Canadian Tire money, officially Canadian Tire 'money' or CTM, is a

loyalty program A loyalty program is a marketing strategy designed to encourage customers to continue to shop at or use the services of a business associated with the program. Today, such programs cover most types of commerce, each having varying features and ...

operated by the

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

retail chain Canadian Tire Corporation (CTC). It consists of both paper

coupons In marketing, a coupon is a ticket or document that can be redeemed for a financial discount or rebate when purchasing a product. Customarily, coupons are issued by manufacturers of consumer packaged goods or by retailers, to be used in ...

introduced in 1958 and used in Canadian Tire stores as

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, and since 2012 in a digital form introduced as ''Canadian Tire Money Advantage'', rebranded in 2018 as Triangle Rewards. Both forms of the loyalty program remain current as of December 2022. Canadian Tire Money has been noted as the most successful loyalty program in Canadian retail history. Canadian Tire Money is denominated in

Canadian dollars The Canadian dollar (symbol: $; code: CAD; french: dollar canadien) is the currency of Canada. It is abbreviated with the dollar sign $, there is no standard disambiguating form, but the abbreviation Can$ is often suggested by notable style g ...

. It is earned based on the pre-tax amount of a purchase, excluding labour and shop supplies costs. The initial rate earned was 5% of the eligible purchase price, but it was lowered to 3%, then to 1.4% and now is 0.4%. When used to pay for merchandise, CTM is considered to be a cash equivalent and may be used to pay for any part of a purchase, including sales taxes. CTM cannot be exchanged for real Canadian currency.

Paper Canadian Tire money coupons

Paper CTM coupons resemble real

banknote A banknote—also called a bill (North American English), paper money, or simply a note—is a type of negotiable promissory note, made by a bank or other licensed authority, payable to the bearer on demand. Banknotes were originally issued ...

s. The notes are printed on paper similar to what Canadian currency was printed on when they were still paper, and were jointly produced by two of the country's long-established security printers, British American Banknote Company (BABN) and Canadian Bank Note Company (CBN)."Canadian Tire Scrip", Numismatist Magazine, Harold Don Allen, p.64, Volume 119, Number 12, December 2006 Paper CTM can be earned and redeemed only at Canadian Tire stores, although some other private businesses may choose to accept it as payment. Paper CTM is earned only when customers pay with

cash In economics, cash is money in the physical form of currency, such as banknotes and coins. In bookkeeping and financial accounting, cash is current assets comprising currency or currency equivalents that can be accessed immediately or near-imme ...

debit card A debit card, also known as a check card or bank card is a payment card that can be used in place of cash to make purchases. The term ''plastic card'' includes the above and as an identity document. These are similar to a credit card, but unl ...

s, or Canadian Tire money. No paper CTM is earned on purchases made by credit card.

History

Canadian Tire Money coupons were introduced in 1958 at CTC's gas bar located at Yonge and Davenport streets in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

. They were inspired by Muriel Billes, the wife of Canadian Tire's co-founder and first president, Alfred J. Billes, as a response to the promotional giveaways that many gas companies offered at the time. It was only available at Canadian Tire gas bars but was so successful that, in 1961, it was extended to the retail stores as well. The print on the 'notes' refers to them as "money bonus coupons". Until 1992, there were separate issues of coupons redeemable either at Canadian Tire gas bars, or Canadian Tire retail stores. From the launch of the program until 1994, CTM was issued and redeemable only at select Canadian Tire locations in

Southern Ontario Southern Ontario is a primary region of the province of Ontario, Canada, the other primary region being Northern Ontario. It is the most densely populated and southernmost region in Canada. The exact northern boundary of Southern Ontario is dis ...

. The program was expanded to all Canadian Tire retail locations across Canada in 1995. Since 1961, the coupons have featured an engraving of "Sandy McTire", who sports a tam o' shanter and a stylized waxed moustache. A fictional character based on no specific individual, he is assumed to represent a thrifty Scotsman, the 1950s

everyman The everyman is a stock character of fiction. An ordinary and humble character, the everyman is generally a protagonist whose benign conduct fosters the audience's identification with them. Origin The term ''everyman'' was used as early as ...

of blue-collar Canada.

Denominations

CTM coupons are currently produced in denominations of 5, 10, 25, and 50 cents, as well as one and two dollars.

Usage beyond Canadian Tire

* In late 2004 in

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New Brunswick New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and ...

, several customers at a Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce ATM were dispensed a total of 11 bills of Canadian Tire money instead of real bills. They were compensated by the bank. * Culturally, Canadian Tire money is sometimes referred to by comedians: perhaps as a national version of "Monopoly money", perhaps invoking a pejorative comparison of the value of Canadian dollars against U.S. dollars, or perhaps as a misunderstood exotic element of Canadian society (e.g. Ron James's comedic reference to the person depicted on the bill as "our king"). In the 2009 Trailer Park Boys movie '' Countdown to Liquor Day'', Jim Lahey offers Julian $700 in Canadian Tire money for his trailer. * In the mid-1990s, a man in Germany was caught with up to $11 million in counterfeit Canadian Tire money. It was recovered before he left for Canada to redeem it. * In 2012, musician Corin Raymond funded his album ''Paper Nickels'' partially through a fundraising campaign inviting fans to donate their unused Canadian Tire money.

Coins

On December 2, 2009, as part of an advertised deal, Canadian Tire had handed out the first Canadian Tire coin, redeemable with the purchase of at least of merchandise. Another similar deal followed in 2010 (coinciding with the 2010 Olympic Winter Games), with a three-coin winter collection. The coins can be spent in the same manner as conventional CTM.

Electronic Canadian Tire money

A digital version of Canadian Tire Money was introduced in 2012 as ''Canadian Tire Money Advantage'', which was earned by presenting a loyalty card. This was expanded in 2014 to holders of the Options credit card issued by Canadian Tire Financial Services (CTFS). In April 2018, Canadian Tire Money Advantage program was replaced with the Triangle Rewards loyalty program for the earning of digital Canadian Tire Money ("eCTM"). The Triangle Rewards program expanded the earning and redemption of eCTM from Canadian Tire stores to the rest of Canadian Tire Corporation's family of stores, including

Mark's Mark's (known as L'Équipeur in Quebec) is a Canadian clothing and footwear retailer specializing in casual and industrial wear. Beginning in 1977 as Mark's Work Wearhouse in Calgary, Alberta, it evolved from an industrial accessories dealer ...

, Sport Chek, Sports Experts, PartSource, and the Canadian operations of

Party City Party City Holdco Inc. is an American publicly traded retail chain of party stores founded in 1986 by Steve Mandell in East Hanover, New Jersey. Party City’s parent organization is Party City Holdings Inc. Based in Woodcliff Lake, NJ, the comp ...

. Unlike with paper Canadian Tire money, eCTM can be earned on purchases paid for with a

credit card A credit card is a payment card issued to users (cardholders) to enable the cardholder to pay a merchant for goods and services based on the cardholder's accrued debt (i.e., promise to the card issuer to pay them for the amounts plus the ot ...

. Extra eCTMs is earned when paying with a Triangle credit card issued by CTFS.

References

External links

Canadian Tire 'Money' - Select 1958 expand dash symbol
— History, on the Canadian Tire website. {{Customer loyalty programs

Money Money is any item or verifiable record that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts, such as taxes, in a particular country or socio-economic context. The primary functions which distinguish money are as ...

Customer loyalty programs in Canada Currencies of Canada Local currencies of Canada Private currencies Canadiana