Believe it or not, fall is just around the corner! Pumpkin Spice drinks and baked treats are back at Starbucks Canada.

Click here to find a Starbucks near you!

G. Brandt Meat Packers Ltd. is recalling Brandt brand mini spicy cheese sausage from the marketplace due to possible Listeria monocytogenes contamination. Consumers should not consume the recalled product described below.

What you should do 

If you think you became sick from consuming a recalled product, call your doctor.

Check to see if you have the recalled product in your home. Recalled products should be thrown out or returned to the store where they were purchased.

Food contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes may not look or smell spoiled but can still make you sick. Symptoms can include vomiting, nausea, persistent fever, muscle aches, severe headache and neck stiffness. Pregnant women, the elderly and people with weakened immune systems are particularly at risk. Although infected pregnant women may experience only mild, flu-like symptoms, the infection can lead to premature delivery, infection of the newborn or even stillbirth. In severe cases of illness, people may die.

Click here to read more information about this recall.

It’s showtime! Cineplex has reopened all of the theatres and entertainment venues across Canada. Cineplex made comprehensive changes to ensure guests and team stay safe.

Click here for more details.

SOL Cuisine is launching new Spinach Chickpea Bites at all Costco Canada locations throughout Western Canada. Spinach Chickpea Bites feature a blend of vitamin loaded spinach and high in protein chickpeas. The plant-based appetizer is soy free, non-GMO and offers a good source of iron. You can find new Spinach Chickpea Bites in main frozen aisle at participating Costco Canada locations throughout Western Canada.

SOL Cuisine is about offering innovative PLANT-BASED food choices that people want and love! With our busy lives, we all strive to find balance within our environments, allow us to help you maintain a healthy, mind, body and SOL. The many delicious and tasty PLANT-BASED offerings will satisfy everyone’s needs for alternative and better proteins. SOL Cuisine started in 1980 with a passion for great tasting quality vegan foods.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is warning the public not to consume and retailers, distributors, manufacturers, and food service establishments such as hotels, restaurants, cafeterias, hospitals, and nursing homes not to serve, use, or sell the products described below.

Prima Wawona, located in Fresno, California, has recalled fresh peaches with various brand names due to possible Salmonella contamination. Various importers in Canada are conducting a recall of the affected products.

Peaches with the same PLU numbers and that are Product of Canada are not affected.

Click here to view the recalled products

What you should do 

If you think you became sick from consuming a recalled product, call your doctor.

Check to see if you have the recalled products in your home or establishment. Recalled products should be thrown out or returned to the location where they were purchased. If you are unsure of the source of the peaches, check with your place of purchase.

Food contaminated with Salmonella may not look or smell spoiled but can still make you sick. Young children, pregnant women, the elderly and people with weakened immune systems may contract serious and sometimes deadly infections. Healthy people may experience short-term symptoms such as fever, headache, vomiting, nausea, abdominal cramps and diarrhea. Long-term complications may include severe arthritis.

Click here to read more information about this recall.

KFC has launched its plant-based menu across Canada! After a successful pilot with plant-based partner Lightlife® in 2019, vegetarians everywhere can now experience KFC’s delicious taste at their local restaurant.

What do you think of KFC’s Plant-Based options?

Rewards on your two faves? Yes and yes! Now you can earn Rewards on hot beverages and fries at McDonald’s Canada! McDonald’s is revamping its McCafé® Mobile Rewards program with a new name and a new reward. Announced today, McDonald’s Rewards, a program available on the McDonald’s app, allows Canadians to collect and earn rewards on hot McCafé beverages and has now been expanded to include its World Famous Fries™. As one in three orders includes McDonald’s fries in Canada, the all-new McDonald’s Rewards is another way Canadians can conveniently and simply get more of the food they love.

“Adding our World Famous Fries to McDonald’s Rewards is a natural, given our history of innovation and the love Canadians have for our fries,” said Lara Skripitsky, Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, McDonald’s Canada. “Now our guests can earn even more rewards on the food they love through our easy to use mobile app. And who doesn’t love free fries?”

As with the current program, McDonald’s Rewards provides a reward after seven qualifying purchases. The purchase can be any size hot beverage (excluding espresso) and, now, any size fries, even those included as part of a meal. Having a rewards program that includes both coffee and fries means that the new program truly offers round-the-clock rewards. Guests can also continue to earn McDonald’s Rewards on all of the same order points as today, including Front Counter, Drive Thru, Kiosk and Mobile Ordering on the McDonald’s app.

