So that loser company known as Giant Tiger has finally decided to place its flyer online.
To view the Giant Tiger flyer click here and enter your postal code at the bottom.
Wondering why I hate Giant Tiger? well here’s my story:
I used to scan every new Giant Tiger flyer and post it on SmartCanucks.ca for all Canadians to read and then go shop at Giant Tiger. Giant Tiger is 15 minutes driving from where I live and I didn’t have a car so I used to take the bus, pick up the flyer, take a bus back, and do the tedious job of scanning 20 pages and then posting them on SmartCanucks.ca blog. Guess how I was rewarded by Giant Tiger? They got their lawyer to email me asking me to remove their flyer or they would take legal action . I complied, and only posted the flyer on the forum where regular registered members could only see it. They emailed me again asking for their flyers to be completely removed.
I know a lot of people like Giant Tiger stores and find their deals worthwhile and that’s why I posted the flyers on here. Apparently, the Giant Tiger management is too scared of competition and did not want any info about their flyers on the Internet. I’m not sure what the exact reason is, but whatever it is, I think, that as “consumers” we have the right to post their flyer on the Internet and discuss their deals, whether good or bad. It is up to them to provide good flyer deals and encourage us to visit their stores.
I’d like to get your suggestion and ideas on how we can reach Giant Tiger’s owner or something. Maybe the upper management and executives have no idea about this and it’s just their lawyer in cooperation with one of the Giant Tiger departments sending out the emails. Any ideas?
I will also continue to list (without scanning) the flyer deals each week… except now I’ll also point out the deals that are really good and the deals that suck. If another store has a deal for a better price I’ll also point this out.
To add insult to injury, the lawyer’s email says at the very bottom that I can’t publish his emails “Any unauthorized use, copying, review or disclosure is prohibited”. Well seems like you forgot about “freedom of speech” Mr. Jean-Marc Desjarlais. So here are the emails I got from Giant Tiger:
From: Jean-Marc Desjarlais
Subject: Giant Tiger Flyer – SmartCanucks.ca
Mr. Radley:
It has come to our attention that you and your team have posted our store flyer on your blog. Although on the one hand there is a mild sense of flattery that you have chosen to share the contents of our flyer with persons visiting your website, it is not our policy to post our flyer on the Internet. Your having done so without our permission unfortunately runs afoul of copyright and trademark laws and we would ask that you immediately remove our flyer from your blog and refrain from posting future flyers.
Please contact me if you have any questions or concerns about the contents of this email. I thank you in advance for your co-operation.
Jean-Marc Desjarlais, B.Adm., LL.B.
Manager, Legal Services
Giant Tiger Stores Limited2480 Walkley Road
Ottawa, Ontario
K1G 6A9Direct Line: 613-260-6397
Fax: 613-521-2523
[email protected]This communication is intended to be received by the individual or entity to whom or to which it is addressed and contains information that is privileged and confidential. Any unauthorized use, copying, review or disclosure is prohibited. Please notify the sender immediately if you have received this communication in error.
My reply:
Hi Jean-Marc,
Thanks for your email regarding this issue. First of all we would like to express our love for the Giant Tiger stores and their products and that’s why we chose to post the flyer on the blog. The Giant Tiger stores are loved by many Canadians and we appreciate the hard work you guys are doing to get these awesome deals each week.
We can remove the flyers as you wish but we are seriously interested in cooperating with you and officially posting the flyers. From my personal experience running this blog and a huge shopping and deals community on the forum, posting the flyers will help attract more customers to your chain. It is basically a free form of advertising where we’re not asking for anything in return. The flyer is viewed by thousands of people and many people will visit Giant Tiger because they read about a good deal on the online flyer.
Instead of scanning the flyer we are interested in cooperating with you to receive a nice clean electronic copy of the flyer and posting it online.
I hope you seriously consider our suggestion. It will definetely
benefit you. I would also appreciate it if you can email us the
contact information of the marketing division.Cheers
He never emailed me the contact information of the marketing department.
He replied back:
thank you for your email (including the comments on your appreciation for “Giant Tiger”). We appreciate your removing our flyers from your blog. We will be launching a new and improved Giant Tiger website over the next few months, and a brand new “GT Boutique” website. Our sites may include our flyers, as well as lots of other useful information and contests. As such, we have to insist that our own sites are the only location where our current and hopefully future customers will be able to access the information that is currently in our flyers.
Thanks to you and your team for your continued support of our stores.
I got this email back in March and 7 months later and guess what? Giant Tiger’s official website, GT Boutique http://www.gtboutique.com/flyer/en/ never posted an ecopy of the flyer. Their website even has the words “flyer” in it but there’s no flyer on the website.
