Eaton's

Eaton's was once Canada's largest department store retailer. Founded in Toronto by Timothy Eaton, an Irish immigrant, in 1869, Eaton's first advertisement read "We propose to sell our goods for CASH ONLY – In selling goods, to have only one price." In an era where haggling for goods was commonplace, this was a revolutionary business practice.

Early Years

1869 was the middle of the reign of Queen Victoria, and the nation of Canada was in its infancy (Confederation having occurred only two years previously). It was in this year that Timothy Eaton sold his interest in a small dry-goods store in the little market town of St. Marys, Ontario and bought a dry-goods and haberdashery business at 178 Yonge Street, south of Queen Street West, in the rapidly growing city of Toronto. On December 8, 1869, an advertisement ran in The Globe for the new ?T. Eaton & Co.?, promoting ?sound goods, good styles and good value?.

Related Topics:
Confederation - St. Marys, Ontario - Yonge Street - Queen Street West - December 8 - The Globe

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The first store was only 24 by 60 feet in size (7.3 by 18.3 metres), 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, staff consisted of ?two men, a woman and a boy?, with Timothy Eaton responsible for buying the goods to stock the store. Expectations were low that a store with a no credit and no haggling policy would succeed.

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Nonetheless, the business prospered, and its growth matched the rapid growth of Toronto in the late 19th century. When further expansion of the existing store became impossible, Timothy Eaton moved his business 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 light-well 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 (although only customers ?going up? were invited to use the elevator, thus requiring them to pass by the various store displays on their walk down).

Related Topics:
19th century - 1883 - Telephone - 1885 - 1886

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Despite the move to 190 Yonge Street, Timothy 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. As both businesses expanded into retail chains across Canada, the Eaton?s/Simpson?s rivalry was at one time as central to Canadian retailing as the Macy?s/Gimbel?s competition was to New York City?s retail history. 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.

Related Topics:
1884 - Robert Simpson - Simpson?s - Macy?s - Gimbel?s - New York City

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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 the various Eaton?s operations numbered 17,500 in 1911. In 1919, the golden jubilee of the store, the Eaton?s buildings in Toronto contained a floor space of over 60 acres, and occupied several city blocks between Yonge Street and Bay Street, north of Queen Street West.

Related Topics:
1896 - 1911 - 1919 - Bay Street

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