The latest buying event for Peavey Industries was held last week at the Toronto Congress Centre near Pearson International Airport. The trade show was called “Family Reunion,” and played host to some 75 independent Ace Canada dealers representing 150 store locations as well as managers from Peavey’s 90-plus Peavey Mart, MainStreet, and corporate Ace stores.

While he doesn’t like to bite the hand that passed the Ace portfolio over to Peavey (whew, that is one mangled metaphor!—your bemused and befuddled Editor), Jest Sidloski, Peavey’s VP of marketing, e-commerce and customer experience, said that this show was smaller and more intimate than the shows Ace dealers would have experienced when affiliated with Lowe’s Canada. “That intimacy aligns with the needs of the Ace dealers.”

The event was further distinguished by an emphasis on group meetings and information sessions among the dealers. Sidloski said these events provided important forums for Ace dealers to provide feedback on their concerns, as their relationship with Peavey is a recent one—beginning in 2020 shortly after the initial lockdowns brought on by the rise of Covid-19. At that time, Peavey Industries took over the licence for the Ace brand from Lowe’s Canada, which had operated it through its RONA division.

This event marked the first time that Ace dealers have gathered in person under the auspices of Peavey. Including exhibiting vendors in 150 booths, about 650 people in total attended the three-day event. Unlike at a traditional hardware show, product lines such as apparel and workwear, feed and pet, and farm and ranch were well represented.

Vendors were largely upbeat about the show, happy to be meeting with their customers face-to-face. They also noted with satisfaction that the dealers had made the trek from across the country, including a strong contingent of western Canadian dealers. Positive feedback came from both the Ace dealers and the Peavey managers who were walking the show.

The next show will be held in Peavey’s hometown of Red Deer, Alta., in 2023.

Canadian Tire supports staff in wake of homicide in Ontario store

A Toronto-area Canadian Tire store remained closed through much of last week as police investigated the stabbing death of a woman there last Monday evening. A local man was charged with first-degree murder in the attack at the retailer’s location in Mississauga’s Heartland Town Centre mall, at the intersection of Mavis Road and Britannia Road.

The Peel Police Homicide Unit charged Charanjeet Singh, 26, of Mississauga with the first-degree murder of 22-year-old Chandanpreet Kaur, his wife of three years.

Kaur died at the scene shortly after Peel Regional Police arrived to respond to “multiple stabbings.” Singh reportedly suffered minor injuries and was treated in hospital. CTV News reported that the crime occurred in the store’s garden centre, according to a customer in the store at the time.

A statement issued by Canadian Tire at the time said: “We are deeply saddened by the tragic incident that occurred at our Heartland location yesterday evening. The safety of our employees and customers is of utmost importance to us and we are working closely with the Peel Regional Police as they investigate the incident. Counselling services have been made available to support our store staff through this difficult time. The store is currently closed and will remain so until the onsite police investigation has been completed.”

Quebec association head calls for change to laws governing retail hours

AQMAT president Richard Darveau has issued an open letter calling on candidates in Quebec’s election to step up on behalf of the province’s retailers as they battle Amazon. The head of the Quebec building supply association issued the missive following this month’s first televised leaders’ debate, which Darveau says all but ignored the housing crisis at the heart of many voters’ concerns. (A second debate was held as Hardlines was going to press).

Quebecers go to the polls Oct. 3 and pundits consider a second majority government for François Legault’s Coalition Avenir Québec a near certainty. Quebec politics defy easy left-right narratives and Legault’s government has shown itself to be both business-friendly and unafraid of public spending to stimulate the economy.

Darveau argues that the sole advantage independent retailers have against the e-commerce giants—personal attention to the customer—is undermined by current laws which permit retailers to stay open almost 24/7. He wants those regulations changed so that independents and their teams can recharge without sacrificing competitivity.

“Opening 83 hours per week exhausts managers and employees, hinders dealer-owners in recruitment and retention of talent, and jeopardizes their chances of finding a successor,” Darveau wrote.