Update: as of 2008 they have decided to finally place their flyer online although it seems to be missing a few pages.
As for “As such, we have to insist that our own sites are the only location where our current and hopefully future customers will be able to access the information that is currently in our flyers.”
Well sorry but we’re not going to let companies and corporations control our lives anymore or control what info we get and how it’s delivered to us.
After this I posted the flyers on the forum only for our regular registered members to read not thinking it’s a problem since it wasn’t accessible to the general public.
Got another email from them in July:
From: Jean-Marc Desjarlais [email protected]
CC: Rachelle Mesheau [email protected]
CC: Maria Quibell [email protected]
Good morning.
I think that you might have “forgotten” that we
asked you to not post our flyer on your website – it’s there again.
Please remove it.
That’s my Giant Tiger Story.
Oh oh I scanned in the Pledge Duster photo from their flyer in an earlier post! Hope that little bit of FREE ADVERTISING doesn’t mean we have once again run afoul of copyright and trademark laws! 😉
Seriously though I was shocked when I read those emails. I would have thought the company would be glad that their customers were happy. Especially since it was a service they were not willing to provide at the time, but which their customers appreciated.
wow. what can i say, i’m fickle, and something like this makes me not want to shop there ever again. Good thing there’s a dollarama right next door to my closest giant tiger.
Not letting a consumer post prices is one thing. If you go into a Walmart and try to write down (like on a paper and clipboard) their prices, they will tell you that you have to leave. What are they scared of? What gives them the right to restrict the consumer from comparing their prices to others?
wow. how pathetic! some people obviously have no idea what they are doing. As a consumer it bugs me like crazy when I hear big ass companies being so damn controlling! (baffles me Alice w.walmart? didnt know that either.)
I too, pledge to no longer shop at giant loser tiger. as for wal mart, its kinda a last resort thing for me anyways.
Well, I guess it is back to Walmart for me.
Canadian companies seems to miss the boat on free advertising.
Geez.
Giant Tiger 😛 Couldn’t care for them. Too far from me anyway.
I’m surprised about the Walmart issue of writing down prices. Hmmm, I usually don’t have a pen with me to write prices down, so if there is too much to remember I’ve used my cellphone camera. I guess I might get arrested if I did that in Walmart.
First off, I like this site, it’s helpful to all who visit.
Second, contrary to what many would have you believe, visiting a store is a privelidge, not a right. When you view prices or products in a store, you are provided with a “treat to offer”, which means you have the option to buy the item at the advertised price in the store. The store management is under NO obligation to sell the item at that price – they have the right to ask ANY customer to leave their premises (it’s private property) if they feel it’s an inappropriate situation. It’s like going over to your neighbour and they say “get off my lawn”…you can’t argue it, you have to leave.
Having said that, Giant Tiger should welcome the free advertising, and they can complain all they want, however, since the flyer is posted online on the internet (or available in-store), there is no reasonable expectation of privacy or secrecy, hence there is no reason to remove the flyer – it’s not about trademarks or copyright. The “lawyer” is probably just doing what he/she is told, not what’s right or legal in the eyes of the court.
In my prefessional opinion, you can post the flyer if you wish and there will be no financial repercussions. However, the corporate boys may wish to dispute the posting and argue their case in court, and that costs money (to hire lawyers). In which case I would recommend a “link” to their flyer, and they can NOT object since that does NOT infringe upon any form of copyright, trademark, or privacy issues. It’s like someone asking you, “Where’s the Giant Tiger store?”, and you tell them it’s down the street. There is no legal justification for asking you to remove a publically available flyer on a public site.
Personally, I think the boys at Giant Tiger are being a bit snotty. They should welcome the exposure and relish in the sales it could generate for them.
But what do I know…I just deal with dumb contract litigations. 🙂
Who would have thought Giant Tiger would place such a restriction on a non-profiting organization?! If to say this blog was making money of sort then perhaps there would be an arguement…But that just isn’t the case! For shame…
“…..contrary to what many would have you believe, visiting a store is a privelidge, not a right. When you view prices or products in a store, you are provided with a “treat to offerâ€, which means you have the option to buy the item at the advertised price in the store. The store management is under NO obligation to sell the item at that price – they have the right to ask ANY customer to leave their premises (it’s private property) if they feel it’s an inappropriate situation.”~Billy Bob
Your writing suggests that you may be a store level employee. Your comments about the right to ask “ANY customer to leave their premises (it’s private property)” is reserved to threatening behaviour or people charged with shoplifting. Those charged are given legal trespassing notices (which are only good for a 1 year period and can be challenged if it is the only store that a person can reasonably get to). The only threat to a retailer (such as Walmart) when someone writes down prices, is healthy competition. Just as Alice said “What are they [Walmart]scared of?”
