Canadian Tire 1950s

By the 1950s, Canadian Tire had over 150 associate stores all across Canada. Bill Billes passed away in 1956, having made his impact in the world. After this death, Alf decided that if they were to be Canada’s leading store for everything automobile related, then they should sell gas too. They wanted to provide the best prices, however, they couldn’t compete with the bigger oil companies who could afford to sell their gas for cheap. To solve this problem, Canadian Tire had an innovative solution. Canadian Tire Money was created as an incentive to promote gas sales, and foot traffic in the store. Canadian Tire Money was given away at the gas bars, giving customers 5% of their gas purchase back in coupons they could use in-store. By 1958, the first gas bar printed Canadian Tire money in denominations of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 25, 30, 40, 50 and 60 cents, and $1. In 1957, Canadian Tire became a national company after publishing the companies first French catalogue in addition the the already existing English catalogue. From 1957 on the catalogues would be available in both French and English.