Last October
G&T's sister publication,
Hardware and Home Centre Magazine, ran an article on foreign ownership of Canadian companies.
"The Great Canadian Sell-Off" by writer Sophie Kneisel looked at the extent of foreign ownership in this country and its impact on our economy. A great deal of big retail in this country is owned by foreign companies (
Home Depot,
The Bay,
Wal-Mart,
Home Sense,
Zara,
H&M,
Pottery Barn,
Williams-Sonoma, etc.) and there are more coming this year (
Lowe's has just opened,
Crate & Barrel, etc.). In mid-October, I read that independent retailers in India were demonstrating and lobbying against foreign-owned retailers being allowed to come into their country, and calling for legislation to protect their businesses. Within a day or two,
The Bangkok Post ("Cabinet nods for retail business bill", October 16, 2007) reported that Thailand's Cabinet had green lighted a draft bill on retail business that would "require hypermarket operators to seek permission from the authority before opening new branches." (See my earlier blog,
Retailers Rise Up for more on these stories.) With these two cases in mind, I thought it was time to see where members of the Canadian gift and tableware sector stood on this complex issue. Had we already given away too much of Canada's retail landscape?
In my opinion, we have. I think the rise of big box stores and power centers have impoverished the retail scene and ruined Main Streets in many places in this country. We have experienced a loss of independents and independence. Is this what consumers want? Do they want the Canadian retail environment to consist of the same products in the same stores in the same formats across the country? Is there a way to take the customer service perks of the power centers, i.e. lots of free parking, and incorporate them into Main Street settings? For example, should local governments be more interested in creating eco-friendly, pedestrian malls rather than signing off on yet another Wal-Mart? And what about prices? Will we see quality becoming a larger part of the buying decision for more consumers?
Of course, the selling off of Canada reaches far, far beyond retail. In response to the question about whether it matters who owns Canada's resources, someone wrote "Duh." I agree it's a no-brainer. Of course, we should own our resources. But here's the thing: We've all sat back and watched governments of all political stripes give them away. What were we thinking?
Well, to find out what you're thinking now, a survey was sent to the magazine's email database in late October. Results and a small selection of the comments are presented in the January 2008 issue. For those of you who are interested, the results and all the survey comments are available in the PDF attached here. If you didn't participate in the survey and would like to share your thoughts on the subject, just click on the Comments button below.
Selling Off Canada - Complete Survey Results