Competition checks by Walmarts competitors are done by hidden voice recorders and cell phones. Technology will not stop competitors or customers from gathering information on Walmart pricing. I remember a story in the United States where a retailer tried to stop a customer from coming in with their laptop computer and recording the retail stores prices. I am not sure where it went but I think someone should do that to Walmart here.
It would be my opinion that posting a flyer online is a much larger legal matter than a person going into a Walmart store (or any retailer) and recording their prices. Its the difference between posting company property vs describing what you see.
Take care
Geesh! Still get upset when I think about giant Tiger…we don’t have one up here, but I can tell you that I made a point not to shop at the one here in Regina while visiting… and that includes boxing day!
I imagine many are like me, at least my family – would have never visited the store, if it was for seeing their deals on this site. I didn’t even get GT’s flyer to ever know they existed in my city. How crazy of them to stop “free advertising” so that they have “control” of a flyer that in available “online” anyway… Forget about the big chains like Walmart, Zellars with the weekly flyers to my door. They can’t match Army & Navy, local Mom & Papa stores, otherwise.
I’m pretty sure your use of the advertisement would be covered under the “fair dealing” exception to the copyright since you are using the ad for “crticism” or is analogous to news reporting….
The Canadian Copyright Act (R.S.C. 1985, c. C-42) contains numerous
exceptions to the exclusive rights of copyright owners, amongst which are the
“fair dealing” provisions of sections 29, 29.1 and 29.2.
Section 29 establishes that any fair dealing with any work for the purposes of i)
research or ii) private study does not constitute infringement. Section 29.1
establishes that, under certain circumstances, any fair dealing for the
purposes of i) criticism or ii) review doesn’t infringe copyright. In order to be
applicable, some specific elements must be mentioned. Depending on the
circumstances, those elements are the following : the source, the name of the
author, the performer, the maker or the broadcaster. Finally, section 29.2
states that fair dealing for the purpose of news reporting does not infringe
copyright if the same elements (s.29.1) are mentioned. These five categories
are exhaustive.
http://www.robic.com/publications/Pdf/032E-LC.pdf
I won’t be gong to GT anymore either. As for Walmart, I have writtten items and prices down before so I don’t forget the next time I go.
However, if I was to write down very item in a section or something, they may think I was working for a competitor or gathering info for a company, and who wants to let the competition openly collect info? They would probably throw me out then whether or not I really was working for the competition or not.
Well, I hope that GIANT TIGER is reading all these customer responses, and realizes that yet again, another customer won’t be walking in their front door! The public have the power and it’s about time we exercised it – as for Wantmore, I mean Walmart, how many towns & cities do they need to ruin for us all to stop assisting them in their horrible corporate practices. I’m just fine with Canadian Tire and my local retailers. Support the little guy, I don’t know about you – but I think WE ARE the little guy! Bravo to a great website – keep up the good work!
Just a thought. I am not defending or supporting Giant Tigers position on controling their distribution of advertising. However retailers also have something that are called Trading Areas. Ads and prices are different for different areas. A concern for them may be that customers in different regions (or trading areas, or pricing zones) may come in with flyer information and demand the same price.
Just a thought.
When I worked there someone wanted the same price as at another location, and it was simply explained to them that that was the situation (different locations have different prices).
I think that it’s shitty. Customers waste time and gasoline and bus tickets without realizing they are not going to get the bargain. I always felt like a giant douchebag for the month I worked at GT.
well said boo, what a bunch of losers! NEVER going there again!
My mouth is hanging open. I don’t get it. How this could possibly hurt their business?? Is there something I’m not seeing? I have a feeling that whoever made this decision did not take the time to fully understand what this website is all about.
As far as what we can do as a group. I would suggest posting a letter that we can all copy, paste,print and mail to GT. Like a petition but individual letters. I would do it in a flash.
I would as well.
Wow – I’d think they’d appreciate the advertising!
Personally, I never go to Giant Tiger. I find their store too crowded with merchandise, there are never enough cashiers working and those who are working are too slow. I have had difficulty with exchanging items recieved as a gift and generally have been unsatisfied with their customer service. (And I spent 10 years working retail so I know how things should run)
The ONLY reason that I have taken the time to visit GT this year was due to a deal I saw on this website. (The Plegde Dusters) I went in to purchase them and ended up spending $50 on various items.