In about the time that it takes to cook McDonald’s fries (three minutes), users can download and set up McDonald’s Rewards by downloading the McDonald’s app on iOS or Android. The app allows users to save favourite menu items, pay for food and beverages straight from their smartphone, and collect and earn rewards on coffee and now fries.

Click here to view McDonald’s latest coupons!

Click here to view all promotions at McDonald’s Canada.

Here’s a full list of all of the shows and movies coming to Netflix Canada this August 2020:

August 1

• Breaking In
• Down a Dark Hall
• Gone Baby Gone
• Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit
• Lawless
• Man of Steel
• Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
• Murder on the Orient Express
• One Day
• Super 8
• Super Monsters: The New Class (Netflix Family)
• Superman Returns
• The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
• The Indian in the Cupboard
• The Predator
• The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie
• Titanic
• Upgrade
• We’re the Millers

August 2

• Connected (Netflix Documentary)

August 3

• Immigration Nation (Netflix Documentary)

August 4

• A Go! Go! Cory Carson Summer Camp (Netflix Family)
• Kingdom, Seasons 1-3
• Malibu Rescue: The Next Wave (Netflix Family)
• Mundo Misterio / Mystery Lab (Netflix Original)
• Sam Jay: 3 in the Morning (Netflix Comedy Special)

August 5

• 10 Cloverfield Lane
• Anelka: L’Incompris / Anelka: Misunderstood (Netflix Documentary)
• Bring It On
• Bring It On Again
• Bring It On: All or Nothing
• Bring It On: Fight to the Finish
• Bring It On: In It to Win It
• Conan the Barbarian
• Doom
• EDtv
• The Little Rascals
• World’s Most Wanted (Netflix Documentary)

August 6

• The Rain, Season 3 (Netflix Original)
• The Seven Deadly Sins: Imperial Wrath of the Gods (Netflix Anime)

August 7

• Alta Mar / High Seas, Season 3 (Netflix Original)
• Berlin, Berlin (Netflix Film)
• ¡Nailed It! México, Season 2 (Netflix Original)
• Selling Sunset, Season 3 (Netflix Original)
• Sing On! Germany (Netflix Original)
• The Magic School Bus Rides Again Kids in Space (Netflix Family)
• The New Legends of Monkey, Season 2 (Netflix Family)
• Tiny Creatures (Netflix Original)
• Wizards: Tales of Arcadia (Netflix Family)
• Word Party Songs (Netflix Family)
• Work It (Netflix Film)

August 10

• Game On: A Comedy Crossover Event (Netflix Original)

August 11

• Rob Schneider: Asian Momma, Mexican Kids (Netflix Comedy Special)

August 12

• The New Romantics
• (Un)Well (Netflix Documentary)

August 13

• Une fille facile / An Easy Girl (Netflix Film)

August 14

• 3%, Season 4 (Netflix Original)
• Dirty John: The Betty Broderick Story (Netflix Original)
• El robo del siglo (Netflix Original)
• Fearless (Netflix Film)
• Glow Up, Season 2 (Netflix Original)
• Octonauts & the Cavs of Sac Actun (Netflix Film)
• Project Power (Netflix Film)
• Searching
• Teenage Bounty Hunters (Netflix Original)

August 15

• Mirror Mirror
• Rita, Season 5 (Netflix Original)
• Stranger, Season 2 (Netflix Original)

August 17

• Crazy Awesome Teachers (Netflix Film)
• Glitch Techs, Season 2 (Netflix Family)

August 19

• Crimenes de Familia / The Crimes That Bind (Netflix Film)
• DeMarcus Family Rules (Netflix Original)
• High Score (Netflix Documentary)
• What to Expect When You’re Expecting

August 20

• Biohackers (Netflix Original)
• Great Pretender (Netflix Anime)
• John Was Trying to Contact Aliens (Netflix Film)

August 21

• Alien TV (Netflix Family)
• Fuego negro (Netflix Film)
• Hoops (Netflix Original)
• Lucifer, Season 5 (Netflix Original)
• The Sleepover (Netflix Film)

August 22

• Escape Plan
• How to Get Away with Murder, Season 6

August 23

• 1BR

August 25

• Emily’s Wonder Lab (Netflix Family)
• Trinkets, Season 2 (Netflix Original)

August 26

• Do Do Sol Sol La La Sol (Netflix Original)
• Million Dollar Beach House (Netflix Original)
• Rising Phoneix (Netflix Documentary)
• The Equalizer 2

August 27

• Aggretsuko, Season 3 (Netflix Anime)

August 28

• All Together Now (Netflix Film)
• Cobra Kai, Seasons 1-2 (Netflix Original)
• I am a Killer: Released (Netflix Original)
• Orígenes secretos / Unknown Origins (Netflix Film)

President’s Choice brand Beefless Undeniable Burgers recalled due to presence of pieces of wood.

