Hot Cross Buns are back and baked fresh daily at your local COBS Bread. COBS bakery is hosting their Hot Cross Fun Day Event this Saturday, March 4, 2017! Head to your local bakery on March 4th for Hot Cross Bun tastings, kid-friendly activities and family fun!
COBS Bread have three delicious varieties from Hot Cross Bun baked fresh from scratch daily on-site at each bakery. Try all three this spring: Traditional Fruit, Cranberry Orange, or Chocolate Chip. The Chocolate Chip Hot Cross Bun has more than 100 chocolate chips per bun.
In a bold move, the president of Sunrise Records, Doug Putman, announced that the Ontario-based music chain would be taking over 70 vacant lots left empty by the soon-to-be liquidated Canadian music retailer giant, HMV.
Putman says that he plans to take ownership of the retail locations, which are based in malls and across the country, in the springtime after HMV has officially pulled out and pulled down their signs.
Putman told the Canadian Press in an interview that he sees this as “a good opportunity for us to get a lot more stores open.” Despite the fact that online streaming services has risen to 22 billion streams in the past year (up 203%), Putman says that consumers still have a soft spot for having a ‘physical’ piece of the music to hold onto.
“Vinyl will definitely be front-of-store,” he was quoted saying in an interview to CBC. The stores will also continue to sell CDs, apparel and other forms of music paraphernalia.
HMV officially closed down operations in January after trying to make a business work that was said in court filings to be losing $100,000 a day.
But these numbers haven’t stalled Sunrise Records president’s faultless optimism. In fact, the company has plans on reaching out to the thousands of HMV employees who have been left unemployed after the company decided to shut down operations of all 102 stores.
Air conditioning this summer is about to get a little cheaper if you live in Ontario. This morning, the Premier announced that they are refinancing building and upgrading of power plants along with some of the other costs that attached to our bills. Admitting that hydro bills are too high for many Ontario residents, there will be an average reduction of 17% on most bills starting with June usage – just in time for those summer cooling bills! This is on top of the recent savings of 8% by cutting the provincial portion of taxes on bills.
While many bills have arrived with small discounts, the tax reduction only included actual usage and not just billing from January 1st so bills arriving this month should see the full discount. With most electricity providers moving to monthly billing this Spring as required by the recent decisions on hydro rates, we should start seeing the full 25% discount on bills in July.
It will probably cost us more in the long term, refinancing means it needs to be paid back at some point but for those struggling to pay their bills, it may be a welcome break. Officials say the maximum amount of interest per year would be $1.4 billion, with those interest costs to be paid by hydro customers in future years – so don’t get used to the discount, it may disappear after the next election!
Tim Hortons Canada has a wonderful freebie event going on for March, Break this year that the whole family will be able to take advantage of. On different days throughout the March Break, Tim Hortons will be offering your family the chance to go to local swimming pools in your area for completely FREE
The dates, times and locations of thisTim Hortons free event will vary depending on where it is you are living. But all you have to do to determine when and where your free swimming events can be found is type in your address, city or postal code into the map finder and then the site will generate a list of places in your preferred region to choose from.
For the most part, the dates will be offered between March 13th-March 18th, but that may change depending on your region.
Toys R Us Canada has FREE Family Events each Saturday in March. The Toys R Us March Family Events include fun make & Takes, product demos, giveaways and more.
Visit your local Toys“R”Us store to take part in the exciting promotions and activities your kids will love. All events are offered In-store only. While quantities last. Giveaways and make and takes are limit to one per child. Events recommended for children ages 5 years and up.
Saturday, March 4, 2017 from 11am – 1pm
Imports Dragon Giveaway, FREE giveaways from Imports Dragon! Choose from:
The Grossery Gang or
Shopkins Season 7 mystery foil bags.
Saturday, March 11, 2017 from 11am – 1pm
Mega Construx Halo Make And Take
Build and take home a MEGA Construx HALO ship!
