Privacy Policy

At Bulk Barn Foods Limited ("Bulk Barn Foods" “we” “us” or “our”) we are committed to protecting your privacy. 

The purpose of this Privacy Policy is to inform you about the practices of Bulk Barn Foods relating to the collection, use and disclosure of personal information when you purchase our products or services, contact us regarding our products or services, participate in customer surveys and contests, sign-up to receive our promotional e-mails, visit our website, or submit an application to become an employee or a franchisee of Bulk Barn Foods. This Privacy Policy also explains how you can contact us if you have a question about or want to access or update any personal information that Bulk Barn Foods may be holding about you.

Bulk Barn Foods operates and franchises retail bulk food stores under the brand “BULK BARN”. The website “bulkbarn.ca” (the “Website”) is operated by Bulk Barn Foods.

Bulk Barn franchisees are independent businesses and are responsible for adopting their own privacy policies, under applicable laws, to collect, use and disclose your personal information. Bulk Barn franchisees are responsible for their own compliance with privacy laws. For more information about a franchisee’s personal information practices, please contact them directly.

Personal Information
"Personal information" means information about an identifiable individual. “Personal information” may include, without limitation, name, address, telephone number, date of birth, family and marital status, credit card information, e-mail address, credit card information, information about assets and liabilities, signature, demographic information, purchasing history and purchase preferences. It does not include the name, title, business address or telephone number of an employee of an organization that is used to contact the individual in their business capacity.

Knowledge and Consent
In general, we will obtain your consent to collect, use, disclose or otherwise manage your personal information, except for limited circumstances as required or permitted by applicable law. Depending on the circumstances, your consent may be implied or express. Please note that you may withdraw your consent at any time, subject to legal or contractual restrictions and reasonable notice, by contacting us. If you wish to withdraw your consent, we will inform you of the implications of withdrawing consent.

How We Collect Personal Information
We collect most personal information directly from you, either in our retail stores, over the phone or through our website. We also collect personal information automatically and through cookies and similar technologies when you visit our Website. If applicable, with your consent, we may also obtain information from third parties (such as background screening providers and your financial institution) where necessary to confirm your suitability for employment or a franchise opportunity.

Personal Information That We Collect
The personal information that we may collect, from time to time, may include some of the following:

• Information that you provide to us through on-line and in-store customer surveys;
• We may collect personal information about you from our franchisees and third parties as circumstances require (e.g. a security incident or complaint at a franchised location);
• Information that you provide to us when you sign-up to receive promotional e-mails, including, e-mail address, postal code, preferred store location, reasons for shopping at Bulk Barn stores;
• Comments or suggestions that you voluntarily give to us from time to time;
• Contact information such as name, address, e-mail address and telephone number to respond to customer enquiries;
• Contact information such as name, e-mail address and telephone number to process your on-line orders for fulfillment at Bulk Barn stores;
• Financial and billing information such as credit card number/ expiry date;
• A signature (e.g. when processing customer refunds); and
• Information you provide in a resume or other employment-related materials.

In addition, in the case of a franchise application, Bulk Barn Foods may collect the following personal information:

• Any information you provide in connection with the application to help us assess your application and suitability to be a franchisee such as: name, address, telephone number, years of education completed, details of prior business experience; personal references; personal financial information (assets, liabilities and net worth);
• Details concerning the amount of unencumbered cash available to be invested in the business along with any sources of financing to evaluate your ability to finance the purchase of a franchise; and
• Names of family members who will be shareholders or involved in the day-to-day operations of the franchise.

How We Use Your Personal Information
We may use your personal information to:

• Better understand the needs of our customers;
• Provide you with the products or services that you request;
• Respond to any questions or concerns which you may have regarding our products or services;
• Process retail transactions;
• Detect and protect against error or fraud as part of our loss prevention program;
• Send you tailored electronic and other communications including advising you of specials and promotions;
• Enable our customers to participate in contests and surveys;
• Evaluate information submitted in an application to become a Bulk Barn franchisee;
• Evaluate information submitted in an application to become an employee of Bulk Barn Foods; and
• Act in respect of an emergency that threatens the life, health or security of an individual. 

