‘Tis the season for winter tires, being November. And many people like us are looking for a new set of winter tires for our cars. This year is particularly interesting because our neighboring province Quebec has just passed a law that all cars must have winter tires. Imagine the kink that puts into the supply and demand curves for winter tires this year.

My wife just had a terrible experience at Canadian Tire Corporation when she went for a set of new winter tires. After being promised a set of tires for her Toyota Matrix, there she sat in the waiting room for them to be put on.  After an hour and a half, still no tires. So she inquires at the desk whether there is a problem.  “Oh – no problem” they assert. Could she just wait another hour? Now this would have set alarms off for me but my wife is very trusting, accommodating, and patient. So she sat. And sat.

Now after another hour has passed she finally approaches the desk again, noticing her car in the bays, with no new tire activity going on at all. “Excuse me, is there a problem?” she asks. “Well yes Ma’am” they reply, “Apparently we only have three tires”.

For some reason, it took Canadian Tire, a long standing business whose core competency revolves around tires, two and a half hours to come to the realization that they had just made a serious blunder. “Can you come back tomorrow and maybe we will have these other xyz brand of tires for you?” they ask.

Now I am no expert in tires. I’m not an expert in retail supply chain management. I do know a thing or two about customer service however.  This, was not what I would call a textbook retail transaction.  This was a major retail chain, out of control.  They did not know their own inventory. They did not know how to approach a customer proactively and keep a customer. They completely broke every rule in the book of customer service. Canadian Tire, are you listening? In particular, the Burlington Canadian Tire.  You guys are inept!

Should you buy tires at Canadian Tire? NO!

Do yourself a favor and go elsewhere!!

Exclusive video: Find out which books inspired the writers and editors at New Scientist

A great book has the power to move, inspire or even change lives. From adventure tales of the Arctic to the ultimate in quantum weirdness, here are the books that have left a lasting impression on some of the world’s top scientists, including Oliver Sacks, Michio Kaku, Jane Goodall, and more. Exclusive online contributions come from Daniel Everett, Elaine Morgan and Chris Frith.

1. Farthest North – Steve Jones, geneticist

2. The Art of the Soluble – V. S. Ramachandran, neuroscientist

3. Animal Liberation – Jane Goodall, primatologist

4. The Foundation trilogy – Michio Kaku, theoretical physicist

5. Alice in Wonderland – Alison Gopnik, developmental psychologist

6. One, Two, Three… Infinity – Sean Carroll, theoretical physicist

7. The Idea of a Social Science – Harry Collins, sociologist of science

8. Handbook of Mathematical Functions – Peter Atkins, chemist

9. The Mind of a Mnemonist – Oliver Sacks, neurologist

10. A Mathematician’s Apology – Marcus du Sautoy, mathematician

11. The Leopard – Susan Greenfield, neurophysiologist

12. Darwin and the Emergence of Evolutionary Theories of Mind and Behavior – Frans de Waal, psychologist and ethologist

13. Catch-22 / The First Three Minutes – Lawrence Krauss, physicist

14. William James, Writings 1878-1910 – Daniel Everett, linguist

15. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep – Chris Frith, neuroscientist

16. The Naked Ape – Elaine Morgan, author of The Aquatic Ape Hypothesis

17. King Solomon’s Ring – Marian Stamp Dawkins, Zoologist