Retailers face backlash over Remembrance Day promotions
QMI Agency
First posted: Tuesday, November 11, 2014 11:55 AM EST | Updated: Tuesday, November 11, 2014 12:11 PM EST
On a day when most people celebrate freedom and sacrifice, some companies instead honour the free market. And consumers aren't buying it.
An e-mail from The Gap, advertising a "Remembrance Day deal" on women's puffer vests, instead received backlash from angry Canadians.
"Gap and other self-serving companies need to remember that Remembrance Day is a time for giving and not promoting sales!" tweeted @PeterDeWit.
The clothing store later apologized.
B.C.'s Crave Ejuice, which sells organic flavoured liquid for e-cigarettes, offered on its website it would take 25% off for shoppers who used the code "remember25" at checkout.
Clothing seller Eddie Bauer, which doesn't have a separate Canadian website, was holding a "Veterans Day Sale" — and the code "festive" would give shoppers free shipping.
While tapping into Veterans Day — the Remembrance Day equivalent in the U.S. — is more commonplace south of the border, some retailers decided to avoid it and instead tapped into another Nov. 11 holiday: Singles Day, the anti-Valentine's Day popular in China.
The date — 11/11, or four 1's — is a day "for single people to celebrate their freedom."
That didn't stop the online backlash for some.
One Twitter user, obviously unimpressed with Overstock's Singles Day sale, asked the U.S. mega-retailer: "Is singles day on Veteran's Day because of all the widows?"
In the town of Horley, England, south of London, a Tesco grocery store was reportedly selling "Remembrance Day pizza" with "poppy-roni" — salami arranged in the shape of a poppy, with black olives for the centre and green pepper for the stem.
(Screenshot from B.C.'s Crave Ejuice website)
Retailers face backlash over Remembrance Day promotions | Canada | News | Toront
QMI Agency
First posted: Tuesday, November 11, 2014 11:55 AM EST | Updated: Tuesday, November 11, 2014 12:11 PM EST
On a day when most people celebrate freedom and sacrifice, some companies instead honour the free market. And consumers aren't buying it.
An e-mail from The Gap, advertising a "Remembrance Day deal" on women's puffer vests, instead received backlash from angry Canadians.
"Gap and other self-serving companies need to remember that Remembrance Day is a time for giving and not promoting sales!" tweeted @PeterDeWit.
The clothing store later apologized.
B.C.'s Crave Ejuice, which sells organic flavoured liquid for e-cigarettes, offered on its website it would take 25% off for shoppers who used the code "remember25" at checkout.
Clothing seller Eddie Bauer, which doesn't have a separate Canadian website, was holding a "Veterans Day Sale" — and the code "festive" would give shoppers free shipping.
While tapping into Veterans Day — the Remembrance Day equivalent in the U.S. — is more commonplace south of the border, some retailers decided to avoid it and instead tapped into another Nov. 11 holiday: Singles Day, the anti-Valentine's Day popular in China.
The date — 11/11, or four 1's — is a day "for single people to celebrate their freedom."
That didn't stop the online backlash for some.
One Twitter user, obviously unimpressed with Overstock's Singles Day sale, asked the U.S. mega-retailer: "Is singles day on Veteran's Day because of all the widows?"
In the town of Horley, England, south of London, a Tesco grocery store was reportedly selling "Remembrance Day pizza" with "poppy-roni" — salami arranged in the shape of a poppy, with black olives for the centre and green pepper for the stem.
(Screenshot from B.C.'s Crave Ejuice website)
Retailers face backlash over Remembrance Day promotions | Canada | News | Toront
