When is a deal really a deal? We tracked prices at Old Navy and Canadian Tire to find out [Video]

If you walk into an Old Navy or browse online, you’re bound to find huge discounts offered and hot deals aplenty.

But an investigation by CBC’s Marketplace has found some of those bargains are not what they seem.

​Marketplace tracked the price of items sold at two major retailers — Old Navy and Canadian Tire — checking to see how often those items went on sale and whether the prices were true discounts. The investigation found multiple examples of Old Navy items that were nearly always on sale.

At Canadian Tire, Marketplace tracked 46 products to see how deep the discounts were during big sales like Boxing Day, Cyber Monday and early Black Friday events and found several items were cheaper on days earlier in the year.

At Old Navy, the team monitored 10 clothing items between May and December 2024.

The team found the Old Navy clothes were on sale for at least half of those …