To our valued customers, suppliers and staff:

At the 49th, we will respect your privacy at all times through the protection of your personal information.

At the 49th, we are committed to combining our top quality products and service with a high level of integrity towards all of our business partners.

This policy is designed to assist you in understanding how we collect, use and safeguard the personal information you provide us.

Our 10 Privacy Principles:

As part of our commitment to you, the 49th has adopted the following 10 privacy principles, based on the values set by the Canadian Standards Association’s Model Code for the Protection of Personal Information and Canada’s Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act.

1. Accountability

All 49th employees are responsible for maintaining and protecting all personal information under their control. The 49th has assigned an individual to oversee the company’s compliance with the Act and our 10 Privacy Principles

2. Identifying purposes

At the 49th, we will identify the purposes for which personal information is collected, either before or at the time of collection.

3. Consent

At the 49th, we will only collect, use and disclose your personal information with your consent, except where otherwise permitted or required by law.

4. Limiting collection

At the 49th, we will limit the personal information we collect to that which is necessary for the purposes identified.

5. Limiting use, disclosure and retention

Your personal information will only be used or disclosed for the purposes for which it was collected, unless you have consented or when it is permitted or required by law. We will only retain your personal information as long as necessary to fulfill those purposes.

6. Accuracy

At the 49th, we will keep personal information we collect as accurate, complete and up-to-date as necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected.

7. Safeguards

At the 49th, we will protect your personal information using safeguards that are appropriate to the sensitivity of the information.

8. Openness

At the 49th, we will provide information to individuals about our policies and procedures relating to the management of personal information that is under our control.

9. Individual access

You may request access to your personal information at any time, in writing to our Privacy Officer, to review the content and accuracy and have it amended as appropriate. If your information is not accurate or complete, please contact us to have it changed.

10. Enquiries or complaints

You may contact our Privacy Officer with any questions, complaints, or suggestions concerning our Privacy Principles.

Personal Information we collect

At the 49th, we may, with your consent, collect the following personal information from you in person, over the telephone or fax, by mail or through the internet. For example, the types of information we collect may include your:

• Name
• Mailing Address
• E-mail Address
• Telephone Number
• Date of Birth
• Employer Information
• Personal References
• Credit History
• Driver’s Licence
• Social Insurance Number (optional)

It is always your choice whether or not to provide us with your personal information. However, a decision to withhold certain personal information may restrict or prevent us from approving the provision of products or services to you, such as issuing a cheque cashing card to you or increasing your credit limit.

Website information

When you visit our website you may provide us with two types of information: personal information you knowingly choose to disclose that is collected on an individual basis and website use information collected on an aggregate basis as you and others browse our website.

No personal information is required from you if you simply wish to visit our site. If you wish to engage in activities like joining our mailing list, enter a contest, you will be asked for certain information, as follows: Name; E-mail address; Mailing address, Phone number. If you choose to correspond with us through e-mail, we may retain the content of your email messages together with your email address and our responses.

Similar to other commercial websites, our website utilizes a standard technology called “cookies” and web server logs to collect information about how our website is used. Information gathered through cookies and web server logs may include date and time of visits, the pages viewed, time spent at our website, and the website visited just before and just after our website. This information is collected in a non-identifying, aggregate form only. We do not use cookies to access, trace or track any personal information.

On occasion, the 49th’s website is connected by hyperlinks to other websites. Please note that we are not responsible in any way for the privacy practices of other websites and suggest that you review their privacy policies before using their sites. We provide these links solely as pointers to information on topics that may be of interest to the users of our website.

How we use Your information

At the 49th, we are a business built on family values. We treat our customers, employees and suppliers like family. We treat people with mutual respect. We strive to provide you with top quality products, unparalleled service and a friendly shopping atmosphere on a daily basis. We also want to establish a long lasting relationship that will grow and change to meet your needs.

At the 49th, we collect and share personal information about you to:

• Identify you
• Establish and maintain a relationship with you and to provide you with on-going services
• Promote our products and services to you
• Process your application for a cheque cashing card
• Assess and update your credit worthiness on an ongoing basis
• Collecting a debt owed to the company
• Process product returns
• Process phone or fax orders, special orders, deliveries, etc.
• Protect you and us against error and fraud
• Promote instore contests, giveaways and surveys
• Comply with legal requirements

Your personal information may be used to create statistics about our business. These statistics would not contain any information that could identify you personally.

We may share your personal information with other parties, but only in the following limited circumstances:

• In order to issue a cheque-cashing card we may confer with your employer, personal reference, financial institution, credit card providers or credit reporting agencies to determine your credit worthiness.
• In order to market our products and services, we may share your personal information with a mailing house, sales and marketing agency or other organization that provides such services.

We will not sell your personal information to any organization, for any purpose. You can choose not to receive personalized direct marketing communications.

We may inform you about our products and services by mail, telephone, fax, email or other means. If you do not wish to receive direct marketing communications, simply contact us to remove your name from our list.

Consent to use personal information

At the 49th, we will only collect, use and disclose your personal information with your consent, except where otherwise permitted or required by law. Consent can be express or it may be implied in appropriate circumstances.

Providing us with your personal information is always your choice. However, if you choose not to provide your personal information, we may not be able to provide you with a certain product or service.

You may withdraw your consent to our collection, use and disclosure of your personal information at any time, subject to legal or contractual restrictions and reasonable notice. If you withdraw your consent, the implications of such withdrawal may be that we are not able to continue to provide you with a particular product or service. In addition, our ability to communicate with you will be diminished.

How We Safeguard personal information

At the 49th, we employ physical, electronic and procedural safeguards to protect our systems and all personal information under our control against unauthorized access or use. All safety and security measures are appropriate to the sensitivity level of the information on hand.

Employees are governed by strict standards and policies to ensure that personal information is secure and treated with respect.

Contact information

For any questions or concerns, please contact our Privacy Officer as follows:

Mail:

49th Parallel Grocery
P.O. Box 687,
Ladysmith, B.C.
V9G 1A5

E-mail: privacy@the49th.com

Fax: 250-245-3498 Attention: Privacy Officer