TORONTO -- Two U.S.-based retailers offered Remembrance Day sales to their Canadian customers this year, a practice one retail analyst calls 鈥渉orrible鈥� and 鈥渄isrespectful鈥�.
鈥淐anadians are very sensitive about the commercialization of this sacred holiday,鈥� independent retail analyst and consultant Bruce Wintertold CTVNews.ca in a phone interview. 鈥淐ertainly in Canada it鈥檚 been taboo to have any type of sale on Remembrance Day, for the obvious reason that we鈥檙e remembering our fallen soldiers.鈥�
尝别苍辞惫辞鈥檚 says that 鈥淥ur biggest Remembrance Day sale ever is coming in 2020,鈥� and asks customers to sign up. 尝别苍辞惫辞鈥檚 head office is in Beijing, and its operational headquarters is in North Carolina.
Customers of window blind retailer blinds.ca could get a fourth window blind free if they buy three under that company鈥檚 , which was originally supposed to end Nov. 11.
鈥淎t Blinds.ca we have the utmost respect for military veterans, their families and their sacrifices,鈥� wrote spokesperson Kathleen Hartnett, who is based in Houston. 鈥淲e apologize to our Canadian shoppers for any disrespect that this has caused and we have removed the sale from our site.鈥�
Lenovo did not respond to a request for comment.
Remembrance Day sales have been controversial in the past. Veterans and their organizations condemned similar sales by Eddie Bauer in 2010, and The Gap in 2014.
鈥淲hile we are supportive of retailers who wish to show their thanks to our veterans, we would not want to see the actual commercialization of Remembrance Day, or of the remembrance period itself,鈥� Royal Canadian Legion spokesperson Nujma Bond said in a written statement.
Grocery chain Whole Foods reversed a controversial ban on employees wearing poppies last week, after political leaders including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Ontario Premier Doug Fordcondemned it; Trudeau called it a 鈥渟illy mistake.鈥�
Winter, and Ryerson University historian Peter Vronsky, point out that Veterans Day sales are common in the U.S. around Nov. 11, and say that companies seem to have carried the concept into Canada without paying enough attention to cultural difference.
鈥淚n the United States traditionally, Memorial Day and Veterans Day are holidays in a strange way,鈥� he says. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 their cultural tradition, But Remembrance Day was never really a holiday in that sense of the word here. This was a solemn memorial, a dark day. The Americans have a different approach.
鈥淚 think there鈥檚 a much more solemn sense of what Remembrance Day stands for 鈥� it鈥檚 not about going shopping, certainly.鈥�
Winter says it鈥檚 an example of marketing practices being simply transferred from one country to another without enough attention to cultural difference, something he calls 鈥渁 rookie mistake.鈥�
鈥淪ometimes companies just don鈥檛 do the due diligence,鈥� he says, pointing out that 鈥淐anadians are very sensitive about the commercialization of this sacred holiday.鈥�
鈥淭here are a number of companies that think that the way they market in their home country, they can use the exact same practices around the world. That鈥檚 something you learn the hard way, that you can鈥檛 do that 鈥� you have to be local. You have to think about local tastes and local holidays and local consumer sentiment and behaviour.鈥�
Retail analyst Craig Patterson calls the sales 鈥渁 big marketing fail鈥� that would have been prevented by basic research that would have quickly shown previous years鈥� controversies.
鈥淭he bar is not high 鈥� it鈥檚 pretty easy,鈥� he says.
鈥淚 would just shake my head and say: 鈥榊ou guys just need to do your research. Do your job. It鈥檚 not that hard to do a little bit of backgrounding. You鈥檙e operating in another country 鈥� you need to understand the cultural norms of that country.鈥� I don鈥檛 know that there are that many excuses.鈥�
