While some U.S. retailers are struggling to get surplus product off the shelves, hardware stores in Quebec aren’t seeing the same trend. Patrick Delisle, who heads up marketing at Canac, told Quebec City’s Le Soleil the chain had already prepared for a sales cooldown. “We’ve done our homework and we’ve prepared our spring accordingly,” he said. “At Canac, we are more of an everyday low-price seller and promotions are rarer. We did more promotions than we are used to.”
Mathieu Longchamps, co-owner of a BMR store near Quebec City, told the paper he’s having no trouble moving product, even if demand has slowed for smaller reno projects. He said it’s “difficult to compare [current] demand to that of the last two years, because the volume and [customer] traffic were unusual”.
