How Canadian Tire Made One Family’s Wish Come True
I believe very strongly in the power of giving. In the past few months, I have quietly started practicing a daily random act of kindness. It sometimes involves spending money but often is something as little as opening a door for someone or letting someone in line ahead of me. I never expect anything in return for any of this but I was lucky enough to be the recipient of some excellent news yesterday and I have to share it with you.
You may remember back in February, I posted an awesome commercial from Canadian Tire, that depicted a father and son going to the outdoor rink to skate and bond together. It was, and still is, my favourite commercial of all time. One of the commenters on the post mentioned that they hadn’t been able to afford skates for their boys but hoped it would happen someday. I’ve deleted that portion of their comment for their privacy.
The post faded into obscurity, as most blog posts do, until yesterday when I received an email from the people at Canadian Tire. They thanked me for sharing their commercial and asked for the contact info of the above noted commenter because they wanted to outfit her family with new skates. I’d be lying at this point if I said my eyes were completely dry after reading through their email and they didn’t get any dryer after speaking to the recipient of the gift. If I ever questioned what the ROI of sharing other people’s amazing content was, Canadian Tire answered it in incredible fashion.
I was already impressed with Canadian Tire for the way they portrayed the Dad in their commercial, but helping a family in need just put them way over the top in my books. When you do awesome things, especially in business, awesome things will come back to you. I hope creating two new life long loyal customers was enough for Canadian Tire in this instance, because they absolutely earned it!
Cheers!
It’s good to hear heartwarming stories about Canadian businesses. Thanks for sharing this one.
That’s just absolutely fantastic! 🙂
Epic Story. Epic Business. Keep passing along the positive – our world could use a little more of it….
Thanks, Ryan! I couldn’t agree more about passing it on!
well that’s a feel good Friday moment if I ever heard of one! Kudos to CT and how awesome that must have been for you to facilitate it!
I’m guessing Canadian Tire doesn’t have a Southern California location. But if they did, I’d be bringing my minivan there.
Haha, Patrick, Canadian Tire is so much more than tires. It’s where all Canadians go when we don’t know where to buy something because they have everything, lol.
Awesome 🙂
I used to go to Zellers for minor household things but I’m taking that business to Canadian Tire now. Not a Target fan. They’ve also improved their in-store customer service a lot. I don’t have to pretend I’m about to start cutting myself a key to get service anymore 🙂
Haha! I agree about the customer service. It always bothers me when I can’t find somebody to help me but I haven’t had that issue there in a while.
It’s a great story for a bunch of reasons.
It shows the power of someone like you who takes the time to point out something you think is worth noting (I really like that commercial as well, BTW).
It shows the power that social media can have for connecting people in positive ways.
And it shows how doing good things and doing good business can, in fact, work very well together. No doubt, CT will gain back whatever the cost of the gear they provided from the good will generated, a family gets something they otherwise wouldn’t have, you get to (deservedly so) feel awesome and your readers get all warm and fuzzy inside. So it’s a total win-win-win, er, wait, how many wins is that? Never mind, but it’s awesome stuff.
BTW, if Canadian Tire is listening, I’d just like to point out for the record that I totally could use a new barbecue. Just sayin’…;)
Great story. Someone at Canadian Tire was paying attention, and helping kids get into sports is 100% consistent with their ongoing community efforts. They’ve earned a little extra loyalty from a lot of people today; I hope other companies are watching.
Stephen, my point exactly about other companies watching. THIS, paired with good customer service is how you create long term brand loyalty.
That is absolutely awesome!! I think it’s more important to note your original blog was eaten by the interweb monster, but the company still found your article. That is a company that has a pulse on social networking and understands the importance getting/retaining customers. As many other people have commented, I wish we had a Canadian Tire in Chicago!!
I wish we got to read more stories like this everyday!!! They are an inspiration to us all and makes me want to return the favour in some way. Those small random acts of kindness can mean the world to people!
Thank you for sharing this!
amazing!!!
That is so seriously cool. I am more in love with Canadian Tire than ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Great story — thanks so much for sharing it!
AMAZING GRACE!
What a great story! Kudos to Canadian Tire.
Love it! It takes a village — or Canadian Tire, eh? : )
Doing good things for other people… I should try that one day…
Also, nice one!
It’s a pretty good feeling and one I highly recommend!
What an amazing thing Canadian Tire has done. Love it when Big Business practices RAKs. Brought a tear to my eye! Thanks for sharing both the original post and this one.
Thx so much for sharing! So touching 🙂
Awesome, buddy. Way to make a difference!
I’ve been meaning to read this … so glad I did. It’s awesome when things like that happen!!