Viktor & Rolf and Hudson’s Bay Invite you to the “LA VIE EN ROSE” VIP Event. Visit one of the participating Hudson’s Bay stores and receive an exclusive gift between Wednesday, May 1,  until Tuesday, May 7, 2013. Also, visit the Viktor & Rolf counter at Hudson’s Bay and receive a free Flowerbomb sample.

Print & present your voucher at any Viktor & Rolf counter at Hudson’s Bay and get your free Flowerbomb sample. Click here to print your voucher.

Offer is available in selected Hudson’s Bay locations. Click here to find your store.

Save on Foods are going to allow stacking and small overages starting April 26th. Coupons that specify they cannot be stacked (P&G etc) will not be allowed when stacking.

Coupon Acceptance Practices

• Our coupon acceptance practices are designed to help extend more savings to our customers while ensuring we continue to offer an exceptional customer service experience to everyone in our stores.

Rules for manufacturer issued coupons:

• present your coupon at the time of purchase
• ensure all conditions stated on the coupon are met (product to purchase, size, flavour etc.)
• ensure your coupon has a Canadian address
• ensure your coupon is redeemed prior to the expiration date
• if printed from the internet, your coupon is legible
• ensure your coupon is not a photocopy
• ensure your coupon is not issued by one of our competitors
• ensure your coupon is not a mail-in rebate
• If stacking more than one coupon, the sum of the discount cannot exceed more than 5% of the value of the product. For instance, $5.00 off an item priced at $4.99 will be OK, but $2.00 off an item priced at $1.90 is not.

• Store Issued Coupons ( More Rewards Coupons/flyer coupons, etc ) can not be combined with manufacturer coupons.

Guidelines for high volume coupon redeemers:

• Please call ahead to ensure we have adequate team members available on our front end at the time you plan to shop so that we can accommodate your needs while providing great service to our other customers.
• At checkout, please ensure that coupons are placed with each item to speed up the coupon validation and checkout process.
• If you hope to purchase large quantities of individual items, please provide 2 – 3 days notice to your local store manager so we can properly manage inventory requirements
• Please note that we reserve the right to limit quantities purchased based on inventory available for all customers.
• Please note that we will not accept large quantities of multiple coupons during any special promotional days. For more information, please see the store manager.
• Store issued coupons: store coupons are distributed through flyers, email, in-store kiosks, social media and direct mail.
• Our store system reinforces the conditions of every coupon we receive to ensure that specifications are met (including banner, date, product specifications, limits, combinations, etc).

Thank you to ColleenMGorecki for the information.  Click here to join the discussion about stacking at Save on Foods

You’re Invited To Lou Lou’s Shop ‘Til You Drop Event At Forever 21! This awesome event is valid from 5PM – 9PM at the following locations:

• Eaton Center: Tuesday, April 9, 2013.
• Fairview Mall: Thursday, April 11, 2013.
• Markville Shopping center: Wednesday, April 12, 2013.
• Sherway Gardens: Tuesday, April 16, 2013.

Get 21% off all purchases that night. Also, Spend $50 and receive a free lace panty.

Enjoy and live DJ & giveaways. See stores for detailes. All while supplies last.

Target have released a list of  ‘soft openings’ for Ontario stores over the next two weeks.

Is your local store opening soon? Will you be checking it out?

Please note these are soft openings and they do not have flyers etc yet, so please be patient with the new cashiers

Don’t forget to turn your clocks forward tonight before you go to bed and change your smoke alarm batteries and all the other fun stuff we are supposed to check twice a year.

Work really messed with me yesterday, maintenance started changing the clocks at lunch, I went to drop off some mail and came back to a clock an hour ahead and wondered if I had blacked out.

Family Day is not like other statutory holidays, it is provincially legislated but does not cover federal employees so some people will be working tomorrow.

Open on Family Day

Federal government offices, including Passport offices and most post offices (post offices in stores like Shoppers Drug Mart will likely be closed)
Meal and drop-in centres
Mail will be delivered (from Canada Post, couriers like UPS will depend on company)
Shopping malls: Eaton Centre, Vaughn Mills, Pacific Mall, Woodbine Centre are all open
Some supermarkets and convenience stores – call ahead
Most restaurants – call ahead to be sure
Most tourist attractions and museums, including Art Gallery of Ontario, Royal Ontario Museum, CN Tower, Ontario Science Centre, Hockey Hall of Fame, and Casa Loma in Toronto and most attractions in Niagara Falls.
Some ice rinks and arenas.
TTC and most public transit operates on holiday schedule, but note that public transportation varies by city. For example, public transportation in Kingston does not run at all on Family Day.  GO Transit will be running on a Saturday schedule.

Closed on Family Day

Banks (Head office staff are often under federal contracts and will be working but branches will be closed)
Schools
Public libraries
Shopping malls not designated as tourist attractions
LCBO (liquor stores) and Beer Stores
Post offices located in closed retail outlets.
Most grocery stores and pharmacies, including Shoppers Drug Mart (call to be sure) – last year some stores opened and took a fine if caught so check with your store
Toronto Stock Exchange etc

Are you working tomorrow? If not, what do you have planned for the day?

