Canadian Geographic getting out of the merchandising business?

Canadian Geographic has always been among the leaders in Canadian consumer publishing in terms of developing line extensions and exploiting their hard-earned brand.

One of the areas in which they showed such leadership was in merchandising, selling everything from maple butter to telescopes and branded T-shirts. That is coming to an end, apparently, with a giant "inventory blowout" on the merchandising site which seems to confirm rumours that CG is shutting down this division. It's not known if this means that the CG "store" will disappear entirely or merely shrink back. But when you're selling your stuff at 25% to 75% off, its pretty clear it's not business as usual.

There was also some talk a while ago that CG would be launching a digital edition. That is apparently on the shelf now. Perhaps one of those shelves that are emptying at deep discount prices.