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The Sign Lives On at Consumers Distributing

By Jamie Bradburn

20110420consumers.jpg
Behind the gloss of the Shops at Don Mills, a few office buildings and plazas that haven’t experienced redevelopment still line the southwest quadrant of The Donway. A passing glance at the tenants of 49 The Donway West reveals an exiled anchor of the old Don Mills Centre (Home Hardware), service-based merchants (Cadet Cleaners, The Beer Store), and vacant space temporarily filled by the campaign office of the local Conservative candidate. It’s when you hit the western back corner of the plaza that you encounter one store banner in disbelief: Consumers Distributing. Disbelief, because it’s been 15 years since anyone ordered from a Consumers catalogue.


Consumers Distributing gears up for the 1987 holiday season.

To a kid, the Consumers Distributing catalogue, along with the doorstop Sears dropped on the front step, was like a religious text. One could dream for hours about playing with any of the showcased games, toys, and video systems. Needed to show your parents what you wanted Santa Claus to bring on his sleigh? The catalogue provided a visual guide to pass on to the Jolly Old Elf. Whenever a new catalogue came out, the old one could be hacked up for cut-and-paste school presentations.
From one location that opened in 1957 on a site now occupied by Eglinton West subway station, Consumers Distributing grew to more than 200 stores across Canada and a few south of the border. The model was simple: flip through the catalogue, choose an item, go to a store, fill out a form, and pray the item was in stock. Despite supply-chain hiccups, the model worked for four decades. By the mid-1990s, the combination of the refusal of its foreign owner to inject more money into the business in light of a couple of poor seasons, a new superstore model that didn’t perform to expectations (which included touch-screen computers for ordering), the decline of the catalogue-store business across North America, and competition from Wal-Mart and other new big-box stores caused the chain to go bankrupt. As 1996 closed, so did the last Consumers stores.
20110420consumersdog.jpg
How did this sign survive in pristine condition? Being hidden under a Blockbuster Video sign didn’t hurt. At first glance, the site appears vacant apart from a sign directing customers to a relocated dry cleaner. A small whiteboard with faded writing inside the door reveals the store’s current use as a dog-training facility.
Photos by Jamie Bradburn/Torontoist.

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  • David Toronto

    If ConDisCo came back with the same logistics
    as has WalMart and it was connected to the
    internet for ordering and local pick-up, it
    probably could give WalMart a run for the money.
    They had a lot of grey market merchandise–
    brand names that they imported directly because
    Seiko, Sony et al. didn't want their products
    associated to a discount chain-store operation.

    I was in their headquarters and warehouse
    several years before the end and it was almost
    entirely staffed by South Asians. Russell
    Peters could probably explain the significance
    of that observation.

    I wonder if they ever paid their enormous
    printing bill with Quebecor?

  • http://twitter.com/rockerTFC Rocker

    i too loved that place when I was a kid. at the Sheridan Mall location in Mississauga you would fill out those little paper order sheets, then give it to the clerk, and she would put it in a little plastic cylinder and put it in this air machine that would shoot the order down to the warehouse. Then about 10 minutes later it would rise up the conveyer and they'd call out your name. Wonderful experience.

  • Toronto_Dave

    Wow, I remember Consumers Distributing. The author described my childhood experience perfectly, as I too must have spent hours upon hours studying the toys and games on display.

    The flipside of my memories of Consumers wasn't so rosy. I can recall numerous times that I'd go there and order the toy I wanted, only to suffer the heartbreak from discovering that the item was out of stock.

    So I guess my nostalgia has more to do with the wonders of that catalogue than with anything I ever actually got there.

  • tall_elegant

    I got my first walkman at consumers distributing! A similar concept is alive and well in the UK: http://www.argos.co.uk – you buy your item at electronic terminals at the front of the store, take a number and 5 minutes later you are magically handed a box. very efficient.

  • http://twitter.com/beyondthe_sky_ Christina Peden

    This Consumers is almost literally right across the street from where I grew up as kid. I have many fond memories of going into the store and flipping through the catalogue (and occasionally, convincing my parents to buy me something out of said catalogue), though I too distinctly remember the “out of stock heartbreak” that Toronto Dave mentions above. Ahhh, the memories.

  • http://twitter.com/beyondthe_sky_ Christina Peden

    This Consumers is almost literally right across the street from where I grew up as kid. I have many fond memories of going into the store and flipping through the catalogue (and occasionally, convincing my parents to buy me something out of said catalogue), though I too distinctly remember the “out of stock heartbreak” that Toronto Dave mentions above. Ahhh, the memories.