Here and there

Although 75% of Canadians surveyed say their trust in banks has stayed the same or has increased in the past 12 months, almost 64% say they plan to switch banks or have already done so because of service quality issues, says an Ernst & Young report just released.

In a new era of customer expectation, Ernst & Young finds that only 25% of Canadian respondents say they have less confidence in their banks than they did pre-crisis, compared to 44% of global respondents and 55% in the US. Within Europe, the UK has seen the largest drop in consumer trust (63%).

Though the trust Canadians have in their banks remains high, the survey makes clear that the battle to win over new retail banking customers will be focused largely on improving personalized attention and reducing service issues.

The survey suggests that Canadian banks need to reconnect with customers by improving the customer experience across all channels. Banks that make positive strides in their mobile offerings should see the greatest benefits, as only 29% of Canadians are satisfied with mobile banking services.

Other key survey findings:

48% of Canadian customers bank with just one bank, and 37% bank with two.

38% of Canadians say they've changed their main bank in the past, compared to the global average of 36%.

73% of Canadians would not pay for independent financial advice, believing it should be part of their banks' service offerings.

Brand image rates 4.6/6 to Canadians in what's most important to their relationship with their banks.

--------------------

There are thirty-two Zellers stores in B.C. If not all, certain ones will make the list to be come Target Canada stores by 2013. The very successful retailer is planning to turn 150 of the 220 Zellers stores across the country into the Target brand.

The management of the Canadian division is looking very carefully at each Canadian location for size and parking. Most of the Canadian stores are not the foot print size of the U.S. stores. In most cases they will be some 30,000 sq.ft. smaller than a standard Target store.

We have been fielding stories about Target venturing into the international market for years. It wasn’t until last year that Target Minneapolis announced they were finally interested expanding and they were about to make such a deal to do so with owners of The Bay chain.

The U.S. retailer has a lot of loyal Canadian shoppers already with 70% of us living that close to the border and slipping into the U.S. to shop.

--------------------

I can’t help it, I like a dish of fruit in the morning and sometimes all you can do is buy a jar of ready-to-eat fruit in the grocery store. The names are first class - Dole, Del Monte, Austral, Europe’s Best. The fruit includes pears and peaches. Pineapple is packed in Spain, Thailand and China. It is packed in apple and pineapple juice, the cheapest juice on the market.

I always think of the fruit canners we had when we moved here and the many that were here before that. Safeway and Aylmer had huge plants in the valley. There was Mrs. Milne’s in Summerland. I went to the Summerland Museum for help on this one.

There were many canneries in Summerland, starting with the Balcomo and the Prairie Valley Canneries. Mrs. D.L. Milne arrived in town in the mid-1920s and packed and shipped canned fruits and vegetables to four provinces and to England. The Garnett Valley Cannery tried their hand at making potato chips, then switched to tomatoes and then to fruit. The Summerland Co-operative Growers started the Cornwall Cannery. Tom Young established the Summerland Evaporating Company and the Sunoka Fruit Products made glazed and maraschino cherries. The Barkwills, the Fudges and Beavens ran canneries, the latter being the last to close their doors in the 1990s.

There was a brand called Okanagan’s Best and I don’t know whether the Chinese bought the label or just took it and canned peaches under that label.