Tara Deschamps, The Canadian Press »
Greg Hicks said shoppers across the Toronto-based company’s banners — Canadian Tire, SportChek, Party City, Mark’s and Pro Hockey Life — appear to be coping well with the higher duties he had worried would weigh heavily on spending.
“Despite low confidence levels, customers have been and remain more resilient than we anticipated,” he told analysts on a conference call Thursday, where he noted even tariff-riddled auto manufacturing communities are showing “no clear signs of softness.”
That resilience is also reflected in “healthy” spending across all income levels Canadian Tire tracks and contributed to the company seeing an eight per cent spike in spending on essentials and a one per cent rise in purchases of discretionary goods — the first increase in this area in three years.
