When Hector King Jr. stopped by a Giant Tiger store in east Toronto to pick up bananas one afternoon in December, he says he felt as though he was being watched.
The 62-year-old Anishinaabe man from Gull Bay First Nation, near Thunder Bay, Ont., said he noticed a security guard and staff hovering nearby.
But it wasn’t until after King made the $1.68 purchase that he said he was stopped by an employee.
He said he was told never to return or he’d be charged with trespassing.
King was confused. He’d been riding his electric scooter from his Scarborough home to the store for years, spending up to $40 at a time on clothes or food, and said he has never stolen anything in his life. And while he noticed staff sometimes seemed to treat him differently than other customers — peering into his shopping basket or following him down aisles — they never raised any concerns.
So King called the discount chain’s customer service department and a few weeks later was advised to go back and talk to the store’s manager. He said she informed him that a man who looks, dresses and rides a scooter like him had been stealing. It had been captured on security video, but he was told he wasn’t allowed to see it.
“That kind of degraded me, you know?” King said. “When I was always spending money in that store.”
“I thought, why are they not following anybody else? I see other people in that store. And they didn’t pick anybody else,” King said.
‘Your shopping habits are no longer welcome’
Wanting to clear his name and be allowed to shop in the store again, King continued to push Giant Tiger for an explanation on Facebook. However, it took nearly eight weeks from the initial encounter for someone to respond.
In an email to King dated Jan. 26, Giant Tiger said that after “careful review and consideration [the store] has instituted a trespass notice as your shopping habits are no longer welcome…. If you choose to disregard the trespass notice the police will be called to enforce the trespass notice.”
When CBC News contacted Giant Tiger for this story, spokesperson Aaron Wade said the ban has since been lifted.
“I am happy to confirm that Mr. King is welcome to continue shopping at any Giant Tiger location,” Wade said.
He said Giant Tiger sent King an email on Feb. 10, but hasn’t received a response.
Fo Niemi, executive director of the Montreal group Center for Research-Action on Race Relations, says the ‘hurtful’ practice directed at King happens often in commercial settings, from department stores to small businesses across Canada. (CBC)
This is all news to King, who said he hasn’t received any further calls or emails.
“They never said sorry or I could come back,” he said, adding that once he receives an apology, he’ll shop there again.
Three experts said that what happened to King appears to be an example of racial profiling.
Fo Niemi, executive director of the Montreal civil rights organization Center for Research-Action on Race Relations, said the “hurtful” practice happens often in commercial settings, from department stores to small businesses across Canada.
“Where the customer or the person coming to the store — because of the way they look, their skin colour, their physical traits, in addition to the way they dress — they are treated from the outset as being suspicious,” said Niemi, who helps victims of discrimination file complaints and supports them if they sue.
“It erodes a person’s dignity. And their reputation is at stake.”
Store employees will receive additional training
After the 2017 incident in Regina, Wade said Giant Tiger updated its internal policies to create “a welcoming shopping environment and providing exceptional customer services to everyone that enters our stores.”
It also mandated annual diversity, equity and inclusion training for all employees and created a staff-led group that focuses on race and building awareness about unconscious bias, he said.
When asked about King’s case specifically, Wade said the trespass notice was “administrative only,” and no official or legal order was obtained against King.
He said Giant Tiger will apologize to King for how long it took for his concerns to be heard and attributed the delay to a high volume of calls during the holiday season.
All Scarborough store employees will receive additional training from a third-party company, Wade said.
However, the retailer did not apologize for how King was treated in the store and declined to explain what prompted the no trespassing order, citing privacy and safety concerns.
Company’s response ‘dismissive,’ advocate says
Lori Campbell, a longtime advocate for Indigenous social justice issues and the University of Regina’s associate vice-president for Indigenous engagement, said Giant Tiger’s delay in responding to King’s concerns is problematic.
“It’s dismissive of the impact of their actions and also the impact of what that does to Indigenous peoples or any other racialized people that are profiled and how that impacts their mental health and well-being,” she said.
Lori Campbell, a longtime advocate for Indigenous social justice issues and the University of Regina’s associate vice-president for Indigenous engagement, says she’s concerned about the length of time it took Giant Tiger to respond to King’s complaint. (Julianne Hazlewood/CBC)
“We should just be able to run out and buy some food and not feel that stress of: Are we going to be followed today? Is somebody going to accuse us?”
Tia Kennedy, who is from Oneida Nation of the Thames and Walpole Island First Nation in southern Ontario, is the director of Kiinew Kwe Consulting, which provides organizations with diversity and anti-racism training.
She said she’s also experienced racial profiling in stores and has noticed that she’s watched closely by employees when she wears her beaded earrings and moccasins. At self check-outs she’s been questioned about whether she’s actually scanned all of her items, so she now avoids them altogether.
Tia Kennedy, director of Kiinew Kwe Consulting, which provides organizations with diversity and anti-racism training, says the retail chain needs to apologize to King and to the public. (Submitted by Tia Kennedy)
“We have these feelings of shame, frustration, confusion, embarrassment that come up during these incidents,” Kennedy said.
Giant Tiger needs to issue a public and private apology for its treatment of King and recognize that for every racial-profiling case reported, there are likely many more people who don’t come forward, Kennedy said.
