Woman’s hurricane relief efforts thwarted by Canadian Tire store manager

A Toronto woman is heartbroken after her efforts to help those affected by Hurricane Irma were crushed when a Brampton Canadian Tire refused to sell her supplies.

Cheryl Basser has friends in Florida and when she heard the area was being evacuated, and thousands of people were being sent to Atlanta, she knew she had to do something to help.

“We have friends down in Atlanta who connected us with (evacuation effort) coordinators who told us that they’re having a lot of people offering their homes, opening their homes to the evacuees, providing meals … but they simply don’t have enough beds,” she explained.

“They needed air mattresses and sleeping bags, and I thought that’s something I could take care of. Let me do my part and get them what they need.”

Her initial plan was to buy the supplies in the Georgia area.

“I just thought that would be the most economic and effective way to get them what they needed,” she said. “Unfortunately all the stores there were either sold out or close to sold out.

“When I saw I couldn’t get anything done in that region, I thought we’re here in Toronto … we should have plenty of supplies. Let’s send, from Toronto to Atlanta, their basic needs.”

Basser and her husband then quickly went to work calling stores across the city to see if any had enough supplies to send. She said they were told by most stores that the items they were looking for were seasonal items, and camping season was over so stock was limited.

When she tried Canadian Tire, she was told to go to each location and see what they had.

“My husband went over to the Canadian Tire (in) Rexdale,” she explained. “They were very understanding, wanted to help. Unfortunately they didn’t have enough in stock.

“They said they could get from the warehouse, but it would take a day or two and we didn’t have that time.”

Basser said they were under a time crunch because her husband had secured a truck to leave Toronto at 5 p.m. on Thursday to make it to Atlanta before 4 p.m. on Friday.

She said the manager went over to the service desk and looked up stores in the area that had larger stock and sent them to the store in Brampton.

“It was showing on her computer that they had 190 in stock on location ready to go and there was another 100 in Brampton east that we were going to pick up as well,” Basser said.

Everything seemed to be falling into place, but that’s when it all came tumbling down.

Basser said her husband went to the store, credit card in hand, to buy all 190 air mattresses and was told he was only allowed to purchase a fraction of the supplies they needed.

“The assistant manager came over and told my husband, ‘I’m sorry. We have a maximum of 10 per customer. We could only sell you 10,'” she said.

She said her husband explained that it was for a humanitarian relief and tried to negotiate a slightly smaller purchase, so some of the items could remain in the store for other customers, but the assistant manager refused.

“He was unwilling to do it,” Basser said. “He didn’t believe us. He made a mockery of it, asked my husband what flea market he was going to sell it in. It was very, very distressing.”

She said she called Canadian Tire’s corporate office and although they were sympathetic to their cause, they said each store was franchised and they could not dictate how specific stores handled their own merchandise. But they said they would email the owner of that location and ask him to reconsider.

Without the merchandise, their whole plan fell apart.

“We were willing to fund it, we were willing to take it all upon ourselves, and all we needed was those air mattresses,” Basser said. “They were sitting in his store … right in front of our face. And for no apparent reason that I can imagine he refused to sell it to us.”

She said it’s “mind boggling” he wouldn’t do anything to help.

“All it takes is to know one person, and you hear the stories, and you just want to do your part,” she said.

“It is just so distressing, disheartening, that we had everything in motion, everything in place, and this particular store manager prevented us from helping those in need.”

When CityNews reached out to Canadian Tire for a comment, a spokesperson said the company would be donating the mattresses at no cost.

Read the complete statement below:

“As a company with strong roots in communities across Canada, we understand the urgency to provide support to those impacted by natural disasters. Canadian Tire has always worked closely with the Canadian Red Cross, local emergency response officials, and Associate Dealers to provide immediate assistance to affected communities across Canada, including the recent severe flooding in parts of Southern Quebec and Eastern Ontario, as well as the wildfires in British Columbia and Alberta. We have been in contact with the customer supporting the hurricane evacuation relief efforts and we are working together to provide the equipment needed. We commend their efforts to help our U.S. neighbours impacted by the hurricane.”