Click here to read more information about this recall.

Toys, Toys, Toys has filed for bankruptcy and will close all stores after 30 years in business. The closing sale will begin immediately at 5 stores located in Vaughan Mills, Square One Shopping Centre, Erin Mills Town Centre, Scarborough Town Centre, & Oshawa Centre. This liquidation sale includes a huge selection of popular and collectible toys including action figures, dolls, board games, RC toys,, plush toys, souvenirs, and much more.

DAVIDsTEA Canada announced that they are implementing a restructuring plan under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (the “CCAA”) in order to accelerate the transition to an online retailer and wholesaler of high-quality tea and accessories. As part of the restructuring process, DAVIDsTEA may ultimately close a significant number of stores. At this point, they did not confirm exactly which stores will be closed. During the restructuring process, DAVIDsTEA will continue to operate their online business through their website as well as wholesale distribution channel, through which we sell a selection of DAVIDsTEA products in grocery stores and pharmacies across Canada.

DAVIDsTEA said “Dear Friends, We have made the tough but necessary decision to implement a restructuring plan under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (Canada) (the “CCAA”) to reimagine our brick-and-mortar footprint and accelerate our transition to a more prevalent online retailer and wholesaler of high-quality tea and accessories. We believe this is a necessary evolution for our Company to better serve you. We will continue to share our love of loose leaf tea through davidstea.com and there will no interruption to your experience as we reorganize our business.”

Click here to start shopping at DAVIDsTEA Canada.

Health and nutrition retailer GNC has filed for bankruptcy in the U.S. and announced that it will close at least 29 stores in Canada as part of its restructuring. The locations of the stores that will close are:

• Erin Mills Town Centre
• Markham Town Centre
• Cf Masonville Place
• Willowbrook S.C.
• Brentwood Towne Centre
• Westside Market Village
• Marlborough Mall
• Bonnie Doon S.C.
• Georgian Mall
• Markham Steeles Sc
• Dawson Mall
• Colussus Centre
• Cataraqui Town Center
• St Claire & Runnymede Rd
• Eagle Landing Sc
• Smartcentres Corner Brook
• Laurier Quebec
• Morningside Crossing
• Creekside Crossing
• Williamsburg Tc
• New Sudbury Centre
• Brandon Shoppers
• Mayfair Shopping Centre
• Sevenoaks Shopping Centre
• Bower Place
• Lynden Park Mall
• Queensborough Landing
• Galeries Rive Nord
• Shawnessy Town Centre

GNC said: Our business has been under financial pressure for the past several years as we have worked to pay down debt and reposition GNC to be more competitive in a challenging operating environment. We were making significant progress and were focused on refinancing the business to allow us to position ourselves for long-term growth. However, the COVID-19 pandemic created a situation where we were unable to accomplish our refinancing and the abrupt change in the operating environment had a dramatic negative impact on our business.

As a result, we felt the best opportunity for us to continue to improve our capital structure and address certain operational issues was to restructure through a Chapter 11 reorganization. This gives us the opportunity to improve our balance sheet while continuing to advance our business strategy, right-size our corporate store portfolio, and strengthen our brands to protect the long-term sustainability of our company.

Over the past year, GNC has been executing a store portfolio optimization strategy to close underperforming stores, while doubling down on our omni-channel and brand strategies to better meet consumer demand. We believe that our strategy is sound, and the success we’ve seen thus far makes us confident we’re moving our business in the right direction. The Chapter 11 process will allow us to accelerate these strategies and invest in the appropriate areas to evolve in the future, while improving our capital structure and balance sheet.

As part of our restructuring, we expect to accelerate the closure of at least 800 to 1,200 stores in our portfolio, many of which were previously announced with the process underway. By doing so, we will be exiting unfavourable lease terms burdening our business more quickly and shifting resources to our standalone store locations where we are seeing significantly more consumer foot traffic. We will communicate specific updates around potential closures as we progress in the Chapter 11 process. While select corporate stores will eventually close, we encourage you to seek out one of our other store locations in your area. Please note that even closing stores may remain open for a period of time.

