Canadian Tire at Yonge & Davenport Sts.
This page has been updated on August 28/2004 - See Below for continuation..
The saga continues - This has been updated on December 27th, 2005.
Please Click Here for the continuation of this story. It simply never ends....
This gateway as you enter the store itself is a pain. It slides right to left and doesn't slide easily either. Not only that but there are times that gate is locked and you have to wait for a store employee to unlock it for you.
Btw, you can just about forget going to customer care there as well. It's a small railed in isle packed with people all the time near the front door so it's a challenge to get to and the counter is high as well. It's just outside of this picture to the right of the turnstile.
*note* Recently (summer of 2002) this store has made a new entrance. And it is accessible. Well, it should be. Right now there are poles that prohibit you from entering. There is an employee that stands around at times to pull one of these poles out so someone disabled can enter. When I finally got in the store I requested to speak to the manager and did. He told me there is a city by-law that requires them to block the entry so shopping carts cannot go out onto the street. This is the first I've ever heard of such a by-law but I couldn't argue it not knowing the facts for sure. He told me it will be this way until the other entrance, the original entrance, was finished being worked on. On my way out of the store I had to wait until another customer removed one of the poles for me to pass through the gates.
AUGUST 28TH, 2004 - update
Well, that horrid 'gate' that you see in the top picture is still there, just in a slightly different place, a few feet over to the left.
It isn't wide enough for some scooters to get through either which means some people can't get in at all. As well it isn't high enough either for newer scooters. The arms are too high and get caught damaging the scooters. I know someone with a Fortress Scooter (a very popular brand) and had to have the seat brought down as far as it would go to enable her to get through that gate and she still has to go very slowly and be very careful. As well, there is now a solid standing garbage can (and a matching ashtray) right there that you have to avoid when going through the gate into the store. Nice huh? Don't even attempt to move it, it isn't going anywhere. I've requested these be moved several times but to no avail. As you can see in the photo below, there is lots of room for these two things elsewhere but they stay right in the way of the disabled gate.
It seems walking customers don't like the idea of this gate either. They push their purchases out in a buggy as far as that gate allows and then they leave the buggy there, right in the gates path. Seems no one from the store ever see's this because I'll have to try to push one out of the way and when I finally leave the store, it's still there.
Now..... that gate in the second picture has changed somewhat. It pushes in now and since there is a new customer service desk thanks to the renovations you can now access the customer service desk much easier and usually staff see you fairly quickly and will open the gate for you. So that's one good thing.
HOWEVER...... after all the money put into renovations of this place, the disabled are still relagated to the freight elevator which is a nightmare. It's dirty, it stinks, good luck finding someone to operate it for you and they always have to literally clean the garbage out of it out first....
The old elevator that led to the washrooms is still there and there is a sign on it that says it is for disabled customers only yet when I asked to use it (you have to ask now), I was told I had to use the freight elevator. Seems that when they put all this money into these renovations (over a million dollars to add another floor and make major changes.... they didn't make it so disabled could use this elevator to get to the top floor, only employee's can. The elevator goes into where their offices are and they don't want anyone going into there. So we get to take the stinky, dirty, hard to get in and out of due to stock piled around it, freight elevator. I'm not impressed.
And last but most certainly not least.... the disabled parking. Yes, they have some. Oh and yes it's up near the door as well. The only problem is they let anyone and everyone park there to load their cars!!!! Since you can't take a buggy out of that space by the parking lot (there are metal poles blocking removal of the buggies to the parking spaces) they allow people to pull their cars up there and go back into the store to get their buggy and then use those spaces as 'loading' docks basically. My sister was driving me over there one day and there were no disabled spots thanks to this issue so we had to sit there, in every one's way in our car with horns honking at us, etc., while we waited for a disabled spot. If we hadn't of sat there waiting the only other option we had was to leave the lot and circle Yonge St. and come back and try for a spot again. What rubbish is that?
It doesn't matter how often you ask that the buggy's at the front door be moved when they are left out there, or ask that that huge garbage can be moved over to the other side where there is lots of open space and it wouldn't be in the way of the gates the disabled have to go through, or how often you ask that people not be allowed to use the disabled parking spaces as loading docks. Your voice just never is heard with this place. Lip service is all you get. Regardless of who you talk to.
Shame on you Canadian Tire!!!
for the lastest continuation in this saga Click here
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