Steve Payne, Canadian Contractor Journalist Profile

Articles

Castle recognizes vendors

6 days ago | hardlines.ca | Steve Payne

Castle Building Centres Group recently announced the winners of its 2024 Vendor Excellence Awards. Castle shareholders have the opportunity to nominate Castle vendors for exceptional performance and commitment to building a strong relationship with dealers. Doman Building Materials and Taiga Building Products (pictured) won in the national awards category. All Weather At Home and Gentek Building Products won in the Western Canada category. Rapid Nail Canada Inc.
Throwback Thursday: 25 years ago, Home Hardware announced it was dropping Beaver Lumber name

1 week ago | hardlines.ca | Steve Payne

Throwback Thursday is a weekly feature in which we dip into the archives of the Hardlines Weekly Report. This was the week, 25 years ago, when Home Hardware announced that it would commence discontinuation of Beaver Lumber’s brand name, starting Dec. 15, 2000. The 1,000-strong hardware co-op had shocked the industry in August 1999 when it announced that it had bought Beaver Lumber from Molson Cos. for $68 million.
Throwback Thursday: 25 years ago, The Bay was repositioning itself

2 weeks ago | hardlines.ca | Steve Payne

Throwback Thursday is a weekly feature in which we dip into the archives of the Hardlines Weekly Report. The Hudson’s Bay Co. has gone into receivership. The iconic Canadian retail brand is holding closing sales, trying to raise enough cash to save just six Bay stores. But 25 years ago, the chain was optimistic about its future, rolling out “a new look,” we reported in our April 10, 2000 edition of the Hardlines Weekly Report. We quoted then-president and COO Marc Chouinard.
Throwback Thursday: 25 years ago we reported on Sodisco-Howden’s “strong year”

3 weeks ago | hardlines.ca | Steve Payne

Throwback Thursday is a weekly feature in which we dip into the archives of the Hardlines Weekly Report. “Sodisco-Howden Group ended 1999 with a strong 16.5 percent increase in its sales,” we reported on April 3, 2000, twenty-five years ago. Alas, all was not well with Montreal-based Sodisco-Howden, which was once Canada’s largest publicly-traded hardware wholesaler.
A life filled with the joy of chooks

3 weeks ago | organicgardener.com.au | Steve Payne |Leanne Croker

Celebrity chook lady Elaine Janes recently lost her much-loved skateboarding rooster, Squiggles, prompting us to ask about their special connection. I’ve been fascinated with Elaine’s story since we ran an article about her a few years ago in Issue 134, and then I wrote about her in my editorial a few issues ago (OG 153). For those who missed the original, we featured photos of Elaine and her feathered friends out and about – getting a coffee, catching a surf break or riding a skateboard.
Throwback Thursday: 25 years ago Home Depot prepared to enter Quebec

1 month ago | hardlines.ca | Steve Payne

Throwback Thursday is a regular weekly feature in which we dip into the archives of the Hardlines Weekly Report. How much Home Depot has grown in Canada since the first year of the new millennium cannot be overstated. Twenty-five years ago, on March 27, 2000, we reported that Home Depot was about to open its 57th store, in Belleville, Ont. Later that same year, eastward along Highway 401, Home Depot would enter Quebec for the first time, opening up in Laval, just north of Montreal.
Throwback Thursday: 25 years ago, Ace prepared to stop supplying Beaver with hardware

1 month ago | hardlines.ca | Steve Payne

Throwback Thursday is a regular weekly feature in which we dip into the archives of the Hardlines Weekly Report. Twenty-five years ago, the industry was upended by changes in hardware distribution. In 1999, Home Hardware had announced that it was buying Beaver Lumber’s 138 stores from Molson Cos. for $68 million. Ace Canada had acquired the contract to supply Beaver Lumber with hardware back in 1994.
Throwback Thursday: 25 years ago, Canadian Tire hit a rough patch

1 month ago | hardlines.ca | Steve Payne

Throwback Thursday is a regular feature in which we dip into the archives of the Hardlines Weekly Report. Twenty-five years ago, the Hardlines Weekly Report published a regular “Stockwatch.” We noted in our March 20, 2000 issue that Canadian Tire stock fell to $19.10. “Sweet are the uses of adversity,” Shakespeare wrote. Indeed, Canadian Tire was forced to come up with some new marketing strategies. One of them was putting its famous Canadian Tire money on a credit card, which it did in late 2000.
Throwback Thursday: Ten years ago, Toronto Star predicted “the slow death of the big box”

1 month ago | hardlines.ca | Steve Payne

Throwback Thursday is a regular weekly feature in which we dip into the archives of the Hardlines Weekly Report. Target Canada ceased operations in this country on April 12, 2015. It was indicative of “the slow death of the big box,” according to the Toronto Star, a view which we reported on. But the “death of the big box” has been greatly exaggerated. Walmart sales worldwide were US$473 billion in 2014. They were US$681 billion in the company’s latest fiscal year.
Throwback Thursday: 25 years ago, Totem opened its 11th store

2 months ago | hardlines.ca | Steve Payne

Throwback Thursday is a regular weekly feature in which we dip into the archives of the Hardlines Weekly Report. On Feb. 27, 2000, twenty-five years ago today, we reported on an announcement from Totem Building Supplies, then a TIMBER MART member based in Alberta. The regional chain would open its eleventh store, we wrote, in Airdrie, Alta., 10 miles north of Calgary. It would open by the end of that year.