Princess Auto

I have been a loyal customer of Princess Auto for years and used to come on almost a weekly basis to pick up automotive tools that I needed. Prices are competitive for this side of the border but can’t compare to anything south of the border, like most retailers in Canada. One of the biggest problem is that items are often difficult to find. Sale items are not well stocked, so the really good sales are gone pretty fast. Their products are of decent quality but there are ones that I have broken before, so it is good that I was able to exchange broken tools for new ones.

Let’s just say WOW. They could care less if they sold a thing.
We went online and found a $ 900 pressure washer which was only available in-​store. So when we arrived in store, we went searching for the pressure washer, which was no where to be found. Two staff members told us it’s only available online without even checking… or knowing what we were looking for. After some searching in their old school computer systems, they determined we were right and they had it in store… But couldn’t find it.
Finally, the guy decided to go look in the back… And that was the last we saw of him. I finally chased down the other lady who was helping us after 30 – 40 minutes of waiting and she asked another employee who never even looked for it and she said «oh, I wrote off the pressure washer»…What does that mean??? Do you mean you wrote off looking for it and didn’t want to let us know and make us waste our time standing around?
How hard was it to tell us it’s not here? Seriously needs improvement in customer service, organizations, cleanliness… Basically everything. Nothing is placed in an organized manner. It’s like a big Dollar Store with clueless staff everywhere.
I went from thinking Princess Auto was great to awful in less than an hour. I went there looking to spend $ 900 and no one cared. Couldn’t even order one for pickup.

Prices are reasonable. However, customer service was terrible. Staff literally saw me coming with a flyer in my hand and would run away. Are you kidding me? I just wanted to find something in this rats nest of a store. There’s also no logic to the layout which will leave you stuck in the maze with no staff help. Better to come browse than try to find anything specific, trust me.

The hours that Waze gave me did not match at all. I took a photo of the sign for Unilocal to update. They were closed when I came by.

I completely agree with Terrence’s assessment: «Princess Auto is basically Canadian Tire if you stripped away any decorations». Prices are great, but along with the missing decorations and displays, it’s also missing the signage that Canadian Tire has the advantage of having.
The primary things I go here for are tools. They don’t have necessarily a wide selection of each type of tool (like there isn’t a big variety in brands), but they usually have a lot of stock of the tools they do carry. It’s kind of up in the middle of nowhere, but they usually have hotdogs for sale outside, if you’re hungry after browsing the aisles. Sales staff, as far as I’ve experiences, have mediocre knowledge of the tools. It’s more of a warehouse. They do have some specialized tools that other places don’t carry, but I mostly go here for the cheap prices.

Princess Auto is basically Canadian Tire if you stripped away any decorations. Filled with aisles and aisles of tools, equipment, and some of the strangest liquidation items as well (I love going here for those rows and see what I can find in the discount electronics aisles).
I’m not going to really describe it at length as it’s too difficult to properly quantify, but it’s pretty much as close to a one stop multi world bazaar of tools and parts of all sorts. To really understand it, check out the website or just take a ½ hour and walk through the place. God knows what you’ll find that might be useful.