Whatever happened to …

… Eaton’s stores?

Thanks to Sheila Stewart for yet another great idea for a Sunday morning post. It came in the form of a link to a story about Thunder Bay’s Eaton’s building.

https://www.tbnewswatch.com/local-news/new-owner-aims-to-redevelop-historic-eatons-building-1950113

Growing up in a small town, Eaton’s was a big deal for us. We didn’t have a big department store so it was ordering from the catalogue for the most of the time. Every now and again, we would take a trip to London to go to an actual store. It was marvellous, particularly running up to Christmas. It was located in Wellington Square and later at the Galleria. http://www.londonwebcams.ca/wellington.htm
http://www.deadmalls.com/malls/galleria_london.html

At university, my wife and I would entertain ourselves by walking through the Kitchener store. We didn’t have money to spend there but it was nice to walk through and just look at things. In Kitchener, it was located at the Market Square Shopping Centre. I lived on bus route 8 and she on bus route 7. Both met at Market Square. https://europro.ca/property/market-square/

When I went to the Faculty of Education in Toronto, my roommate and his father both worked at the Eaton Centre downtown in the heart of the city. It was huge! Many floors and thanks to my connections, I learned that there was a whole part of the store that the general public would never see but was there to make the whole thing work. https://www.cfshops.com/toronto-eaton-centre/mall-map.html#/

Eaton Centre recently – the geese are still there!

I’ve never been to the store in Thunder Bay, Sheila, so can’t comment there.

Eaton’s always seemed to up their advertising game close to Christmas.

As we all know, the T. Eaton Company is no longer around. It was a sad ending to a Canadian institution. Often, these stores were the anchor store in a big shopping mall. Shopping has changed and Eaton’s demise was just the beginning – Sears, Simpsons, Zellers, … they’re gone now. The big survivor is The Hudson Bay Company.

Do you have any memories to share?

• I know that the grammar police will be out in force on this post. I’ve done my research – Eaton’s does have an apostrophe but Sears, Simpsons and Zellers don’t. Little help/explanation here?
• What big, big event did Eaton’s sponsor in Toronto annually?
• I can only recall visiting the three stores I’ve listed above. Where else was there an Eaton’s?
• What has replaced Eaton’s in its London, Kitchener, and Toronto locations?
• What colour was the Eaton’s logo?
• What’s your department store of choice these days?
• Is online shopping the writing on the wall?

Do you have any memories of this grand institution? If so, please share in the comments below. (For more information and pictures than you can imagine about Eaton’s, click here.)

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