The Ugly Canada Thread

[SignalHillHiker]

Ours was Home Hardware - which, given this video is RetroOntario, which also had other brands, suggests to me that we had the welfare version of a home store.

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There's actually a catchy folk song about it:

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But... even that's not as embarrassing as our finest, rural department store. If you're a bay town of at least 5,000 people, this was your Walmart.

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

Well, clearly we need to boycott them. Hideous cityscapes spread outward from their locations as though they were the roots for the ample-parking-and-concrete blossom.

My favourite is still the Rona I saw in Edmonton with an old cemetery beside it's parking lot.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

Ours was Home Hardware - which, given this video is RetroOntario, which also had other brands, suggests to me that we had the welfare version of a home store.

• Video Link

But... even that's not as embarrassing as our finest, rural department store. If you're a bay town of at least 5,000 people, this was your Walmart.

You know that when a place claims to sell "lifestyle clothing and footwear", that the stuff they sell has nothing to do with lifestyle.

[O-tacular]

Behold Calgary's worst Rona / Walmart Supercentre combo! Occupying almost 2 city blocks. It's so Yuge it has a Smitty's sandwiched in between them for those who get lost and hungry trying to walk its' length.

https://www.google.ca/maps/@50.9668184,-114.070231,16z/data=!3m1!1e3

[SignalHillHiker]

Originally Posted by Acajack

You know that when a place claims to sell "lifestyle clothing and footwear", that the stuff they sell has nothing to do with lifestyle.

I bet we had Crocs before anywhere else in the world.

[O-tacular]

Home Hardware still exists! Check out this amazing broom!

http://www.homehardware.ca/en/expert-rec/index.htm/_/R-I4515003

Their commercials took off where the know it all Canadian Tire guy left off.

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

I bet we had Crocs before anywhere else in the world.

I'm actually kind of amazed they weren't invented in Nfld.

[SignalHillHiker]

Originally Posted by O-tacular

Home Hardware still exists! Check out this amazing broom!

http://www.homehardware.ca/en/expert-rec/index.htm/_/R-I4515003

Their commercials took off where the know it all Canadian Tire guy left off.

Oh it very much still exists.



We have Home Depot, and RONA, and all that stuff now too (at least one of in the capital city region, I'm sure). But Home Hardware is, still today, the norm. If a neighbourhood has one home store, it's Home Hardware. Only the inner suburbs have the Home Depot-level ones, same as Costco. I think there's one Costco in St. John's.

St-Pierre et Miquelon even has Home Hardware. I never took a picture of it because it wasn't cute, just this big box at the edge of town. But I did get a picture of their RONA, as it was closer into the town:

Terre Neuve et St-Pierre et Miquelon by R C, on Flickr

But this is the Home Hardware: http://www.homehardware.ca/en/dealer-microsites/3071-2/contact-information.htm

[WhipperSnapper]

Yee olde town big box

here

[SignalHillHiker]

Originally Posted by WhipperSnapper

Yee olde town big box

here

That was truly a genius post, man. Simple, unassuming, unpromotional text from you. And then... that epicness. Google Streetview perfectly composed... just brilliant. I haven't gasp laughed that hard in days.

[Trevor3]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

But... even that's not as embarrassing as our finest, rural department store. If you're a bay town of at least 5,000 people, this was your Walmart.

The great thing about Riff's is that nobody knows how many of them are out there, they have no website, and possibly the worst corporate Facebook page in existence (I've learned this in the last 5 minutes)

They're skittish and flee any town that gets a competitor (Riffs left S'ville in 2005 after a 10 year close out sale that started after Wal-Mart came to town in 1994). They still have stores in Port aux Basques, Deer Lake, and Port aux Choix for sure, and I think I remember one in Lewisporte.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by WhipperSnapper

Yee olde town big box

here

I try to brake for animals when I can but if those SmartCentres penguins were crossing the road I might just accelerate to squish them.

