L’Entrepôt Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu – 170 Rue Moreau, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, QC
• RONA L’Entrepôt Granby – 200 Rue Saint-Jude Nord, Granby, QC
• RONA Rimouski – 385 Boul. Arthur-Buies Est, Rimouski, QC
• RONA L’Entrepôt Brossard (dix30) – 9800 Boul. Leduc, Brossard, QC

The Bank of Canada cut its policy rate to 3.25 percent on Wednesday, a cut of 0.50 percent. The cut comes on the heels of what the BOC calls broad-based strength, with robust consumption and a solid labour market in the U.S. In the announcement, the BOC pointed to growth in the Canadian economy by 1.0 percent in Q3, with weaker projections heading into Q4. BOC governor Tiff Macklem (shown here) said the shift was the result of the country’s monetary policy no longer needing to be “clearly in restrictive territory.” 

The possibility of new tariffs on Canadian exports to the United States has also increased uncertainty and clouded the economic outlook, according to the BOC. 

Watch video announcement from Bank of Canada:

The Lawrie Group recently added Mary Lake Home Hardware Building Centre to its umbrella of companies. The store is expected to open again in early January. Rob and Joanne Lawrie, owners of The Lawrie Group of Cos., are based in Annapolis Royal, N.S., and own seven other Home Hardware stores, all located across southwestern Nova Scotia.

The new owners reached out through Facebook to the community asking for feedback on what they should stock as must-haves unique to the area.

Throwback Thursday is a regular weekly feature in which we dip into the archives of the Hardlines Weekly Report.

Twenty-five years ago tomorrow, on Dec. 13, 1999, we reported that Carl Grittner, president of Revy Home Centres Inc., had announced his company’s intention to enter the Quebec market in 2001.

Maybe that announcement was what attracted RONA’s attention? Anyway, by 2001, RONA bought out Revy, without the retail division of West Fraser Timber Co. having opened a single store in la belle province. On the contrary, RONA’s purchase gave it an entry into western Canada in a big way.

BMR Group has signed up the Eidt family, owners of three Ace Hardware locations in Mitchell, Exeter, and Arthur, Ont. As of Jan. 1, 2025, Ace Hardware will no longer support dealers in Canada. The collaboration, effective Jan. 22, 2025, is expected to increase sales and logistics for the other dealers in the network in the region.

“As we leave Ace, we are thrilled to join the BMR family and see our family business grow with a major partner who shares the same human values and vision for growth in the Ontario market,” said store owners Doug Eidt and Barry Eidt.

(Barry Eidt, shown here, was our 2023 Outstanding Retailer Award winner in the category of Young Retailer of the Year.)

More than half of all Canadians find buying gifts a stressful blow to the pocketbook. According to the 2024 Holiday Survey released by Spring Financial, an online lending company in Canada, spending anxiety runs high among 56 percent of Canadians. Hardest hit are Gen Z (66 percent) and millennials (64 percent). They find the financial strain of buying gifts as the most stressful part of the holiday season.

Meanwhile, 38 percent of Canadians are feeling more financial stress about buying gifts this year than last year, up from just 13 percent in 2023.

Metrie, the Vancouver-based moulding and millwork producer, has acquired eden Inc., a pre-finished millwork producer based in Knox, Penn. Eden’s products include mouldings, pre-hung doors, and specialty items. This is Metrie’s seventh acquisition in five years, enhancing the company’s integrated millwork portfolio and “offering a wider range of pre-finished moulding and door products that can meet the needs of current and future customers,” according to a release.