Merchants

Making sense of your Canadian Tire receipts

On a Canadian Tire receipt, items rarely appear under their full name. You get a product code such as 052-2124-0, followed by a shortened, all-caps description such as "LAMPE DEL GARAG". A few weeks later, matching those lines to what you actually bought is hard.

This page uses a Canadian Tire receipt scanned into a ReFound demo account to show how each line is printed, and which product ReFound identified for it.

How do items appear on a Canadian Tire receipt?

On our demo Canadian Tire receipt, every item takes one line made of two parts: a product code in three groups of digits (for example 052-2124-0) and a shortened all-caps description, cut to roughly fifteen characters (for example "LAMPE DEL GARAG").

The description is truncated because there is very little room on a cash register roll. That works at checkout, but it is far less useful later, when you need to find a specific purchase, prepare a return or make a warranty claim.

The product code identifies the item inside the merchant's system
The printed description is abbreviated and written in capitals
The brand and commercial product name are not always spelled out

How do you read the product codes on a Canadian Tire receipt?

Below are five items from our demo Canadian Tire receipt. For each one, you see the line exactly as printed, then the product ReFound identified.

What does 052-2124-0 mean on our Canadian Tire receipt?

On our demo Canadian Tire receipt, the code 052-2124-0 appears with the shortened description "LAMPE DEL GARAG". ReFound identifies it as a NOMA LED Garage Light, 8000 Lumens.

NOMA LED Garage Light, 8000 Lumens — product photo ReFound attached to the "LAMPE DEL GARAG" line

"LAMPE DEL GARAG" is a truncated French description for a LED garage light. Without the model name there is no way to tell which light it was, or to look up its product page or warranty terms. "NOMA LED Garage Light, 8000 Lumens" stays identifiable months after the purchase.

What does 184-2003-4 ("HLT NEO WK 4LB") mean on our Canadian Tire receipt?

On our demo Canadian Tire receipt, the code 184-2003-4 appears with the shortened description "HLT NEO WK 4LB". ReFound identifies it as a WA:KE Athletic Neoprene Hexagonal Dumbbell, Single, Assorted Weights.

WA:KE neoprene hexagonal dumbbell — product photo ReFound attached to the "HLT NEO WK 4LB" line

This is a good example of a line almost nobody can decode from memory. Every fragment does mean something — "HLT" for haltère (French for dumbbell), "NEO" for neoprene, "WK" for the WA:KE brand and "4LB" for the weight — but strung together they look nothing like a product name.

What does 073-5211-4 ("CSQ C CRSTR BE") mean on our Canadian Tire receipt?

On our demo Canadian Tire receipt, the code 073-5211-4 appears with the shortened description "CSQ C CRSTR BE". ReFound identifies it as a Supercycle Infant Crosstrail Bike Helmet.

Supercycle Crosstrails infant bike helmet — product photo ReFound attached to the "CSQ C CRSTR BE" line

What does 183-0095-8 ("CASQ+PR-V CCM J") mean on our Canadian Tire receipt?

On our demo Canadian Tire receipt, the code 183-0095-8 appears with the shortened description "CASQ+PR-V CCM J". ReFound identifies it as a CCM Hockey Helmet & Cage Combo, Youth, Black.

CCM youth hockey helmet and cage combo in black — product photo ReFound attached to the "CASQ+PR-V CCM J" line

This demo receipt contains two helmets: a baby bike helmet and a youth hockey helmet-and-cage combo. Both printed descriptions start with "CAS…", yet they are two different products at two different prices. That is exactly the kind of confusion that makes a return or a warranty claim harder when all you have is the paper slip.

What does 153-4141-6 ("PIST ECAL L.SAL") mean on our Canadian Tire receipt?

On our demo Canadian Tire receipt, the code 153-4141-6 appears with the shortened description "PIST ECAL L.SAL". ReFound identifies it as Wonderful Pistachios No Shells, Lightly Salted, 170-g.

Wonderful Pistachios No Shells, Lightly Salted, 170 g — product photo ReFound attached to the "PIST ECAL L.SAL" line

Nobody returns a bag of pistachios. The example still matters: it shows that identification is not limited to big-ticket items, and that a whole receipt becomes readable again when you are checking a price or trying to explain a total.

Why are Canadian Tire receipt descriptions hard to recognize?

Printed descriptions are designed for the checkout, not for your memory. On our demo receipt they fit in about fifteen characters, in capitals, heavily abbreviated — and several are abbreviated French.

The result: one receipt can hold two near-identical lines for two different products, or a line where almost no word matches the product's commercial name. The code stays precise, but it only means something inside the merchant's own system.

What ReFound adds on top of plain receipt reading

Standard OCR reads the printed text and stops there. It returns "HLT NEO WK 4LB" — accurate, and still unhelpful to the person who made the purchase.

ReFound starts from that reading (see OCR accuracy), then tries to match each line to a recognizable product when the information is available. On our demo Canadian Tire receipt, five abbreviated lines become five named products.

The printed code and description are kept exactly as they are
The identified product name is added when the information is available
A product photo and a link to the merchant's product page are added when they exist
Warranty information is attached when it exists for that product
The receipt stays usable as proof of purchase for an in-store return

Enrichment depends on the merchant, the product and the data available: ReFound does not necessarily identify every item on every receipt.

Warranties: why the exact product name matters

On our demo Canadian Tire receipt the five items are far from equal on this point. Three of them carry the same one-year exchange note, and a fourth (the CCM hockey combo) simply points back to the store, with no duration. The fifth, item 052-2124-0 ("LAMPE DEL GARAG"), carries a 5-year exchange warranty.

In other words, on this particular receipt, the item with the hardest printed description to decode is also the one with the longest warranty — the one you will still need to identify four or five years from now.

A warranty claim almost always needs two things: dated proof of purchase and a clear identification of the product. "LAMPE DEL GARAG" does not identify a model; "NOMA LED Garage Light, 8000 Lumens" does. That is the difference between a receipt you kept and a receipt you can actually use — see warranty tracking.

These durations are what ReFound displayed for this demo receipt. They are not a summary of Canadian Tire's warranty terms: actual coverage depends on the product and the manufacturer, and the merchant is the authority on it.

About this page

The examples on this page come from a ReFound demo account. They show what the app actually displayed for that Canadian Tire receipt — they are not a general rule: a printed description can differ from one store, period or product to another.

ReFound is an independent app. ReFound is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Canadian Tire. Brand and product names are mentioned only to describe the contents of a receipt and belong to their respective owners.

Canadian Tire receipt questions

How do I find out which product a code on my Canadian Tire receipt refers to?

The printed code (for example 052-2124-0) identifies the item inside the merchant's system, but it does not tell you the product name. In ReFound the receipt is digitized, then the line is matched to a named product when the information is available: on our demo receipt, 052-2124-0 / "LAMPE DEL GARAG" is a NOMA LED Garage Light, 8000 Lumens.

Why are product names abbreviated on a Canadian Tire receipt?

There is very little room on a cash register roll, so descriptions are cut to a few characters and printed in capitals. On our demo receipt, "HLT NEO WK 4LB" is a WA:KE Athletic Neoprene Hexagonal Dumbbell, Single, Assorted Weights.

Does ReFound identify every item on a Canadian Tire receipt?

No. Any receipt can be scanned and stored, but product identification depends on the merchant, the product and the data available. On our demo Canadian Tire receipt, the five items shown on this page were identified.

Is ReFound affiliated with Canadian Tire?

No. ReFound is an independent app, not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Canadian Tire. This page only describes how ReFound handles a receipt from that merchant.

Keep your Canadian Tire receipts readable

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