Saturday, March 18, 2017 from 11am – 1pm
Beyblade Burst + Play Doh Demo & Crafts
Kids test their skills and challenge other participants at our Beyblade battle for the burst event.
Saturday, March 25, 2017 from 11am – 1pm
Beauty and The Beast Event Make and Take
Kids can Build and take home a LEGO Mini Cogsworth and create and take home a Play-Doh Rose.
BCBG Max Azria, the women’s upscale fashion retail chain, is closing all its standalone stores in Canada and seeking protection from creditors in North America. Fifty one stores in Canada will be liquidated and closed, however court filings say the company may keep its kiosks inside department stores, such as Hudson’s Bay, which are for the most part profitable.
Founded in 1989, BCBGMAXAZRIAGROUP is the lifetime vision of Founder, Designer, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Max Azria. After years of success designing women’s wear in Paris and Los Angeles, Azria decided to pursue his dream of launching a design house that spoke to the modern woman, and BCBGMAXAZRIA was born. The chain has grown to over 550 stores worldwide.
The brand, a longtime favourite of red-carpet celebrities, has suffered in the retail slump. Kate Winslet, Victoria Beckham and Alicia Keys have worn its fashions, which include cocktail dresses and handbags. Despite US$615 million in sales in its most recently completed fiscal year, the chain is the latest unable to pay its debts. Court documents suggest the company has assets of up to $500 million and debts of up to $1 billion.
“Unfortunately, like many other apparel and retail companies, BCBG has fallen victim in recent years to adverse macro-trends, including a general shift away from brick-and-mortar to online retail channels, a shift in consumer demographics,” the company said in a court filing. As such, BCBG Max Azria is seeking protection under Canada’s Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act.
If you’re one of the people who think of Subway as a “healthier” alternative to the usual fast food fare, a myth that has been debunked on more than one occasion, then this study from CBC Marketplace is one that will surely make you think twice before ordering that $5 footlong.
In a DNA analysis, CBC took samples from the most popular chicken filet sandwiches that different fast food businesses dish out to their customers. Subway’s sandwiches, as the analysis revealed, contained the least amount of chicken DNA, coming in at under 50% chicken.
The results from the study, which took samples from five popular fast food chains, were broken down as such:
The testers were initially shocked by the results of the Subway chicken, considering the outliers to possibly be incorrectly measured. And so the test was done again and again, to ensure accuracy. But after ordering five new biopsies of the chicken, the average still came out to be 53.6% and 42.8% for the two latter sandwiches.
What was the remaining ingredients in the chicken? Soy.
Subway replied to this study, stating that their recipe calls for less than one percent of soy in their chicken products:
“Subway Canada cannot confirm the veracity of the results of the lab testing you had conducted. However, we are concerned by the alleged findings you cite with respect to the proportion of soy content. Our chicken strips and oven roasted chicken contain 1% or less of soy protein. We use this ingredient in these products as a means to help stabilize the texture and moisture. All of our chicken items are made from 100% white meat chicken which is marinated, oven roasted and grilled. We tested our chicken products recently for nutritional and quality attributes and found it met our food quality standards. We will look into this again with our supplier to ensure that the chicken is meeting the high standard we set for all of our menu items and ingredients.”
Subway has said that they’re going to be investigating the matter with their supplier, as they always strive to supply high quality ingredients to their customers.
Regardless of what they plan to do going forward, would you still eat Subway’s chicken sandwich products?
The month of March sees a number of greatly anticipated video games being released with one of the more hotly awaited games being The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, which will be released on both WiiU and Switch on March 3rd.
Thegame have been ordered by the day of their release, with the ones that have yet to state an official release date being left at the bottom.