We may also analyze information on an aggregate basis in a manner that does not identify any individual for our internal purposes. For example, to understand sales history, to analyze customer incidents and loss prevention trends on an aggregate basis.

Further information about our personal information practices are set out below:

Customer Enquiries
If you send us a letter, e-mail us or call us requesting product information or make any other enquiry, we may retain this information for a period of time to assist you in the future.

Online Orders
Bulk Barn Foods provides an online ordering portal accessed through the Bulk Barn Foods website that allows customers to place their orders for merchandise to be picked up at Bulk Barn stores. Customers provide their first and last name, email address and phone number on an online order form and orders are then forwarded to Bulk Barn stores to fulfill the orders, communicate with customers, as necessary, to clarify aspects of their orders, and have the orders ready for pickup and payment by customers at stores.

Retail Purchases
If you purchase merchandise using a debit or credit card at one of our stores, we collect your payment card information and your signature (if necessary) in order to process your payment or refund, if applicable.

Surveys and Contests
From time to time, we may have in-store or on-line customer surveys or contests. Your participation in surveys and contests is strictly voluntary. The collection of information voluntarily submitted by you allows Bulk Barn Foods to administer your participation in contests and, with respect to surveys, better understand our customers and improve our products and services available to our customers. When you register on-line or participate in a survey or contest, you may have the opportunity to also voluntarily sign up for e-mails about our products, services, sales and specials. You can unsubscribe at any time by following the instructions under “Sign Up for Promotional Emails” below.

Sign Up for Promotional E-mails
Bulk Barn Foods offers you the ability to sign up for promotional communications about our products, services, sales and specials. You may withdraw your consent to receiving these communications at any time. You may unsubscribe from our promotional e-mail communications by clicking on the unsubscribe link included in each of our e-mails or by contacting Bulk Barn Foods’ Customer Service department at customerservice@BulkBarn.ca or (905) 726-5000. Even if you unsubscribe we may send you transactional e-mails or other e-mails that we are permitted by law to send to you.

Franchise & Employment Enquiries
If you apply for a franchise or for employment at Bulk Barn Foods, we collect information that you voluntarily provide to us in order that we may assess your qualifications and suitability for employment or franchise opportunities. The information collected through the application process or resumes will be used solely for the purpose of assessing and making business decisions related to your qualifications. Where applicable, we will obtain your consent to conduct background verifications.

Video Surveillance
Some of our store premises are monitored by video surveillance for loss prevention and security purposes. Personal information collected through video surveillance (including the recordings) may be disclosed to third parties such as law enforcement officials in the event that Bulk Barn Foods determines, in its discretion, that there is or has been a threat to the security of its premises, employees or customers, or in the event of an anticipated or existing violation of any law or as otherwise permitted or required by applicable law.

Sharing and Disclosure of Personal Information
We may disclose personal information for the purposes set out below and as otherwise permitted or required by law, including where we have obtained your consent.

Bulk Barn Franchisees
Certain Bulk Barn locations are operated by independent franchisees. Bulk Barn Foods may share personal information you volunteer or are asked to provide in connection with customer service enquiries or complaints that you make to us with regards to Bulk Barn franchisees in order to respond to customer service enquiries or complaints concerning franchised locations. Bulk Barn Foods may also share information about you as a customer with store staff and Bulk Barn franchisees pertaining to the online product ordering system (accessed through our website). The information on your online order form will be provided to the store that picks and packs your order so that staff at the store can clarify any aspects of the order with you, as necessary, and identify you with your order when you attend to pick up and pay for your order.

Legal Disclosures
Bulk Barn Foods and its Canadian, US and other foreign service providers may disclose personal information in response to a search warrant or other legally valid inquiry or order, or to another organization for the purposes of investigating a breach of an agreement or contravention of law or detecting, suppressing or preventing fraud, or as otherwise may be required or permitted by applicable Canadian, U.S. or other law or legal process, which may include lawful access by US or foreign courts, law enforcement or other government authorities. Your personal information may also be disclosed where necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims and to investigate or prevent actual or suspected loss or harm to persons or property.