Microsoft announced a strategic change in its retail operations, including closing Microsoft Store physical locations. Microsoft will continue to sell their products online.

The company’s retail team members will continue to serve customers from Microsoft corporate facilities and remotely providing sales, training, and support. Microsoft will continue to invest in its digital storefronts on Microsoft.com, and stores in Xbox and Windows, reaching more than 1.2 billion people every month in 190 markets. The company will also reimagine spaces that serve all customers, including operating Microsoft Experience Centers in London, NYC, Sydney, and Redmond campus locations. The closing of Microsoft Store physical locations will result in a pre-tax charge of approximately $450M, or $0.05 per share, to be recorded in the current quarter ending June 30, 2020. The charge includes primarily asset write-offs and impairments.

“Our sales have grown online as our product portfolio has evolved to largely digital offerings, and our talented team has proven success serving customers beyond any physical location,” said Microsoft Corporate Vice President David Porter. “We are grateful to our Microsoft Store customers and we look forward to continuing to serve them online and with our retail sales team at Microsoft corporate locations.”

Since the Microsoft Store locations closed in late March due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the retail team has helped small businesses and education customers digitally transform; virtually trained hundreds of thousands of enterprise and education customers on remote work and learning software; and helped customers with support calls. The team supported communities by hosting more than 14,000 online workshops and summer camps and more than 3,000 virtual graduations.

“We deliberately built teams with unique backgrounds and skills that could serve customers from anywhere. The evolution of our workforce ensured we could continue to serve customers of all sizes when they needed us most, working remotely these last months,” said Porter. “Speaking over 120 languages, their diversity reflects the many communities we serve. Our commitment to growing and developing careers from this talent pool is stronger than ever.”

The retail team members will serve consumers, small-business, education, and enterprise customers, while building a pipeline of talent with transferable skills.

“The Microsoft Store team has long been celebrated at Microsoft and embodies our culture,” said Microsoft Chief People Officer Kathleen Hogan. “The team has a proven track record of attracting, motivating, and developing diverse talent. This infusion of talent is invaluable for Microsoft and creates opportunities for thousands of people.”

With significant growth through its digital storefronts, including Microsoft.com, and stores on Xbox and Windows, the company will continue to invest in digital innovation across software and hardware. New services include 1:1 video chat support, online tutorial videos, and virtual workshops with more digital solutions to come.

“It is a new day for how Microsoft Store team members will serve all customers,” said Porter. “We are energized about the opportunity to innovate in how we engage with all customers, maximize our talent for greatest impact, and most importantly help our valued customers achieve more.”

Click here to shop online at Microsoft Canada.

G. Brandt Meat Packers Ltd. is recalling Mini Smoked Farmer Sausage from the marketplace due to possible Listeria monocytogenes contamination. Consumers should not consume the recalled products described below.

What you should do 

If you think you became sick from consuming a recalled product, call your doctor.

Check to see if you have the recalled products in your home. Recalled products should be thrown out or returned to the store where they were purchased.

Food contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes may not look or smell spoiled but can still make you sick. Symptoms can include vomiting, nausea, persistent fever, muscle aches, severe headache and neck stiffness. Pregnant women, the elderly and people with weakened immune systems are particularly at risk. Although infected pregnant women may experience only mild, flu-like symptoms, the infection can lead to premature delivery, infection of the newborn or even stillbirth. In severe cases of illness, people may die.

There have been no reported illnesses associated with the consumption of these products.

Click here to read more information about this recall.

As part of an effort to further encourage customers to use PRESTO cards, the TTC will distribute free complimentary PRESTO cards to customers this summer and fall. PRESTO encourages contactless payment methods which help reduce the spread of COVID-19. A plan is being developed to distribute these cards in areas of the city where PRESTO use is relatively low, and where customers could benefit from receiving a PRESTO card. The cards will be distributed at no charge to customers from existing stocks held by the TTC.

Pre-pandemic, the TTC averaged up to 1.8 million rides per day connecting customers to work, school, social events, and other activities. Over the last three months, with ridership down 86%, the TTC continued to carry approximately 300,000 daily revenue rides with customers making trips to access essential work, groceries, pharmacies and care. For many, public transit is the primary mode of mobility.