Friday, March 3rd, 2017:
1-2-Switch (Switch)
Human Resource Machine (Switch)
I Am Setsuna (Switch)
Just Dance 2017 (Switch)
Little Inferno (Switch)
Skylanders Imaginators (Switch)
Snipperclips (Switch)
Super Bomberman R (Switch)
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch/Wii U)
World of Goo (Switch)
Tuesday, March 7th, 2017:
Atelier Firis: The Alchemist and the Mysterious Journey (PS4/PS Vita/PC)
Birthdays the Beginning (PS4/PC)
LEGO Worlds (PS4/Xbox One/PC)
Loot Rascals (PS4/PC)
Nier: Automata (PS4/PC)
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands (PS4/Xbox One/PC)
Little Tikes is recalling 540,000 toddler swings after injuries have been reported. This recall involves Little Tikes 2-in-1 Snug’n Secure pink toddler swings. As of now, only the US has issued a recall notice but it’s good to keep an eye out on the Canadian version, should they recall it as well!
Incidents/Injuries:About 140 reports of the swing breaking, including 39 injuries to children including abrasions, bruises, cuts and bumps to the head. Two of the reported injuries included children with a broken arm.
What you should do:Consumers should immediately stop using the recalled swings and contact Little Tikes for a refund in the form of a credit towards the purchase of another Little Tikes product.
Health Canada is proposing new initiatives this spring to get the number of Canadians who use tobacco to below the current 5% of the population who admit to using tobacco, including the 3.9 million Canadians who admit to being smokers. They would like to see this number to drop below 5% by the year 2035, as at the current rate some are predicting that 9% of Canadians will be smoking by the year 2036.
In the newly released paper, Health Canada proposes several different initiatives to tackle the tobacco problem, specifically looking at how to prevent youth and young adults from taking up smoking, as their rates of smoking have remained unchanged since 2013.
These initiatives included:
raising the minimum age of purchasing tobacco products to 21 years of age
tighten controls on contraband tobacco products, in order to protect the underage purchase of tobacco
enforce new smoke-free and vapour-free spaces in multiple unit dwellings (e.g. apartments, residences, condos), campuses, public spaces and parks
reduce the addictiveness of tobacco products sold in Canada
In the paper, Health Canada cites many reasons for exploring these new options, but some of the more poignant takeaways from the research included:
tobacco is the leading cause of premature death in Canada
more than 37,000 Canadians die from illnesses caused by smoking each year
….that’s one Canadian every 14 minutes
the burdens of tobacco use on the Canadian economy are no joke; there are $17 billion in health care and indirect economic costs each year
But, with all that said, Health Canada is looking for you to give your input. You can send a letter to the government at this address:
Consultations on the Future of Tobacco Control in Canada
Room 1605-626
Mail Stop 0301A
150 Tunney’s Pasture Driveway
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0K9
If you do intend on sending a letter/email, be sure to disclose any instances of conflict of interest you may have with the tobacco industry, or the vaping industry.
7-Eleven Canada has a new hot promotion starting today for one week only! Enjoy FREE small coffee every day this week! This 7-Eleven FREE coffee offer is valid from today, Monday, February 27 until Saturday, March 4, 2017.
McDonald’s Canada has a new HOT promotion starts today and valid for one week! Enjoy a FREE small McCafé Hot Premium Roast Coffee!
This McDonald’s offer is available from today, Monday, February 27 , 2017 until Sunday, March 5, 2017 only. For an extra $0.50 you can upsize to a medium (plus tax), or for an extra $0.75 you can upsize to a large coffee (plus tax). Enjoy 🙂
Cineplex Canada has released their new schedule. The Cineplex Canada Family Favourites Movies include:
Today, Saturday, February 25, 2017 at 11am the film Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, Action, Adventure, Family, is the Family Favourites for $2.99 (1h 52m).
Here’s the upcoming movie every Saturday morning at 11am for Cineplex Family Favourites at $2.99 each:
March, 2017:
Saturday, March 4, 2017: Nine Lives. Comedy, Family. 1h 27m
Saturday, March 11, 2017: Kubo and the Two Strings. Animation, Family. 1h 41m
Saturday, March 18 2017: The Wizard of Oz. Family, Fantasy.1h 42m
Saturday, March 25, 2017: Space Jam. Comedy, Animation, Adventure, Family, Classic. 1h 28m
