Marketplace Season 39

'Marketplace' launches our 39th season with a special one-hour episode that takes on Canada's major store chains.

Marketplace puts COLD-FX to the test, and discovers that there may be more clever marketing than proven science at the heart of their success. Host Erica Johnson also reveals where the processing of this "Proudly Canadian" product takes place, and speaks with company insiders who reveal a dirty secret.

In "Trouble for Rent," Tom Harrington meets tenants of a national rental company and uncovers a disturbing history of unhealthy homes, poor maintenance and corporate callousness. On hidden camera we hear what tenants are told when shopping for a new apartment and with the help of experts we put apartments to the test. What we find is troubling so we go looking for answers from the people at the top.

Marketplace's Tom Harrington wants to find out what's behind one prominent eco-logo. He tracks down a popular toilet paper brand found in Canadian supermarkets to its source, the New Brunswick forest from where it comes, and discovers the answers aren't always clear cut.

In this year's Top 10 countdown of Lousy Labels, Erica Johnson finds the truth behind the latest buzzwords on food packaging. It will make you think twice before filling up your shopping cart.

Tom Harrington reveals the story of how, for many unwilling clients, Canada's largest lawn care company has become a more invasive pest than the ones they promise to get rid of. What do you do with a lawn care outfit that won't take no for an answer? Marketplace exposes their over the top tactics, and we speak with an insider who worked for the company.

Tom Harrington exposes the aggressive practices of a job search marketing firm -- one that acts more like a recruitment agency. While this firm does have all sorts of clients, it seems to specifically target new Canadians, charging them for services and information widely -- and freely -- available. "Recruitment Rip-Off" takes us inside the operation, and includes heartbreaking testimony from the victims.

The materials in them are downright cheap. Even crafting the lenses is hardly labour-intensive. So why are prescription eyeglasses so darned expensive? Tom Harrington focuses in on the outrageously high price of spectacles. In this eye-opening report, we test recent changes in retail and regulation, to see if anyone's offering a better deal.

You've got a problem with something in your home, and you need it fixed -- fast! But who do you call? And who can you trust? We put home service trades-people to the test, in a house wired up with hidden cameras. We watch them while they work on what should be a fairly simple repair job -- only to get charged for unnecessary work.

Going on vacation? Think travel health insurance is going to protect you if something goes wrong?Marketplace exposes an industry that's set up to fail -- convoluted medical questionnaires that can trip people up, travel agents on hidden camera giving dangerous advice, and travelers left on the hook for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Watch what happens when Erica Johnson goes looking for answers from a multi-million dollar industry that "regrets your claim is denied.

Canada has the highest rate of hospital acquired infections in the developed world, and Canada's consumer watchdog wants to know why. Erica Johnson puts hospital cleanliness to the test, and finds a mess that is making you sick. With hidden cameras, including Canada's first hidden camera glo gel test, insider interviews and expert opinions, Marketplace uncovers why people in Canadian hospitals are too often getting sicker instead of better.

Co-hosts Erica Johnson and Tom Harrington report on shocking claims and shoddy services that drive Canadians crazy. It's an hour of television that will have the country shouting, "You're Busted!" at their TV sets. Anti-viral tissue claims, bank fees, outrageous markups at a national car service chain, cable and phone service charges, fast-food marketing spin, extended warranty fine print -- even charities and government watchdogs get "busted" by Marketplace in this wide-ranging exposé.