Don Tai (Canada) Blog

After an epic fail in selling food, will Canadian Tire now sell lingerie? Say it isn't so...

As a long time Canadian I consider it a tradition to shop at Canadian Tire. Unlike Walfart, Crappy Tire is, after all, Canadian. When I need a tool or something for the house I think of Canadian Tire first. This year, I am finding that the products I need are no longer advertised in the CT weekly flyer, and all the stuff I don’t need has taken its place. This has the result of me not visiting the local Crappy Tire as much as I used to, and therefore I am not spending the family’s cash in their stores. Going to the epitome of insanity, CT’s weekly food specials now gets attached to the weekly flyer. As my daughter often says, this is an EPIC FAIL.

New Colgate toothpaste cap is difficult to open when your hands are wet. This is a clear usability problem.

I normally do usability testing on computer and internet applications, but usability testing can be even more important in everyday items, such as the new packaging for Colgate toothpaste. You gets an “Arghh” moment when a product does not work or is more difficult to use than it should be. Yesterday morning I was in the bathroom washing my hands. After a quick dry I reached for my toothpaste to brush my teeth. Lo and behold, with my slightly damp hands I could not open the new Colgate toothpaste top! My hand kept slipping on the shiny plastic polypropylene cap. Clearly this is not the intent of the designers of toothpaste container. Sure it looks very slick, but will certainly anger many people.