Speaking to Hardlines, Darveau stresses that the letter should not be read as primarily about staffing shortages, but about sustaining vital customer service offerings.

“People might think the main reason we’re battling is the lack of manpower. That’s not it and I think it’s a misreading of our letter that people are focusing on that,” he explains.

Although that is an issue he addresses in the letter, the driving motivation for writing, he says, is a concern for sustainable customer service.

“The reason is we’re looking at the numbers, where players like Amazon are getting more and more market share each year. With the status quo, if government does nothing, we might end up like Florida, where there are lots of franchises but no independent stores,” Darveau said.

Darveau contrasts the customer experience in a hardware store with sectors like grocery and pharmacy, where shoppers can go in armed with the info needed to make a purchase. “When you enter a hardware store, it’s for one of two reasons: you have a problem to fix, or a project or dream to realize. And in that case artificial intelligence isn’t enough.”

But retaining the human talent that is needed will be impossible if no action is taken, he adds, because “qualified people want their evenings and weekends.”

The U.S. Lumber Coalition is spearheading an attack on four Canadian federal climate programs which it says amount to unfair subsidies. It has joined with other players, including Weyerhaeuser Co., under the umbrella of COALITION. (The acronym stands for “Committee Overseeing Action for Lumber International Trade Investigations Or Negotiations.”)

In a filing with the U.S. Commerce Department, the consortium “hereby submit[s] an allegation of additional subsidies available to Canadian producers of softwood lumber products.”

Softwood lumber has been a perennial sticking point in Canada-U.S. trade relations. The crux of the dispute hinges on the contrasting systems of land ownership in the two countries. Most Canadian softwood is harvested from Crown land, for which the federal government charges modest “stumpage” fees.

U.S. lumber producers pay higher prices for timber from mostly private lands. In their view, the low cost of stumpage fees in Canada amount to a government subsidy, in violation of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement on free trade (and, previously, the North American Free Trade Agreement).

Trade arbitrators have consistently rejected that reasoning, but that hasn’t stopped U.S. regulators from periodically imposing countervailing and anti-dumping duties that tie up Canadian producers until they’re overruled.

The position of U.S. lumber producers also puts them at odds with their homebuilding counterparts. The National Association of Home Builders in the U.S. has described American duties on Canadian softwood as a “tax” on American builders and buyers that has driven up prices at times when domestic lumber supply isn’t sufficient to meet their needs.

This time, the U.S. lumber lobby is taking a different tack. This latest salvo is aimed mostly at federal and provincial climate incentives, though COALITION (which stands for… oh, never mind—Editor) is also concerned about a tax exemption for exporters and a federal wage program that encourages hiring Indigenous youth.

The targeted programs include two Natural Resources Canada initiatives, the Clean Growth Program and the Green Freight Assessment Program. Also under fire are the Tax Savings for Industry incentive for renewable energy use and the Western Business Scale-up and Productivity Program, which funds growing businesses in that region.

Provincial programs are also at issue. COALITION objects to programs in British Columbia and New Brunswick designed to help companies meet carbon goals.

In a written response, lawyers for Canadian parties including the federal government cautioned the U.S. Commerce Department not to “undermine the Biden administration’s stated policies on combatting climate change, reducing greenhouse gases, and protecting the environment.”

The response notes that government programs to forestall the climate crisis cut across industries and “cannot be considered specific.” It warns that if the Commerce Department imposes new duties, it “would be violating the applicable countervailing duty statute and regulations, and would be at odds with the executive order of the president directing trade policy to address the global climate crisis.”

Canada and the U.S. have lacked a bilateral agreement on softwood exports since the last one expired in 2006.

Chris Parsons has been named senior director, omni-channel marketing and strategic insights, at Home Hardware Stores Ltd. He joined the company in 2019 as director of e-commerce. The host of the podcast Delivering eCommerce, he has experience in the field at Walmart Canada and Ren’s Pets.

At Garant, Jonathan Cole is the new VP of sales and customer service. Cole held the position of national account manager from 2008 to 2012, then returned to Garant in 2014 as sales manager and was promoted to director in 2018.

