Canadian Tire: filled to the rim with great deals

It’s been ages since I stepped foot in a Canadian Tire store.

Last week, I won a $10 gift card at work because iStudio’s Toronto team got an honourable mention for our awesome pumpkin at our FH/iStudio Hallowe’en pumpkin carving contest.

Mr. B and I had been shopping for a new porch light. We’d already purchased and returned three from a few different stores but hadn’t found the right one. So, I suggested we take a look at Canadian Tire since we had a gift card. The selection wasn’t huge but we found what we were looking for – in fact, there were three possibilities. Instead of the $80 we almost spent, we choose one we thought was on sale for $35.

Despite being in a rush, I also took a few minutes to have a look around. There was everything from greeting cards and holiday candies to housewares, home décor and hardware. The store was literally jam-packed. They could have used some help making their merchandise more appealing.

Regardless, I think I’ll be back again soon. When I got to the cash, the lamp was further-reduced to $20, with the gift card, I saved another $10. The only problem was the colour was a bit different than the one on display but for that price, who’s complaining. Not me.

Have you been to a Canadian Tire lately? What did you think? What did you buy?

Disclaimer: Canadian Tire is a client of iStudio. The porch light pictured above is available at Canadian Tire. It is different from the one I purchased.

Rebecca’s rant

In this week’s baby bargainista column, Rebecca Atkinson rants about her trials and tribulations dealing with “helpful” comments from strangers when what it really comes down to is what’s best her daughter.

This week my post was going to be on Mom2Mom sales, but I’ve delayed it by two weeks because no matter how I tried, I kept running, I seem to keep wanting to rant.

As a mother you want to do and provide the very best for your child – while finding bargains of course, but sometimes that can be difficult especially when everyone has their opinions on how you should raise your child.

From the beginning we’ve heard – often from complete strangers – what we should or shouldn’t do and of course what we were doing wrong.

My daughter Meredith was born three weeks early and after a very long and stressful delivery (on both of us), she ended up back in the hospital because she had jaundice and as a result of the hard labour she never got her food groove on. So the doctor had us do a couple of things.

First, try some formula in a bottle to make sure she would eat. Once we established that, I then pumped milk into a bottle and gave it to her so that she would:
a) continue to eat, and
b) so we could determine just how much food she was taking in.
You see, Meredith had a great latch, she just had no desire to work for her meal by sucking from the breast which is more difficult than a bottle as it turns out.

I uploaded some photos on Facebook that showed my husband feeding her. I actually got comments from some people I hadn’t seen in years who didn’t know our situation – actually comment/send notes and suggest I should be breastfeeding instead.

Things haven’t gotten any easier on the feeding front, in fact Meredith was diagnosed with severe acid reflux and a slow digestive system. Whether I fed her directly from the breast or pumped milk from bottles, she not only spit up, she vomited, often projectile over the last four months, we’ve tried several medications, had many tests, got switched to a hypo-allergenic formula, which didn’t help and in fact made her worse, tried a second more expensive formula and are still waiting to see a paediatric gastroenterologist.

However, we think we may have figured out the cause. It seems that she is milk and soy protein intolerant (not allergic but intolerant). She also is not able to handle berries or tomatoes either for that matter. An allergy generally shows n outward reaction, like a rash. An intolerance is more internal, gas, fussiness, colic type behavior, vomiting, crying and in general difficult feeding and changing times.

I have learned more about GERD (acid reflux), food ingredients, giving babies medication as well as what works to calm down my crying child than I ever thought possible. The good news is that she seems to be doing a little better, although it’s been a long difficult road to get there. Since there are not any formulas out there that don’t contain any milk or soy proteins at all, I have no choice but to breastfeed ensuring I cut out all items from my diet that seem to affect her.

The problem? Many products are dairy/milk protein free, not as many are soy free. Many of those that are, (organic mostly) happen to have one ingredient that I am allergic to – tapioca. While at first very difficult and expensive, it’s become fun to explore grocery stores and find new and exciting products and ingredients to try.

Throughout this whole process we have had some very “helpful” people suggest to us what we’re doing right, wrong, what the problem was and/or how to correct it. The last straw which spawned this post, was this weekend when a complete stranger walked up to me and suggested that my daughter was too young to be forward facing in her carrier because she was so “small.”

Yes my baby is small, in fact she’s only in the 5th percentile for her weight (average for everything else), since she hasn’t been able to really keep food down. However, one thing GERD has done for her is give her some very strong neck muscles, so she now prefers to be forward facing. If I didn’t think she wasn’t ready, I wouldn’t have done it. Now if she’d been wobbling around like a bobble head perhaps I could have seen this woman saying something, but she wasn’t.

This experience has taught me a ton of things including the following:
• Breast pump rentals are expensive, consider buying if yiou’re going to be using long term
• The electric double pump, has been my friend
• Evymama has been a great source of help for pumping accessories (think hands free!) and milk production herbal remedies
• Pumping allows dad and other family members to be involved in the feeding process
• Tahini is a great product to cook with and can kind of filling for a cheesy substitute if needed
• Going dairy and soy free is not as hard as it looks when you cook from scratch, eating out is the challenge
• Reflux is not fun for any infant or parent
• An intolerance is not the same thing as an allergy
• People are always going to give you advice even if you don’t ask for it
• My husband and I have been with her for the last four months, we’ve tried all the different options, we’ve gone to the doctors appointments and 4 a.m. projectile vomits and crying spells, so we should trust ourselves and our instincts because we do know what is best for our baby based on our situation and her needs.

It’s the best piece of advice I can give anyone.. Trust yourself and tell everyone else to go take a hike and do what feels right to you.

