Was that the Esso “Power Play” series, Spoons? I collected those as well.
I remember a book from Esso, and you collected little stickers of player pictures to put in the book. It had all the Canadian teams. Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.
The Power Play series I remember had all the NHL teams, including the California Golden Seals.
Yes, “Power Play” or “Power Players,” something like that. It was definitely an Esso promotion.
Target misses the target:
Target’s launch into Canada ‘a multifaceted failure’
Closing all their stores and leaving Canada, having lost over a billion dollars.
Question: did any CanaDopers try Target? There was one in Regina, but it’s in the north end and i don’t normally shop in that region, so never went in once.
I went to one in Ottawa (Kanata) and found it underwhelming. The prices were no different than Walmart I thought, but the selection wasn’t as good as Walmart.
The location didn’t suit me either: an old strip mall in a part of town I don’t normally visit.
I admit that I’ve only been in one of the Target stores once, so I’m not too familiar with it.
Anyone know exactly when the stores are closing?
Went in to Target once because needed some basics (socks, underwear) for my husband. Shelves were sparsely stocked, untidy, and what there was did not have his (perfectly average) size. Sales help, when I could find someone, was indifferent. Did find a couple of small articles I needed, and their @#$%^& self-checkout was a complete f**k-up.:mad:
Never went in again. I do, however, shop at Target whenever I visit the kids in Seattle. Totally different experience.
I heard on the radio that liquidation was to start pretty much immediately and that they’d be closed in 2 or 3 weeks.
CBC News says 4-5 months.
I did go to the W.E.M. location a few times. Found it OK but not spectacular. I am surprised (not upset, just surprised) that they were’t able to last a little while longer.
I sit corrected.
Perhaps different stores might close at different times, I don’t know.
Closing dates may vary a bit depending on the terms of the leases each store has.
That was pretty much our experience with the Calgary Target stores as well - “underwhelming” is exactly the right word. They gave us no reason to go out of our way to go to their store, and with the big credit card numbers being stolen issue a little while ago (last summer?), gave us a good reason to NOT go there.
The best comment I’ve seen on this whole debacle so far is someone pleading with other US retailers to not be afraid to come to Canada, but to do your homework first. You can be successful here, but you have to realize we aren’t the 51st State, and you have to have your shit together.
An article surprising absolutely no one who has done half an hour of research into the fluoride debate - cavities in low-income kids in Calgary increasing rapidly since fluoride was removed from the water there. Goddammit, why do people have to be so fucking stupid? 10 million studies say a small amount of fluoride prevents cavities, and two studies say we’re not quite sure yet, so they vote to take the goddamned fluoride out of the goddamned water, and now poor kids are paying the price, just like anticipated.
I hope the city councillor behind this, Druh Farrell, gets the karma that’s coming her way.
I come from a family that doesn’t have fantastic teeth by any stretch—both my parents have had at least one root canal, my grandparents had dentures to replace some removed or worn out teeth, etc.
I got through my baby teeth with just two cavities and they were so shallow that the dentist didn’t even need to freeze me to do the drilling and filling. My parents attributed my relatively good teeth (and my sister’s) during our youth to being in cities with fluoridated water, something neither of my parents had.
From age 18-42 I accumulated a total of eight cavities; not a huge number, but not awful either. Since Calgary dropped the fluoridation three years ago, I’ve had four more, in spite of being more vigilant about brushing. So that’s my anecdotal evidence, for what it’s worth.
The really frustrating part of that article for me is the part where Dr. Stanleigh explains that he wrote to several aldermen at the time, presented them with evidence that fluoride is a good thing that Alberta Health Services recommends, and was told by seven of them that they had made up their minds already and were not going to be swayed by no fancy book learnin’.
The other thing that really disappointed me at the time was that our esteemed mayor, a person I have the privilege of knowing and respecting, made a point of not being in town when the vote came down. That really struck me as a cowardly move, for Mr. Nenshi duck out on a vote for a hot-button topic he knew he wasn’t going to win. A real misstep from the rookie mayor, at the time.
For example, before you take over all the stores from a failing local chain (Zellars), maybe you should ask if perhaps those stores aren’t the best location for your business model?
Agreed. I like to call folks like this C-list politicians. I work with this level of politician professionally (smaller municipalities, so more like D-list) and some of their decisions are truly mindblowingly terrible.
I feel bad for those kids. 
I have a friend on Facebook who is against fluoride, but she’s also an antivaxxer and into stupid pseudoscience.
And yet, they always get re-elected. Druh is going to have to be filmed eating babies to lose her seat.
They’re going to grow up like me - a lifetime of fillings, crowns, root canals, etc.