Don Tai (Canada) Blog

Cash back credit cards are a pretty good deal. The more you spend on your credit card, you get back 1% of all purchases. If you always pay off your monthly balance and do not need the fancy benefits of other credit cards such as extended warranties, a little cash back is nice to get. For such purchases as groceries and gas this is ideal. Walmart Canada Bank has come out with a rewards Mastercard, a variant of the cash back. You get 1.25% in rewards from Walmart purchases and 1% from purchases from other retailers. When your cash back amount exceeds $5 you can redeem them at the Walmart cash register. Did you know Walmart now has a financial group and call themselves a bank?

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.

We are, thankfully, not very close to a Walmart Super Centre, but on the rare occasion, we do visit. The Supercentre is 9 km away. Yesterday, Wednesday midday, was such a day. . In summary, the Super Centre is larger with very slightly more variety, their food section is quite good, but their checkout process tortuous. Store location: Walmart Supercentre, Eglington/Warden, Toronto, Canada.

This mystery shopping test was done on Friday March 13, 2009, accompanied by my daughter. She rarely goes with me because she believes, and rightly so, that grocery shopping is boring. I try to impress upon her that without someone doing the shopping we would run out of food and therefore starve because we have no direct conduit to a grocery store built into our house. Trip review: Nofrlls B+, Walmart B

___Nofrills, Kennedy/Finch, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Objective: Sale priced tetrapack apple juice and general weekly shopping.

GE Compact flourescent bulb, Made in China

My brothers in China have purchased 2 Philips brand compact flourescent bulbs from Walmart China, one which burned out after only a month and another which burned out in less than a week. These bulbs should last for 10,000 hours, or over 6 years. His case is well documented.

___He paid 30.80RMB each, for a total of 61.60RMB, for which he received 1 month and 1 week’s worth of light, all in an effort to be more environmentally friendly. Due to terrible quality control in Philip’s China factory these bulbs were shipped to Walmart stores in China, where my brother purchased them and was cheated. That is a lot of money to lose.

It’s always uncertain whether a shopping trip will be pleasant. Today I hit Food Basics and Wal*Mart and documented my shopping trip. Trip Review: Food Basics: A, Walmart: B-

___Sure, one can go shopping, grit your teeth through the experience and then return home vowing never to go again, but after a short while you do run out of necessities and are forced to return whence you came. At least reviewing your experience may give a reader or two a laugh. Or a cry, a shake of the mane and a sympathetic groan.

Food Basics, McCowan/Finch, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Shopping at Walmart can be a bear. Little to no service is common. Employees have little knowledge of products and bar code readers are often broken. Yet their prices are low, and you could use the extra cash. Fear not, here are 10 hot tips for getting the best out of Walmart:

1. If you’re frustrated, leave. Vote with your feet. Is the checkout line 40 deep? Drop your buggy and leave. Let them cleanup. After all they should have more cashiers at the checkout shouldn’t they? Walmart profits on a “No/low service” philosophy. You are rewarded for this lack of service through low prices, but that does not mean you need to like it.