Eaton

History

Timothy Eaton immigrated in Canada in 1854, and opened a trade with his/her older brother with St Marys, close to Stratford (Ontario), in 1860. In 1869, it succeeds in opening a store of clothes industry on the street Yonge, with Toronto, populeuse city in full expansion. Its slogan “ guaranteed satisfaction or money remis ” the retail business transformed into sizeable profession.

In 1925, it bought the Goodwin store installed since the years 1890 on the Rue Holy-Catherine, with Montreal. This store was increased on six floors in 1927 and to nine in 1930. The company acquired then a store with Regina in 1926, those of Hamilton and Moncton in 1927, Halifax and Saskatoon in 1928, Calgary and Edmonton in 1929 and that of Toronto (street College) in 1930.

It is in 1884 that Eaton revolutionized the retail business in Canada with its innovating system of purchase per catalog. This catalog which was to reach in 1966 the pulling of 17 million, ceased its publication in 1976.

The Québécois nationalists reproached a long time Eaton the absence of services in French and the incapacity of the anglophone saleswomen to speak French. With Montreal, Eaton was found in the middle of the linguistic debate during the Années 1960 and of the bombs of the Front of release of Quebec (FLQ) aimed this symbol of the English domination.

Bankruptcy and reconversion

The chain which controlled almost 60 % of the trade of department store in Canada in 1930, was nothing any more but to one thin 10,6 % in 1997. T. Eaton Co. Limited was placed under the protection of the law in 1997 and liquidated the third of its stores to invest in the reorganization of principal, in particular in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver. The chain went bankrupt in 1999 after 130 years of activities.

September 20th, 1999, Sears Canada announced acquisition for 50 million dollars of all the actions of T. Eaton Company, including eight of its stores and the name Eaton' S. It tested ressusciter vainly the interest of the consumers for this formerly prestigious name. Sears started again seven stores under the banner eatons while being addressed to the top-of-the-range market. But it was a failure and Sears gave up the part on February 18th, 2002.

The store montréalais

Old the Grand store Eaton of Montreal was closed with the autumn 1999. At the summer 2000, the property developer Ivanhoé, subsidiary of the Case of deposit and placement of Quebec, repurchased the building for 34 million dollars. After a reconversion of 100 million dollars, the building reopened in 2002 Office building partially in and partially in a branch of the Wings of the Mode.

Conceived by the architects Ross and Macdonald, the building of Montreal remains a point of interest on the Rue Holy-Catherine. The famous one restoring ninth stage, designed in 1930 by the French Jacques Carlu according to the dining room First class steamer Ile-de-France, recently was restored for the architects Fournier, Gersovitz, Moss and associated and was classified historic site protected at the summer 2000 because of its rich person decoration Art déco and of his furniture of origin.

Random links: