Eaton's
The T. Eaton Company Limited, later known as Eaton's, was a Canadian department store chain that was once the largest in the country. It was founded in 1869 in Toronto by Timothy Eaton, an immigrant from what is now Northern Ireland. Eaton's grew to become a retail and social institution in Canada, with stores across the country, buying-offices around the globe, and a mail-order catalog that was found in the homes of most Canadians. A changing economic and retail environment in the late twentieth century, along with mismanagement, culminated in the chain's bankruptcy in 1999.
Eaton's pioneered several retail innovations. In an era when haggling for goods was the norm, the chain proclaimed "We propose to sell our goods for CASH ONLY – In selling goods, to have only one price." In addition, it had the long-standing slogan "Goods Satisfactory or Money Refunded."
Early years
In 1869, Timothy Eaton sold his interest in a small dry-goods store in the market town of St. Marys, Ontario, and he bought a dry-goods and haberdashery business at 178 Yonge Street in the city of Toronto.The first store was only, with two shop windows, and was located a fair distance from Toronto's then fashionable shopping district of King Street West. In its first year of operation, with Timothy Eaton responsible for buying the goods to stock the store, and a staff of four, expectations were low that a store with a no-credit and no-haggling policy would succeed.
The business prospered, and Eaton moved the store one block north in August 1883 into much larger premises at 190 Yonge Street. The new store boasted the biggest plate-glass windows in Toronto, the first electric lights in any Canadian store, three full floors of retail space featuring 35 departments, and a lightwell that ran the full length of the store. The store's first telephone, with phone number 370, was installed in 1885. In 1886, the first elevator in a retail establishment in Toronto was installed in the Eaton store.
Eaton maintained the lease on the empty store at 178 Yonge Street until its expiry in 1884, in order to delay the expansion plans of one of his competitors, Robert Simpson. Over time, the competition between the Simpson's and Eaton's department stores, facing each other across Queen Street West, became one of Toronto's great business rivalries. The pedestrian crosswalk on Queen Street West, just to the west of the intersection with Yonge Street, was for years one of the busiest in Canada, as thousands of shoppers a day comparison-shopped between Eaton's and Simpson's.
By 1896, Eaton's was billing itself as "Canada's Greatest Store". The store continued to expand in size, and new buildings were constructed to house the mail order division and the Eaton's factories. The number of people employed in Eaton's operations numbered 17,500 in 1911. In 1919, the Eaton's buildings in Toronto contained a floor space of over, and occupied several city blocks between Yonge Street and Bay Street, north of Queen Street West.
The Winnipeg store
At the beginning of the 20th century, Eaton's conducted a large business in Western Canada through its catalogue. Eaton's considered Winnipeg, Manitoba, as the most logical location for a new mail order warehouse to better serve its western customers. A store was not originally part of the plans.John Craig Eaton, the son of Timothy Eaton, became an early proponent of building a combined store and mail order operation in Winnipeg. Although Timothy Eaton initially had misgivings over the difficulties involved in managing a store from Toronto, John Craig was eventually able to convince his father. Eaton's acquired a city block on Portage Avenue at Donald Street, and the five-storey Eaton's store opened to much fanfare on July 15, 1905. Timothy Eaton and his family were on hand for the opening of the second Eaton's store, with the Winnipeg Daily Tribune noting in its front-page headline: "The Canadian Napoleon of Retail Commerce Reaches the Capital – Views His Great Store for First Time – Well Pleased".
The landmark red brick store, known as "the Big Store" to Winnipeggers, was a success. The initial staff of 750 grew to 1,200 within a few weeks of the opening. By 1910, three more storeys were added to the store and other buildings were constructed. By 1919, the Eaton's operations in Winnipeg covered and employed 8,000 people.
For many years, the Winnipeg Eaton's store was considered the most successful department store in the world, given how it dominated its local market. As late as the 1960s, Canadian Magazine estimated that Winnipeggers spent more than 50 cents of every shopping dollar at Eaton's, and that on a busy day, one out of every ten Winnipeggers would visit the Portage Avenue store.
The store was closed on 17 October 1999, along with 36 other Eaton's stores.
Overseas buying offices
Eaton's had two buying offices located in Europe: in London, in 7 Warwick Lane, opened in 1892; and Paris, at 103 rue Reaumur, opened six years later in 1898.Canada's dominant retailer
The success of Eaton's helped revolutionize department store retailing in North America. American retailers flocked to view the stores on Yonge Street and Portage Avenue, anxious to replicate Timothy Eaton's methods south of the border. Until the 1950s, Eaton's promoted itself as the "largest retail organization in the British Empire".In 1905, The Globe wrote: "There is hardly a name in Canada, with the possible exception of the Prime Minister, so well known to the people at large as that of Mr. Timothy Eaton." Timothy Eaton died in 1907, and was succeeded by John Craig Eaton as President of the T. Eaton Co. Limited. The company's success continued under Timothy's heir.
In 1925, Eaton's purchased the Goodwin's store in Montreal. By 1927, Montreal boasted a new six-storey Eaton's store on Saint Catherine Street, which was expanded to nine storeys in 1930. Over time, Eaton's stores opened in other cities across the country, the company offered numerous private label products, e.g., an Eaton's typewriter, a rebadged Silverette model by Silver Seiko Ltd. of Japan.
In 1977, the Toronto Eaton Centre opened in downtown Toronto, replacing two previous downtown Eaton's stores. The complex—stretching on multiple levels between Dundas and Queen Streets and boasting 200 stores—was anchored at the north end by a nine-storey Eaton's store.
Eaton's sold private label appliances under the "Viking" label. These were largely manufactured by White. Many products were sold with the brand name “TECO”, an acronym for Timothy Eaton Company.
The Eaton's catalogue
The first Eaton's catalogue was a 34-page booklet issued in 1884. As Eaton's grew, so did the catalogue. By 1920, Eaton's operated mail order warehouses in Winnipeg, Toronto and Moncton to serve its catalogue customers. Catalogue order offices were also established throughout the country, with the first opening in Oakville in 1916.At a time when Canada's population was predominantly rural, often living in isolated settlements, the Eaton's catalogue provided a selection of goods that was otherwise unavailable to many Canadians, much like the Sears Roebuck catalog in the United States. It served an important economic role, as it broke local monopolies and allowed all Canadians access to the prices and selection enjoyed in some of the larger cities. The catalogue offered everything from clothing to farming implements. Some Canadians even purchased their homes from the catalogue, with Eaton's delivering to them all the materials necessary to build a prefabricated house. Today, a large number of Eaton's catalogue homes still exist throughout the country, primarily in the West. The catalogue had many other uses, ranging from its use as a learning tool by settlers learning to speak English, to its use as goalie pads during hockey games.
The catalogue became an icon of Canadian culture, even appearing in many works of Canadian literature. In Roch Carrier's autobiographical short story The Hockey Sweater, a young Quebec boy asks his mother for a Montreal Canadiens hockey jersey from the Eaton's catalogue, but receives a Toronto Maple Leafs jersey instead. As the family is francophone, the mother does not order using the catalogue forms but instead writes a note and sends money to the department store. Because of the prevalent language and cultural barriers of the English and French-speaking Canadian populations, his family is unaware that the item could be exchanged, and they do not wish to offend Mr. Eaton by returning it. Carrier ends up being ostracized by his peers as a result.
Over time, the catalogue became a less profitable operation, and by the 1970s, it was a money-losing proposition. As Canada's population became more urban over the course of the 20th century, Canadians had access to a greater number of local stores, and were less reliant on catalogue purchases. By the mid-1970s, it was estimated that 60% of the suburban customers throughout Canada lived within a thirty-minute drive of an Eaton's store. Others blamed Eaton's management for the catalogue's failures, pointing to the similar Simpsons-Sears catalogue, which continued until a much later date even though it never enjoyed the iconic status or popularity of the Eaton's catalogue.
At a news conference on January 14, 1976, Eaton's announced that the 1976 spring-summer catalogue would be their last. 9000 mail-order employees were out of work and many Eaton's catalogue stores in smaller towns closed as a result. Many Canadians were in shock. In one notable incident, Barbara Frum of CBC Radio’s As It Happens opened her interview of Eaton's president Earl Orser with the question "Mr. Orser, how could you?"
The Toronto Santa Claus Parade
Eaton sponsored the annual Eaton's Santa Claus Parade in Toronto. The first parade took place on December 2, 1905. For a number of years, Eaton's Santa Claus Parades were also held in Winnipeg and Montreal.By the 1950s, the Toronto parade was the largest in North America, stretching for a mile and a half and involving thousands of participants. It was broadcast live on radio and television in Canada, and CBS television in the United States broadcast the parade for a number of years.
To publicize the parade, Eaton's published a number of books and records about a sad little bear called Punkinhead who becomes Santa's sidekick and takes part in Santa's parade. A Punkinhead character was included in the parade for many years.
In August 1982, Eaton's announced that it would no longer sponsor the Santa Claus Parade, due to increasing costs. A consortium of local businesses saved the parade, which continues to be held every year.