[SignalHillHiker]

Originally Posted by Trevor3

The great thing about Riff's is that nobody knows how many of them are out there, they have no website, and possibly the worst corporate Facebook page in existence (I've learned this in the last 5 minutes)

They're skittish and flee any town that gets a competitor (Riffs left S'ville in 2005 after a 10 year close out sale that started after Wal-Mart came to town in 1994). They still have stores in Port aux Basques, Deer Lake, and Port aux Choix for sure, and I think I remember one in Lewisporte.

They're amazing. Talk about nostalgia... not only is the store you shopped at in your 1980s childhood, but they're still selling the EXACT same furniture and clothing models. You can still buy the cups and saucers and couches you grew up with there. And they're not even used. I don't even know where they get their merchandise.

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

Oh it very much still exists.



We have Home Depot, and RONA, and all that stuff now too (at least one of in the capital city region, I'm sure). But Home Hardware is, still today, the norm. If a neighbourhood has one home store, it's Home Hardware. Only the inner suburbs have the Home Depot-level ones, same as Costco. I think there's one Costco in St. John's.

St-Pierre et Miquelon even has Home Hardware. I never took a picture of it because it wasn't cute, just this big box at the edge of town. But I did get a picture of their RONA, as it was closer into the town:

Terre Neuve et St-Pierre et Miquelon by R C, on Flickr

But this is the Home Hardware: http://www.homehardware.ca/en/dealer-microsites/3071-2/contact-information.htm

Is that garage door the entrance?

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by O-tacular

Home Hardware still exists! Check out this amazing broom!

http://www.homehardware.ca/en/expert-rec/index.htm/_/R-I4515003

Their commercials took off where the know it all Canadian Tire guy left off.

I love the gadgets that Home Hardware advertises on TV.

[SignalHillHiker]

No, I couldn't find the picture I wanted. It's Ayreonaut walking down the road, and you can see the front entrance.

I did find one that at least shows it. It's the big building near the end of the far block, on the left side. It's just such an off-angle view you can't see much. But that is the front side:

Terre Neuve et St-Pierre et Miquelon by R C, on Flickr

BTW, SPM has car dealerships on streets like this where the ground floor is windows and the cars are inside. Such a simple little thing, but OMG I love it so much. Feels so cool, especially at night when everything is closed but the streets are full of French people shouting at each other and smoking.

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

They're amazing. Talk about nostalgia... not only is the store you shopped at in your 1980s childhood, but they're still selling the EXACT same furniture and clothing models. You can still buy the cups and saucers and couches you grew up with there. And they're not even used. I don't even know where they get their merchandise.

When I worked at Sears a decade ago they still sold the floral sofa that everyone has likely seen at their grandma's house growing up.

[SignalHillHiker]

So, the Mr. Home Hardware song got me on a kick listening to all the popular Spanish songs here. I never realized before how racist they are. It's bad. I can't even listen to Lukey's Boat anymore because they talk about how it was Chinked.

But this... this is worse. It's not ours, it's just really popular here at Christmas, I assume everywhere else in Canada too:

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That's really bad. jeddy1989 is fluent in Spanish so I've met basically all of the dozens and dozens of South Americans living here. They hear this in St. John's for much of November and December. I'm suddenly ashamed.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

So, the Mr. Home Hardware song got me on a kick listening to all the popular Spanish songs here. I never realized before how racist they are. It's bad. I can't even listen to Lukey's Boat anymore because they talk about how it was Chinked.

But this... this is worse. It's not ours, it's just really popular here at Christmas, I assume everywhere else in Canada too:

• Video Link

That's really bad. jeddy1989 is fluent in Spanish so I've met basically all of the dozens and dozens of South Americans living here. They hear this in St. John's for much of November and December. I'm suddenly ashamed.

We have a ton of non-PC songs as well. I suspect the "rest of the continent" likely had many as well, but I suspect they've been more thoroughly purged than they probably have in Quebec and Newfoundland.

[SignalHillHiker]

Originally Posted by Acajack

We have a ton of non-PC songs as well. I suspect the "rest of the continent" likely had many as well, but I suspect they've been more thoroughly purged than they probably have in Quebec and Newfoundland.

Sofia Vergara handles all that stuff excellently. There's a few good lines in this: "I just hit him", "But I sounded very sure of it", etc.

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