Makes me wonder how many other people went and shopped there because of the free advertising this website provided them…………………..hmmmmmmmmmmmmm
The closest GT from here (downtown Toronto) is at least 30 miles away, so we don’t get their flyer delivered. Now that it’s online, I wonder what the big fuss (on their part) was all about…. many of the items are available at the same price or cheaper (significantly in the US). I won’t be shopping there even if they open one close by.
Argh… can’t edit. Meant to say that prices are the same or cheaper at the local competitors (and significantly cheaper in the US)
Oh I think that whole kaboffle is retarded Boo, poop on them for being so silly about there flyer. In this day and age you cant freaking blink without someone complaining.
Honestly, I use to like gt and found some great deals at our local store. But for about the past 4 years its become more and more rundown, and messy, less and less deals and quality of items that ive boughten have been more and more questionable.
I actually found that our ”bargain shop” has better deals now the GT.
bcteagirl:
You are misinformed or ignorant regarding trespassing laws. Where does your information come from? Where does that supposed limitation of 1 year come from? I work in law enforcement and can tell you that YES, an owner or agent for an owner of private property (e.g. Walmart) can ask you to leave for ANY reason. If you don’t like it, you can take it up with the human rights commission in your province, but you have to leave. Refusing to leave could be contrued as threatening behaviour, anyway.
Trespass notices can be for ANY time period, including “for life”. Again, if you don’t like it, you can complain to the store’s administration but they can’t be forced to change their decision, no matter how far you are from their store. A trespass notice can also include ALL the stores, as well, and even all stores owned by that company (e.g. all Hudson Bay companies, etc.).
Please know your facts before posting next time.
And as an aside, I agree it’s ridiculous that GT would ask that their flyer not be posted…talk about counter-productive.
JJS: When did I post anything here about trespassing laws? I would hope that someone in law enforcement would know their facts before accusing someone of something (or calling them ignorant…)…. it just makes your entire post somewhat ironic 😉
But at least we can agree that GT is being counter-productive. 🙂
Well, all of your “corrections” to BillyBob were regarding trespassing laws so…I’m not sure what you mean. You just came off as being really sure of yourself but not having the facts straight, which bothered me.
But yes, GT is the real evil here… 🙂 sorry I might’ve been too harsh.
JJS, bcteagirl was not referring to the validity of your comments regarding trespassing, or the ‘harshness’ of your reply. She was referring to the fact that you directed your reply to her, calling her misinformed and/or ignorant without checking your facts first. If you go back and look at the comments, bcteagirl did not mention trespassing once, nor did she reply to BillyBob’s post, that was Alex! 😉
Giant Tiger has really gone down hill in my Kitchener-Waterloo Ontario area -they used to be fairly clean and a decent place to shop – now they seem more rundown and dank – Sally I also find the Bargainshop to have better deals these days – too bad Giant Tiger didn’t like it’s free advertising because at least I actually still looked at their flyer to check out specials when I came on smartcanucks – now there is about 0% chance of me shopping there.
and on I side note bcteagirl you took that post like a champ – I myself would be quite PO’d if someone called me ignorant for no reason 🙂 – I agree with Prue – get YOUR facts straight JJS
*ahem apology should be in play…
Ohhh my bad…I just saw that, I’m used to names being signed at the end of posts on other sites. My apologies bcteagirl, and thank you Prue for correcing me.
We got it figured out, amycanada…but thanks for jumping in there.
I esteemed yours blog,
thanks the author a lot of useful to myself have found..
HI
WE HAD GIANT TIGER IN FORT ERIE ,I LIVE IN CRYSTAL BEACH IT CLOSED SO WE NO LONGER GET FLYER. THE NIAGARA FALLS PAPER STATED HUNGERY MAN DINNERS ON SALE IN THE FRIDAY PAPER SO WE MADE A TRIP TO NIAGARA FALLS TO GET SOME ONLY TO BE TOLD THEY WERE SOLD OUT .WE THEN DECIDED TO GO TO WELLAND STORE AT WHICH TIME MY FRIEND HAD A FALL JUST AS WE GOT INSIDE THE STORE LUCKELY SHE WAS NOT HURT SO AFTER SHE SAT FOR A WHILE WE TOLD THE CLERK WHAT WE CAME FOR SHE SAID THEY HAD BEEN SOLD OUT SINCE FRIDAY SHE CHECKED TO SEE IF MORE HAD COME IN NO THEY HAD NOT.BOTH MY FRIEND AND I WERE VERY DISAPIONTED,I HAD WANTED SOME FOR GRANDSON WHO HAS MUSCULAR DYSTROPHY AND ON DISABILATY WE HAD INTENDED TO SEE IF WE COULD GET RAIN CHECKS BUT AFTER MY FRIENDS FALL DID NOT THINK ABOUT IT .WHY DO WE NOT GET FLYERS IN NIAGAR FALLS PAPER IF WE SUSCRIBE TO THEM ? ALSO THE SALES GIRL TOLD US THIS WAS SECOND WEEK OF FLYER WELL THE SALE IS ON UNTIL THURSDAY AND NEITHER STORE THOUGHT THAY WOULD GET ANY MORE.WE ARE BOTH VERY DISSAPIONTED. WE LIKE MANY OTHER SENIORS IN OUR BUILDING MISS GIANT TIGER IN FORT ERIE
BARB BEROUD
I clicked where it said to get the flyer. On that page was a request for my e-mail address. There was no where to enter my province, so I never got to see the flyer.