“I don’t think it’s something that should just be brushed off,” she said. “It’s something that definitely needs to be addressed, and it’s quite sad the lack of urgency the business is taking to try to address this.”
MONTREAL – Travel company Transat AT Inc. reported a loss in its latest quarter compared with a profit a year earlier as its revenue edged lower.
The parent company of Air Transat says it lost $39.9 million or $1.03 per diluted share in its quarter ended July 31.
The result compared with a profit of $57.3 million or $1.49 per diluted share a year earlier.
Revenue in what was the company’s third quarter totalled $736.2 million, down from $746.3 million in the same quarter last year.
On an adjusted basis, Transat says it lost $1.10 per share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of $1.10 per share a year earlier.
Transat chief executive Annick Guérard says demand for leisure travel remains healthy, as evidenced by higher traffic, but consumers are increasingly price conscious given the current economic uncertainty.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
Dollarama Inc.’s food aisles may have expanded far beyond sweet treats or piles of gum by the checkout counter in recent years, but its chief executive maintains his company is “not in the grocery business,” even if it’s keeping an eye on the sector.
“It’s just one small part of our store,” Neil Rossy told analysts on a Wednesday call, where he was questioned about the company’s food merchandise and rivals playing in the same space.
“We will keep an eye on all retailers — like all retailers keep an eye on us — to make sure that we’re competitive and we understand what’s out there.”
Over the last decade and as consumers have more recently sought deals, Dollarama’s food merchandise has expanded to include bread and pantry staples like cereal, rice and pasta sold at prices on par or below supermarkets.
However, the competition in the discount segment of the market Dollarama operates in intensified recently when the country’s biggest grocery chain began piloting a new ultra-discount store.
The No Name stores being tested by Loblaw Cos. Ltd. in Windsor, St. Catharines and Brockville, Ont., are billed as 20 per cent cheaper than discount retail competitors including No Frills. The grocery giant is able to offer such cost savings by relying on a smaller store footprint, fewer chilled products and a hearty range of No Name merchandise.
Though Rossy brushed off notions that his company is a supermarket challenger, grocers aren’t off his radar.
“All retailers in Canada are realistic about the fact that everyone is everyone’s competition on any given item or category,” he said.
Rossy declined to reveal how much of the chain’s sales would overlap with Loblaw or the food category, arguing the vast variety of items Dollarama sells is its strength rather than its grocery products alone.
“What makes Dollarama Dollarama is a very wide assortment of different departments that somewhat represent the old five-and-dime local convenience store,” he said.
The breadth of Dollarama’s offerings helped carry the company to a second-quarter profit of $285.9 million, up from $245.8 million in the same quarter last year as its sales rose 7.4 per cent.
The retailer said Wednesday the profit amounted to $1.02 per diluted share for the 13-week period ended July 28, up from 86 cents per diluted share a year earlier.
The period the quarter covers includes the start of summer, when Rossy said the weather was “terrible.”
“The weather got slightly better towards the end of the summer and our sales certainly increased, but not enough to make up for the season’s horrible start,” he said.
Sales totalled $1.56 billion for the quarter, up from $1.46 billion in the same quarter last year.
Comparable store sales, a key metric for retailers, increased 4.7 per cent, while the average transaction was down2.2 per cent and traffic was up seven per cent, RBC analyst Irene Nattel pointed out.
She told investors in a note that the numbers reflect “solid demand as cautious consumers focus on core consumables and everyday essentials.”
Analysts have attributed such behaviour to interest rates that have been slow to drop and high prices of key consumer goods, which are weighing on household budgets.
To cope, many Canadians have spent more time seeking deals, trading down to more affordable brands and forgoing small luxuries they would treat themselves to in better economic times.
“When people feel squeezed, they tend to shy away from discretionary, focus on the basics,” Rossy said. “When people are feeling good about their wallet, they tend to be more lax about the basics and more willing to spend on discretionary.”
The current economic situation has drawn in not just the average Canadian looking to save a buck or two, but also wealthier consumers.
“When the entire economy is feeling slightly squeezed, we get more consumers who might not have to or want to shop at a Dollarama generally or who enjoy shopping at a Dollarama but have the luxury of not having to worry about the price in some other store that they happen to be standing in that has those goods,” Rossy said.
“Well, when times are tougher, they’ll consider the extra five minutes to go to the store next door.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
TORONTO – The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has ordered TD Bank Group to pay US$28 million for repeatedly sharing inaccurate, negative information about its customers to consumer reporting companies.
The agency says TD has to pay US$7.76 million in total to tens of thousands of victims of its illegal actions, along with a US$20 million civil penalty.
It says TD shared information that contained systemic errors about credit card and bank deposit accounts to consumer reporting companies, which can include credit reports as well as screening reports for tenants and employees and other background checks.
CFPB director Rohit Chopra says in a statement that TD threatened the consumer reports of customers with fraudulent information then “barely lifted a finger to fix it,” and that regulators will need to “focus major attention” on TD Bank to change its course.
TD says in a statement it self-identified these issues and proactively worked to improve its practices, and that it is committed to delivering on its responsibilities to its customers.
The bank also faces scrutiny in the U.S. over its anti-money laundering program where it expects to pay more than US$3 billion in monetary penalties to resolve.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