A story from CTV says that Sweeping cuts may be ahead for Canada Post as the Crown corporation faces a $327 million operating loss.

Canada Post is considering the following options to reduce their costs and stay afloat as less people use traditional mail

• reducing home delivery from five to four, or even three, days
• closing some of the 6,500 retail outlets across the country
• consolidating its 21 sorting centres to just major cities.

While the changes could be several years into the future as a result of contracts and bargaining agreements, they will not be able to sustain those losses for the years it will take for those agreements to end.

Personally, I have used Canada Post less, not because of email but because locally they are so slow.  I sent and received several expedited parcels and xpresspost envelopes last week and only 1 of 6 arrived on time – Canada Post is refunding the cost of those packages as they guaranteed dates that were not met but I know the company I work for will be greatly impacted by mail arriving only 3 days (and will likely mean our mail room staff will be dropped to part time so the job cuts will be wider than just Canada Post).

How do you feel about these changes (and please remember that we have Canada Post workers who are members of SmartCanucks and be respectful of that).

Thanks for the better CTV link dlee

After finally getting product back on the shelves after the shortage before Christmas, Novartis has issued a recall on a number of Buckleys, Triaminic, Neo Citran and Jack & Jill products for coughs, colds and flu.

The products are safe to take, but if you have children in your home, the child proof mechanism on the cap may be faulty allowing children to open the bottles.  For recall information, consumers can contact Novartis Consumer Health Canada Inc. at 1-888-788-8181 (available 9 a.m. – 6 p.m. EST).

Find a list of products here

Some workers were laid off as of last Friday, others showed up to work today to find notices on the door that the Best Buy or Future Shop location they worked at was now closed.

The Best Buy stores that are now closed or will close soon are:

• Queensborough
• Nanaimo
• Victoria
• Langford (Westshore Town Centre)
• South Surrey, British Columbia
• Lachenaie, British Columbia
• Sherbrooke (SmartCentres Sherbrooke), Quebec.

and the Future Shop stores:

• West Kelowna, British Columbia
• Montreal (Forum Entertainment Center), Quebec
• Laval (First Pro Ste-Dorothee), Quebec
• Winnipeg (Regent), Manitoba
• Calgary (Macleod), Alberta
• Ancaster, Barrie South, Ontario
• Mississauga (Erin Mills), Ontario

More store closures may follow as the company move to smaller concept stores in an effort to combat overhead as customers visit stores to try out items but shop online for cheaper deals.

As of 4:15 PM Eastern, VISA are experiencing a Canada-wide processing issue with most transactions being declined.  This is confirmed to impact TD, CIBC and RBC but all cards are likely impacted.  If shopping on your way home, you may want to get some cash out or use debit/Mastercard.  This includes VISA debit and prepaid credit cards processed on the same systems.

Click here for more information or updates

Update 5.10 PM Systems are back up (source)
Were you impacted by this outage?

Target made an announcement today with some of the brands they will be carrying in the new Canadian stores

• Pixi Cosmetics (more info here)
• Roots Clothing
• Giada De Laurentiis Kitchenware (more info here)
• Nate Berkus Decor (more info here)
• Archer Farms & Market Pantry Foods (own brands)
• Accessories by Shaun White
• Threshold Decor (more info here)
• Kate Young Clothing (Natalie Portman’s designer)
• Sonia Kashuk Makeup (more info here)
• Some items from their Up & Up (USA) line of own brand items from diapers, baby formula to toiletries and plastic containers

With stores due to open in about 2 months, what are you most looking forward to at Target?

 “Tomorrow is the first blank page of a 365 page book. Write a good one.” – Brad Paisley

Happy new year to all our readers, new and old.

Wishing you all a great new year filled with amazing sales, coupons, savings and new SmartCanucks friends.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays loyal readers from all of us here at SmartCanucks! 

 Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St Nicholas soon would be there.

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads.
And mamma in her ‘kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled our brains for a long winter’s nap.

When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.

The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow
Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below.
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a miniature sleigh, and eight tinny reindeer.

With a little old driver, so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be St Nick.
More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name!

“Now Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen!
On, Comet! On, Cupid! on, on Donner and Blitzen!
To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!
Now dash away! Dash away! Dash away all!”

As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky.
So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,
With the sleigh full of Toys, and St Nicholas too.

And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof
The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.
As I drew in my head, and was turning around,
Down the chimney St Nicholas came with a bound.

He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot.
A bundle of Toys he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a peddler, just opening his pack.

His eyes-how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow.

The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath.
He had a broad face and a little round belly,
That shook when he laughed, like a bowlful of jelly!

He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself!
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread.

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And filled all the stockings, then turned with a jerk.
And laying his finger aside of his nose,
And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose!

He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.
But I heard him exclaim, ‘ere he drove out of sight,
“Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night!”

Wii U ! Available now at Future Shop, usable internal memory limited due to system software. Wii U is trademark of nintendo.

Today Sunday, November 18, 2012 you can get your Wii U from Future Shop and enjoy.

Several of our forum members have shared the news that as of December 1st, Shoppers Drug Mart will not be accepting American Express cards for any payments.

This news never surprises me, AMEX fees for retailers are generally higher than VISA or Mastercard fees so it cuts into their profits.