We met with Fred, the Store Manager at Canadian Tire yesterday.
Lessons learnt:
1. Canadian Tire is a franchise with stores being owned by dealers.
2. It appears that marketing and advertising is the responsibility of the HO in Toronto.
3. The HO also specifies which products are to occupy shelf space and where each product should be located.
He said that they attach a lot of importance to enabling shoppers to locate products. However he is not the decision maker. We have received contact numbers for the Head Office in Toronto.
Next steps: Speak to some one from the IT department at the head office.