Thanks for all of the interesting comments. I work for Giant Tiger and can certainly understand why people would be miffed at what seemed like a heavy handed approach to get the flyer taken off of your site. To provide a different perspective we were running into a big probelm with hyper-competitive competitors using the posted flyer to complicate some of our flyer item pricing.
As a company we were torn as to how to best handle this issue and hence the request to have it removed. Fortunately reason and common sense have prevailed and the flyer is posted once again. My apologies for the headaches and inconvenience – it was certainly not directed at you or your excellent blog but rather a poorly thought out solution to the problem.
On a personal note thanks for a very interesting blog site – my wife and I use the information all the time. Keep up the great work!
Sam at GT
If the competitors want that information enough they will walk into your store and get it – posted online or not!
I realise this post is over a year old and I rarely go to GT but just wow
They are in our stores all the time as well. It can be pretty cut throat to be honest. Take a look at how many Canadian retailers are still out there and are successful. Having the flyer on-line just made it a lot easier for them to do it from anywhere.
Also the flyers are posted some times before the flyer actually begins giving a competitor an extra day to mess around with prices.
I don’t disagree with you though – I was always a proponent of keeping the flyer on-line no matter what.
Interestingly also, although the post is a year old it still features prominently in a google search. You can do a hundred things right with no comments but a complaint lives prominently in the digital world a long time.
I have just heard about GT and was on line to find out where they are
located as they are not in the phone book. I did not expect all of this.
Who’s got that much free time on thier hands to worry about putting flyers
on the internet. get a life
Just a note, but the site shown above by the original poster does now have an online flyer available.
WTF! where is the flyer you are a horrible website. im gunna sue u for false advertising because yore flyer for giant tiger is not on this website
Just came across your site, and the comments on Giant Tiger.
This is interesting to me because I do not live close to a Giant Tiger, and wanted to see their offerings without going all the way to the store to pick up a flyer. As a former Sr.Exec in retailing, I cannot understand their attitude at all. Exposure is GOOD – if the material is good. The manager of the store I went to (who I know was an excellent retailler) agreed with me – 18 months before their feeble start on the web with fashion (?) apparel – that they should be there – any way possible. Finally as a result of their H.O. mentality he left them for a competitor – and they still weren/t on the web! He’s much happier with his progressive new employer…. Now when I look for their site – they’re always LATE with their flyer – so I almost never go there. I lose. They lose. Too bad.
i have been receiving giant tiger flyer via email for some time now. I simply sent an email to head office requesting it
As Wild Life Photographer i give rank to this one as a Best Camera. i love it.
Hello !
To whom may concern too…
I wrote because,something happen this Tuesday dec 7, 2010 when I went to the Giant tiger near (93.9 Bob fm)near Rideau Center ottawa,canada and I can’t sit here,without saying or doing anything about it.
Well here it goes,when I went to the store a bought a watch for my wife for Christmas 60.00$ and other items.
When I got home,the watch I bought,wasn’t in the bag and I still have the receipt for it.
When I turn back,they told me they couldn’t refund me or give me another one and they watched the camera the video.
The manager and I ,saw this lady putting the watch into another person bag.
The manager denied everything and didn’t want to give me a discount.
He said,the moment you leave the store and no one is responsable what happens after,even the video shows the truth.
Now,I’m short of 60 $ and no watch to give my wife…I got robbed,by this person who walked away with my watch for free,plus the manager who didn’t give me any discount or refund of the employee’s mistake.
People saw and heard everything what happen whit this manager did that day, they lost clients.
Now,I refuse to go shopping the (giant tiger) and alot of my friends/family as well.
Its unfair and we are disappointed of the (giant tiger) stores,now.
Thank you for nothing 🙁
store hours sudbury