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Loving Aritzia

No, it’s not cheap but I’ve always had a thing for Aritzia from the time they opened their very first store in Toronto. Until the other day, I only looked. I bought an awesome black, silk cashmere, shrug-meets-boyfriend-cardigan sweater by Wilfred. At $95 and the amount of wear I’ll be getting from this baby, it’s worth every penny.

At the cash, I noticed my earring was gone. Oh, no, it was remodeled from some of my late grandmother’s jewelry. The sentimental value was huge, the monetary value no so much but it wasn’t costume. After taking a quick look around without success, (I hadn’t put anything over my head while trying the sweater on) I assumed it fell off the office and left.

Back at the office and a mere 15 minutes since I left the store, the phone rang. It was someone from Artizia letting me know they had found my earring and it would be waiting for me to pick up after work. I told her I’d be right there since I worked practically across the street.

When I got there, two sales associates recognized me at the cash and gave me my earring (I showed them the mate still on my left ear.) Another customer piped up and told me she had found the earring. We chatted for a minute and I thanked her profusely. She expected nothing but the knowledge that she was paying it forward.

I was particularly impressed by how quickly the lovely ladies at Artizia called me (I’m also impressed by their blog but that’s worthy of another post one day). I wanted to do something nice in return. The next day, I brought them a box of chocolates as a small token of my appreciation.

Sometimes we praise sales associates for excellent service but more often we’re quick to chastise them. Very rarely do we thank them for going above and beyond. Perhaps it’s time we should.

Are you a fan of Artizia? Check out Aritzia’s Facebook fan page and follow @ArtiziaLoves on Twitter.

When was the last time you experienced a sales associate going that extra mile? How did you show her your appreciation?

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Bought: boots at Davids aka a tale of two sisters

I bought a pair of black leather La Canadienne boots. I’ve never spent so much money on boots in my life and the last few pairs I owned were all on sale for less than $100 each. This was different. I really wanted a pair of fashionable black leather boots and with my hard-to-fit feet getting anything to fit is a big deal.

I should have started looking a while ago to get the best selection (those of you with easy-to-fit feet may want to hold out a bit for the sales – they’re just around the corner), this year I was late. I lucked out and found a pair of boots from La Canadienne that fit me comfortably that were also fashionable, insulated and waterproof. Best of all, they have six-month guarantee and they’re made by a Canadian company.

But this post really isn’t about the boots. It’s about the service.

Two weeks ago, I went to Capezio at Yorkdale. The sales associate helping me had helped me before and I trusted her opinion. After trying on several pairs of boots that just weren’t right, I tried a pair of La Canadiennes. They fit perfectly. I planned on buying fashionable boots. These boots also doubled as winter boots, helping me justify the expense.

Only one problem – there was a split in the leather. The sales associate said she could order another pair from another store but they’d arrive tomorrow and I had to pick them up that night. Huh? Not gonna work with my schedule.

The other option was to pay for them right then and there. A 10-day return policy would apply from the date of purchase. I was cool ordering them and even paying for them on the condition that the 10-day return policy wouldn’t begin until the pick-up. Mr. B was planning to go to back to the mall mid-week and he offered to pick them up for me. That idea wasn’t working for her. During the conversation, while she was trying to decide what to do, she left me hanging there while she rang in a couple sales at the cash.

Yes, those were definite sales and my purchase was uncertain but c’mon. Remember, I wanted those boots but the only ones available were defective. I’ve also been a Capezio customer for almost 30 years. I usually by at least one item of footwear there each season. Do the math and it’s not hard to see I’ve been a very good customer over the long-term. Unfortunately, with staff turnover and multiple stores, it’s not necessarily something a sales associate would know. But I did and my bank account did too.

I left and walked down the hall to Davids. Yes, you read that right. Bargainista went to Davids. Davids at the mall not only carries some of the higher-end footwear found at it’s Bloor St. flagship store. It also sells more moderately priced items, including La Canadienne. They didn’t have my size in stock. The sales associate offered to order them from another store. Knowing they were the higher-end big sister of Capezio, I wasn’t sure this was going to work out.

“No problem, we can hold them for you and you don’t need to pay for them now,” said Anthony, the sales associate.

My husband went to pick them up at mall a few nights later. I asked him to take a look before brining them home. Et voilà, they also had a rip. No problem, Davids ordered another pair. A couple days later I received a call from Michael, the store manager apologizing for the delay. They had several pairs on hold for other customers. They’d either have a pair for me in a day or two or they’d put a pair aside from their next order. Nice.

Last Monday, I received a voicemail telling me they had a pair on hold and asked me to call them. I didn’t – I was distracted with some stuff on the homefront and it slipped my mind. Saturday morning I gave them a call. The boots were still waiting for me. Wow, impressive.

That afternoon I went to pick up the boots. I tried them on again, making sure they fit and there were no rips or tears. Nada. While I was at the cash paying for the boots, Michael treated me as if I was spending a lot more coin – and keep in mind, they have a full collection of the likes of Christian Louboutin and Jimmy Choos – most of their merchandise way out of my budget. (Mind you, that didn’t stop me from drooling or entering a contest for a $500 gift certificate.)

I mentioned my experience at Capezio and he was surprised. His response surprised me too. I expected the difference in policy and service was because Davids deals with a higher-end customer has a well-earned reputation for stellar service. Michael said there was no excuse since they were all part of the same company. (Capezio and Davids are sister companies.)

Bottom line: the moral of the story is, don’t let the high-end stores fool you. They often sell some of the same merchandise sold in lower-end stores and treat you much better.

Have you had a similar experience where you bought something at a higher-end store because the service was so much better, even when the same thing was available at a store with more affordable merchandise?

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