this post was submitted on 24 Jan 2024
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Winnipeg
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I am a sucker for Princess Auto. I realize that they sell a lot of crap (so does Canadian Tire), but there are a lot of things I go directly there for. I also know, from discussions with the community, that they're owners (the Tallmans) are actively and positively involved in many elements of Winnipeg.
Actually, I heard a story about the Tallmans related to COVID. The Tallmans also own Trans Canada Brewery (TCB), which is also a restaurant. The story I heard is that they didn't want to lay off their kitchen and serving staff during the COVID lockdown, so they decided they needed something to keep them occupied. So they called the Grace Hospital and offered to keep the TCB kitchen running and delivering free food for staff at the hospital. Story is secondhand, so I don't know details. But important business people in Winnipeg gush about the Tallmans at parties ;)
Princess Auto is right in the sweet spot for me. I'm a hobbyist, so I don't need much in the way of high end stuff, but I'm not happy with the direction taken by Canadian Tire. I used to buy most of my stuff at Canadian Tire until they turned into just another "home store".
I have to admit, I didn't realize Princess Auto was buy-the-naming-rights-to-a-stadium successful.
I'm not 100% sure, but I understand that their 50 stores are all primarily held by the Tallmans (not franchised, unlike most Canadian Tires). This makes a huge difference in terms of margins. They've got stores in every province, but being privately held gives them to advantage of not having to chase quarterly reports for shareholders, so they can afford organic growth.
I don't know what a stadium naming deal costs, but I suspect it's about $1-2M/year at the CFL/Winnipeg scale. That's something like $20-40k/yr per store. The Winnipeg stores alone could afford the naming rights, most likely, but naming is much better bang for buck given their national scope. In particular, the CFL market is likely very much their target market. (I'm in this statistic!)
My dad is a farmer -- lives a significant distance out of town. He drives hours to come to Winnipeg just to go to Princess Auto. His mindset is something like: "I save $300 on this hydraulic cylinder by driving in -- pays for my gas and the time. And I get to visit!"
Wanna meet at Princess Auto this Saturday for a Lemmy meetup? I don't work there, I promise ;)
Ha! I'm not available this week, but a local meetup would be a very cool thing to arrange one day.