DID YOU KNOW...?

... that it’s time you spent a couple of days working ON your business, not IN it? So join us to learn the latest about where home improvement retailing is headed by attending the 26th annual Hardlines Conference, Oct. 18 and 19 at the Queen’s Landing Hotel in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont. Sign up now for this year’s event!

The Home Hardware fall market had a new name, a new look—and a new location—this past weekend. Instead of the traditional St. Jacobs, Ont., gathering of dealers, the company held its buying show at the Enercare Centre, on the Canadian National Exhibition grounds west of downtown Toronto. The event had a new name, “Homecoming.” (The Hardlines team was there, of course, and we will have a full report on the show in the next spine-tingling edition of this newsletter.)

Surrey, B.C.’s Crown Building Supplies marked its eighth anniversary recently during its annual customer appreciation barbecue. Crown Building Supplies became a member of AD Building Supplies in July when Crown’s buying group, TORBSA, became AD’s Canadian division. Crown CEO Gary Sangha is chair of AD Building Supplies – Canada.

Lowe’s in the U.S. has launched an interactive store “digital twin,” which enables store staff to visualize and interact with nearly all of a store’s digital data to optimize operations and localize plans to serve customers. Built by the Lowe’s Innovation Labs team, the digital twin is a completely virtual replica of a physical home improvement store, created in NVIDIA's Omniverse environment. It’s currently live in two U.S. stores.

Walmart Canada will invest more than $100 million to build a high-tech sortable fulfilment centre in Vaudreuil-Dorion, Que., outside Montreal. Walmart’s first in the province, the new facility is slated to open in 2024. At about 457,000 square feet, the warehouse will serve as a delivery hub for orders in Quebec and the Atlantic provinces. It’s part of a broader $1 billion effort in the retail giant’s infrastructure that also includes store upgrades and remodeling.

SUPPLIER NEWS

The B.C. Building Supply Industry Association will host a two-day event next month for retail members’ staff. The Westcoast Tour 2022 will take members to 10 manufacturers and suppliers in the Lower Mainland on Oct. 26 and 27 from 7 am to 6 pm. Attendees will learn about products and connect with others within the industry. Tour stops include CanWel Building Materials, Metrie, and Taiga Building Products. (Only 24 spots are available so click here to register.)

Avantis Cooperative, Quebec’s largest BMR member, will install JRTech Solutions’ electronic shelf labels in nine of its stores. The rollout builds on the existing partnership which has seen JRTech’s labels go up in 15 Avantis locations.

Demand for Halal home financing is strong in some provinces, The Globe and Mail reports. Islam prohibits both payment and receipt of interest, which rules out conventional mortgages. As a result, the country’s more than one million Muslims are disproportionately renters. Edmonton start-up Canadian Halal Finance Corp. is working with the Al Rashid Mosque to fill the niche. Contracts typically resemble a lease-to-own agreement.

ECONOMIC INDICATORS

Canada’s inflation rate fell to seven percent in August, following a 40-year high of 8.1 percent earlier this summer. Falling gas prices fuelled the steeper-than-anticipated decline. Food prices by contrast continued to mount, with grocery bills rising by a total of 10.8 percent over the past year. The actual price of goods, called core inflation, continues to stay high. (StatCan)

U.S. housing starts rose 12.2 percent in August to an annualized rate of 1.575 million units. Building permits for August fell by 10 percent to a rate of 1.517 million units. (U.S. Commerce Dept.)

NOTED

A recent poll commissioned by Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce found that 17 percent of the 1,522 people surveyed changed employment in the past two years. Twelve percent moved to a new home; 11 percent acquired a new pet.

OVERHEARD...

“I prefer to have a surplus of staff in a hardware for 50 hours a week than to close the doors for good.”
—Richard Darveau, president of the Quebec industry association AQMAT. He was referring to his open letter to candidates in the province’s upcoming election that urges them to advocate for improved working hours for dealers.