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Making money on Remembrance Day: Three don'ts and one do
EVAN ANNETT

This article was published more than 10 years ago. Some information may no longer be current.

Sandwiched between Halloween and Christmas – two holidays in which shoppers are used to everything-must-go sales – Remembrance Day can be a tricky time for retailers. Some businesses have gotten into hot water this year for being seen to profit on a holiday meant to honour veterans’ sacrifices in war. Here are three such examples, and one case where selling out for the holiday has made a positive difference.

A poppyroni pizza

Employees at a Tesco supermarket near London’s Gatwick airport decided to add poppy-shaped toppings to their pizzas, images of which went viral on Sunday. A Tesco spokeswoman responded by saying “colleagues in stores have been marking Remembrance Sunday in a number of ways and we hope customers see that their intentions in this case were entirely borne out of respect,” the Independent reported.

Lest we forget the Gap

(Reuters)

The sister of Toronto’s Corporal Chuck Krangle was appalled on Monday to see an e-mail promotion from the Gap about a “Remembrance Day deal” for a $19.99 vest. She forwarded the e-mail to her brother, who told the CBC that he saw the intent behind it as “let’s profit on Remembrance Day, let’s have a big sale because it’s Remembrance Day.” A Gap spokeswoman responded to the CBC that the retailer “did not intend to offend anyone and we apologize if that has been the case.”

Christmas promotions: too soon?

Philanthropist and Dragon’s Den alumnus W. Brett Wilson had a pointed message for retailers on his Twitter account on Nov. 2: “don’t even think” about Christmas decorations until Nov. 12. Fredericton’s Urban Almanac general store echoed the sentiment on Nov. 6, saying their Christmas supplies were “in our basement, where it should be, till after Remembrance Day.”

Poppies for a cause

(Jim Ross for the Globe and Mail)

Since August, a sea of red ceramic poppies has flooded the Tower of London’s moat – and at £25 apiece, they’ve all been bought and paid for since October. Sales of the poppies from artist Paul Cummins’s exhibit Blood Swept Lands and Sea of Red, marking the centenary of Britain’s involvement in the First World War, have raised millions of pounds to be shared among six veterans’ charities. The exhibit will stay in place until Nov. 12 before the poppies are washed and shipped to their new owners.