 | |
| Industry | Discount department store |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1960 |
| Defunct | 1991 |
| Fate | Converted to the Zellers name |
| Parent | Towers Mart 1960-1963 Allied Towers Merchants Limited 1963–1967 Oshawa Group 1967–1991 |
Towers, operating as Bonimart in Quebec, was a Canadian discount department store chain owned by the Oshawa Group, a now-defunct grocery retailer and distributor. [1]
Towers Marts began as a New York-based chain. The first Canadian store was opened on November 15, 1960 in Scarborough, Ontario (at the corner of Lawrence Ave. East and Midland Ave). [2] In March 1962, a group of Towers concessionaires incorporated as Allied Towers Merchants Ltd. [3] After Towers Marts went bankrupt in 1963, Allied Towers Merchants Ltd., purchased the 13 Canadian stores, initially acquiring only 43% of the outstanding shares and eventually getting full control of these Towers stores. [3]
In Quebec, the chain traded as Towers in the 1960s. The name was changed to Bonimart in April 1971, starting with the stores in the Greater Montreal, as part of a program by owner Oshawa Group to promote the French character among its subsidiaries in the province. [4]
Each department within Towers stores operated as a licensed concession. Some Towers/Bonimart stores offered services such as restaurants, photo labs, and pharmacies within the store. Some stores were also paired with an IGA or Food City grocery store.
In October 1990, Towers/Bonimart's 51 stores were purchased by Hudson's Bay Company which intended to merge them with its Zellers subsidiary. [5] One store was transferred to The Bay and four others were going to be sold or closed. [6] The transaction was met with strong opposition from the New York-based F. W. Woolworth Company (owner of the Woolco stores in Canada) which also wanted to purchase the chain. [5]
In April 1991, 47 of the Towers/Bonimart stores were rebranded with the Zellers banner. [7] [8] The remaining stores held closeout sales under their original name, some of them lasting until the fall of 1991. While ownership of the Towers name is unclear, the Bonimart trademark is the property of Sobeys, the successor of the Oshawa Group. [9]
Towers' mascot was an animated squirrel named Sparky. At the time of the Zellers buyout, print ads featured Sparky arm-in-arm with Zellers' bear mascot, Zeddy.
Zellers was a Canadian discount store chain founded by Walter P. Zeller in 1931. It was acquired by the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) in 1978, and after a series of acquisitions and expansions, peaked with 350 locations in 1999. However, fierce competition and an inability to adapt during the early stages of the retail apocalypse resulted in Zellers losing significant ground in the 2000s.
Sobeys Inc. is a national supermarket chain in Canada with over 1,500 stores operating under a variety of banners. Headquartered in Stellarton, Nova Scotia, it operates stores in all ten provinces and accumulated sales of more than C$25.1 billion in the fiscal 2019 operating year. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Empire Company Limited, a Canadian business conglomerate.
Dominion was a national chain of supermarkets in Canada, which was known as the Dominion of Canada when the chain was founded. The chain was founded in 1919 in Ontario and was later acquired by the Argus Corporation. It was broken up in the mid-1980s, with key locations and the rights to the brand sold to The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company (A&P), which restricted the chain to the Greater Toronto Area. Stores elsewhere in Ontario were converted to the A&P banner, and others were sold to third parties. A&P's Canadian division was later acquired by Metro Inc., which rebranded the remaining Dominion stores to its namesake banner in 2008.
The Oshawa Group was once a leading owner of supermarkets in Ontario, Canada. It was bought by Sobeys in 1998. The company was based in Etobicoke and traded on the Toronto and Montreal stock exchanges.
Farm Boy Inc. is a Canadian specialty food retailer operating in the province of Ontario. The company is based in Ottawa, Ontario. Since 2018, the company is majority owned by the Sobeys grocery chain's parent company, Empire Company Ltd.
Bayshore Shopping Centre is a major shopping mall located in the Nepean district of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The mall is one of the busiest in the National Capital Region as it attracts almost 8 million visitors per year from across the city and the surrounding region. It is the second largest shopping mall in the National Capital Region. It is anchored by Hudson's Bay, a combined Winners/HomeSense store and Walmart Supercentre.
Walmart Canada is a Canadian retail corporation, discount retailer and the Canadian subsidiary of the U.S.-based multinational retail conglomerate Walmart. Headquartered in Mississauga, Ontario, it was founded on March 17, 1994, with the purchase of the Woolco Canada chain from the F. W. Woolworth Company.
The Elms is a neighbourhood in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is bordered by the Humber River to the east, Islington Avenue to the west, Thistletown to the north, and Highway 401 to the south.
Erin Mills Town Centre is a shopping mall located in Erin Mills, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, at the corner of Erin Mills Parkway and Eglinton Avenue West. It is the second largest mall in Mississauga after Square One Shopping Centre. The mall can be accessed from the 401, 403, and 407 series highways. Erin Mills Town Centre Bus Terminal is located directly at the back of the mall.
Laurier Québec is one of Canada's largest shopping malls. It is located in Quebec City, Quebec.
The Queensway–Humber Bay, known officially as Stonegate–Queensway, is a neighbourhood in the southwest of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located in the southeast area of the former City of Etobicoke.
Hazeldean Mall is a shopping centre located in the Kanata district of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is located at the intersection of Eagleson Road and Hazeldean Road, where Hazeldean Road turns into Robertson Road. It was the first enclosed shopping centre constructed in Kanata. The development of the mall was approved shortly before the incorporation of the (then) City of Kanata, and its approval led to a legal battle between the constituent parts of the new municipality over the appropriate location of what would at that time be the new city's main commercial hub.
Cedarbrae Mall is a shopping mall in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located at the corner of Markham Road and Lawrence Avenue East in the Scarborough district. In terms of size, Cedarbrae Mall may be the eighty-ninth largest shopping mall in Canada with a floor area of 548,000 sq ft (50,911 m2). It is anchored by No Frills and Canadian Tire.
Target Canada Co. was a short-lived Canadian subsidiary of the Target Corporation, the eighth-largest retailer in the United States. Formerly headquartered in Mississauga, Ontario, the subsidiary formed with the acquisition of Zellers store leases from the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) in January 2011. Target Canada opened its first store in March 2013, and by January 2015 was operating 133 locations throughout Canada. Its main competition included Walmart Canada, Loblaws, Shoppers Drug Mart, and Canadian Tire.
This is a list of small shopping centres in the island of Montreal.
Les Promenades de Sorel is a 360,000 square feet (33,000 m2) shopping mall located in Sorel-Tracy, Quebec. Its anchor stores are Walmart, Maxi and Bureau en Gros, and it has a total of 51 tenants. Long a Westcliff shopping centre, it is now managed by the Brossard-based Cogir real estate company. Ever since the conversion of Place Sorel as a strip mall and the demolition of Plaza Tracy in the 2000s, Promenades de Sorel is the sole remaining indoor mall in the city.
Bridlewood Mall is a neighbourhood shopping centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It serves the L'Amoreaux neighbourhood in the Scarborough district of Toronto. Its anchors include Shoppers Drug Mart, Dollarama, Metro, and Yours Food Mart.
| Current holdings |
| ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Former holdings |
| ||||
| History |
| ||||
| Related topics | |||||