Business Transactions
Bulk Barn Foods also reserves the right to disclose and/or transfer personal information to a third party in the event of a proposed or actual purchase, sale, lease, merger, amalgamation or any other type of acquisition, disposal or financing of all or any portion of Bulk Barn Foods or of any of the business or assets or shares of Bulk Barn Foods or a division thereof, in order for you to continue to receive the same products and services from the third party.

Service Providers
Bulk Barn Foods engages service providers to authorize retail debit/credit card transactions, to help operate our Website, serve our advertising, provide e-mail services and to analyze information collected through the Website, advertising, and e-mail (including through cookies and other technologies). Bulk Barn Foods requires its suppliers and service providers to agree to use your personal information only for the purposes for which it is provided to them, and to protect the privacy of your personal information in a manner that is consistent with this Privacy Policy. Personal information may be collected, stored, accessed, and otherwise processed by us or our service providers outside of Canada (including, for residents of Quebec, outside of Quebec), including in the United States or other jurisdictions where our service providers are located.

Website Usage Information
We collect the IP addresses of all visitors to our Website including page requests, browser type, operating system and average time spent on our Website. We use this information to help us understand our Website activity, to monitor and improve the Website and to improve on our products and services available to you.

Cookies and Other Technologies
Our Website, e-mail messages, and advertisements may use “cookies” and other similar technologies, such as web beacons, pixel or gif tags, and action tags. These tracking technologies collect information that allows us to recognize you when you return to our Website, understand which pages you visit on our Website or which emails you open, optimize and tailor our Website for you and other future visitors to our Website and assist Bulk Barn Foods to improve products and services, advertising and customer communications. Some browsers can be set to reject all cookies. If you choose to modify your browser in this manner, some pages or features of our Website may not function properly.

Interest Based Advertising
We work with third parties such as advertising networks and other advertising companies that use their own tracking technologies (including cookies and pixel tags) on our Website or other websites in order to provide you with tailored advertisements on our behalf across the Internet. These companies may collect information about your activity across your different devices on our Website and third-party websites (such as web pages you visit and your interaction with our advertising and other communications) and use this information to make predictions about your preferences, develop personalized content and deliver advertisements that are more relevant to you on third party websites. This information may also be used to evaluate our online advertising campaigns.

For more information about interest-based advertising on your desktop or mobile browser and to understand your options, including how you can opt-out of receiving behavioural advertisements from third-party advertising companies participating in the DAAC, please visit the Digital Advertising Alliance of Canada website at http://youradchoices.ca/choices.

Please note that even if you opt-out of interest-based advertising by a third party, these tracking technologies may still collect data for other purposes including analytics and you will still see advertisements from us, but they may be less relevant to you and your interests.

To successfully opt-out, you must have cookies enabled in your web browser. Please see your browser’s instructions for information on cookies and how to enable them. Your opt-out only applies to the web browser you use so you must opt-out of each web browser on each device that you use. Once you opt-out, if you delete your browser’s saved cookies, you may need to opt-out again.

Website Analytics
We may use a third party such as Google Analytics to help us gather and analyze information about the areas visited on the Website (such as the pages most read, time spent, search terms and other engagement data) in order to evaluate and improve the user experience and the convenience of the Website. These third parties may use cookies and other tracking technologies. For more information about Google Analytics or to prevent the storage and processing of this data (including your IP address) by Google, you can download and install the browser plug-in available at the following link: 

https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=en . You can also obtain additional information on Google Analytics’ data privacy and security at the following links:

• https://policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites and
• https://support.google.com/analytics/topic/2919631

 
Links
Our Website may contain links to other websites. We are not responsible for privacy policies and/or practices on other sites. When linking to another site, a user should read the privacy policy stated on that site. Our Privacy Policy only governs information collected on our Website.

Social Media
When you use certain aspects of our Website or other services, or post information to other social networking sites (e.g. links to Bulk Barn’s Facebook or Twitter pages or if you “like” a product on your Facebook account or “pin” a product on your Pinterest account), the personal information that you post or share in connection with these third party sites is visible to other individuals and can be read, collected, used and disclosed by other individuals, including for the purposes of sending unsolicited messages. As will be evident, in such case, you will be leaving our Website and will be going to the third party’s website. Any information provided to such third party social networking sites and other sites is governed by their own privacy policies. You are solely responsible for the personal information that you choose to post or share in these situations. Bulk Barn Foods has no control over, or responsibility or liability for, the use, disclosure and retention of the personal information that you disclose in these situations, and the use, disclosure and retention of the disclosed information is not subject to this Privacy Policy. You should be careful when disclosing your personal information in these situations.

How We Protect Your Personal Information
Bulk Barn Foods makes all commercially reasonable efforts to ensure that personal information collected from you is protected against loss and unauthorized access. This protection applies in relation to information stored in both electronic and hard copy form. Access to your personal information is restricted to selected employees or representatives. While Bulk Barn Foods uses reasonable commercial efforts to protect your information, no method of transmission over the Internet or electronic storage is 100% secure, and therefore Bulk Barn Foods cannot guarantee absolute security of your personal information.

Retention of Your Personal Information
Bulk Barn Foods retains your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfill the purpose(s) for which it was collected and to comply with applicable laws.

Changes to this Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy may be updated periodically to reflect changes to our personal information practices or changes in law. The revised Privacy Policy will be posted on the Website. We strongly encourage you to please refer to this Privacy Policy often for the latest information about our personal information practices.

Updating your Information
If during the course of our relationship with you, any of your information changes, please let us know so that we can continue to provide you with services.

Your Choices

• Promotional Emails: To unsubscribe from receiving marketing emails, please follow the instructions under “Sign Up for Promotional Emails”.
• Interest-based Advertising: To change your preferences or opt-out of the collection of information for interest-based advertising purposes through our Website, please see “Interest-Based Advertising” above.

To withdraw your consent to any other processing of personal information, please contact us as set out below.

Your Rights
You have the right to request to access, update or rectify your personal information in our records and withdraw your consent to our processing of personal information. If you can establish that the information that we hold about you is not accurate, complete, or up to date, please let us know and we will take reasonable steps to correct, rectify or eliminate such information as appropriate.

If you request access to or correction of your personal information in our records, Bulk Barn Foods will respond to your request within a reasonable time frame. In the event that your request includes copying of your records, we will advise you of the cost prior to proceeding with your request. Your rights to access your personal information are not absolute and we may deny access in circumstances where we are permitted or required by law. If we deny your request for access to, or refuse to correct, your personal information, we will explain why.

Contacting Us
In the event that you have any questions about our Privacy Policy, or the manner in which we or our service providers treat your personal information, or you wish to notify us of any changes to your personal information, request access to or correction of this information or withdraw your consent to our collection, use or disclosure of this information, you may contact Bulk Barn Foods as follows:

Bulk Barn Foods Limited
Corporate Office
320 Don Hillock Drive
Aurora, Ontario
L4G 0G9
Attention: Privacy Officer

Email: privacy@bulkbarn.ca
Telephone: (905) 726-5000

Information about our Privacy Governance Practices
We are committed to protecting personal information and have implemented a comprehensive set of policies and practices that govern our treatment of personal information. These policies and procedures include, among other things, the following:

• We have implemented policies and procedures to protect personal information in our custody and control from unauthorized access, use or disclosure.
• We have implemented processes to respond to data subject requests and complaints in a timely and effective manner. 
• We have implemented a framework for the retention and destruction of personal information to ensure compliance with legal obligations, and to securely destroy personal information once no longer required.
• We have designated a Privacy Officer who is responsible for overseeing the company’s compliance with privacy legislation.
• We have implemented a privacy framework that defines the roles and responsibilities for our employees with respect to the treatment of personal information.
• We provide our employees with regular privacy training and awareness.