Canada Archery Online - Company Review

Review by C. M.

So I recently ordered a new bow from a different company that I have never done business with before. The company in question was "Canada Archery Online", which is based in Toronto.

I opted to do business with the company for several reasons.

#1. They sold a particular brand of bow that I was having difficulty finding at other local stores.

They had the riser I was looking for: http://www.canadaarcheryonline.ca/risers/

And the limbs I was looking for: http://www.canadaarcheryonline.ca/limbs/

So I got the products I was looking for and I am happy with the products. That is not what I am reviewing today, but having a good selection of products is certainly a bonus.

Note - When visiting their website make sure you go to canadaarcheryonline.ca instead of .com. The .com doesn't really go anywhere.

#2. They provide hand delivery.

That is right, they deliver. Just like ordering a pizza.

Well, to be more specific they provide delivery to specific locations in Toronto, Brampton, Guelph and Montreal. The locations are:

Peel Archery Club
107 Nuggett Ct,
Brampton, Ontario
L6T 5A9

Battle Sports
26 Ashwarren Rd,
Toronto, Ontario
M3J 1Z5

The Royal Garrison
28 Essex Street
Guelph, ON
N1H 4L7

Seton Park Archery Range (aka, The Toronto Archery Range)
Don Mills Road and Gateway Blvd
Toronto, Ontario

Sports de Combat
5335 Ave Casgrain
Montreal, Quebec

So I ordered 3 sets of limbs, 1 riser, and arranged to have everything picked up at the Toronto Archery Range. That way, if I wanted to, I could just begin shooting right away.

In the far future maybe they could deliver everything via drone? Just like Amazon keeps promising.

But wouldn't that be nice, if you could just have things delivered like you would a pizza?

Take for example Pizza Pizza - a local pizza place that is very popular in Toronto. They have a $3.75 delivery charge.

What if, in the future, Pizza Pizza delivered via drone and the cost of delivery was FREE?

After all, think of all the pizzas a company could delivery using drones - eliminating the need for delivery people - and you only need the people who stick the pizza inside the drone (presumably the same people who hand the pizza to the delivery person) and possibly one person to service the drones regularly.

Many other types of businesses could follow this drone model too, replacing a variety of people:

• Package Couriers - like the DHL guy that showed up earlier today to delivery some archery gloves to me.
• Bicycle Couriers
• Any kind of food delivery service - including "Meals on Wheels".
• Mail carriers from the Post Office.

Right now the company Uber is planning to replace much of the world's taxi industry with flying drones that can deliver people from point A to point B. They already have started with self driving taxis in Pittsburgh, so eventually their goal is to replace the taxi industry entirely with self driving cars and flying drones.

Uber hopes to have their flying drone system known as "Elevate" up and running before 2026.

Uber also recently released self driving trucks, hoping to replace the truck driving industry with computer automation.

Still I must say, back to the company "Canada Archery Online", having the products I ordered delivered by a person who can smile, answer questions, and is wearing a "Canada Archery Online" t-shirt is a bonus. I would still prefer humans doing the deliveries on a regular basis.

Which brings me back to Pizza Pizza's $3.75 delivery charge. That is a pretty reasonable fee. I could see many other industries opting for a similar fee just so you can have a human deliver a product.

Because sometimes drones and robots simply won't be able to do the job.

eg. My apartment buzzer is broken. I had to leave the DHL guy a note saying to call my cellphone number. Which he did. A drone would not know they had to do that, although I suppose they could be programmed to notify me via text message.

Any number of things could potentially come up while doing a job. What if the package arrives, but it is damaged? Will the drone be able to direct me to where to ask for a refund? Maybe not.

Anyway, back on topic...

One of the things about Canada Archery Online is that they don't really have a bricks and mortar store where you can browse. Everything is online and then they just deliver to the locations mentioned above.

Which works for me, especially when I already know the products I want to order and I don't need to see them in person. Someone who doesn't know what they want however... it might be a bit like trying on shoes. That is a good time to be in an actual store where you can learn more about the product before you buy it.

Just wait though... the shoe salesman will be gone. Gone and replaced by a robot like the "Salesbot" Pepper.

Pepper the Salesbot