Following a police investigation into the sudden disappearance of bachelors at 555 Sherbourne Street, two one-bedrooms and a three-bedroom suite were held for questioning. All three were released, though the suite’s kitchen was charged with kidnapping after it was found to be hiding the Loblaws produce department. Based on the evidence in today’s ad, 555 [...]

September 21, 1931: the headlines on all four of Toronto’s daily newspapers reported Great Britain’s suspension of the gold standard. As readers flipped through the pages that day, copies of each paper were being placed in a time capsule incorporated into a new arena rapidly being built on Carlton Street. Eighty years later, construction workers [...]

It’s probably not the first time people have done this. Surely others have camped on the sidewalk outside the Carlton Cash Box, hoping to be first let in the next day. Maybe they were there to see the Beatles, or watch a Stanley Cup game, or marvel at the skating carnival. But today the more [...]

Where pucks once flew 15 feet or more on the ice, shoppers will stare at a 15-foot wall of cheese. Today’s grand opening of the new flagship Loblaws store at Maple Leaf Gardens is a long-awaited step in the repurposing of a Toronto landmark. Along with Ryerson University’s Peter Gilgan Athletic Centre at the Gardens, [...]

Source: the Toronto Star, February 5, 1942. As World War II reached its midpoint in 1942, Canadian consumers increasingly felt the effects of the conflict. Partly out of a desire to free up shipping vessels and materials used in packaging to aid the Allied war effort, food rationing gradually went into effect over the course [...]

Every Saturday at noon, Historicist looks back at the events, places, and characters—good and bad—that have shaped Toronto into the city we know today. Detail from advertisement in the Toronto Star, September 6, 1961. If you were a retailer looking to launch a new department store chain in the early 1960s, the discount market appeared [...]

Every Saturday morning Historicist looks back at the events, places, and characters—good and bad—that have shaped Toronto into the city we know today. Power Supermarket, 1953. City of Toronto Archives, fonds 1257, series 1057, item 496 November 12, 1953: shoppers descended on Danforth Avenue a few doors west of Woodbine to await the grand opening [...]

How does a company celebrate a century in business? If you’re George Weston Limited, you hire a photographer to shoot corporate headquarters at sunrise, just as neighbours in Deer Park get ready to start their day with fine Weston’s or Loblaws products. The 20-storey octagonal Wittington Tower opened in the mid-1970s. Architect Leslie Rebanks won [...]

…unless you’re a vegetarian. Ziggys Fantastic Foods was a chain of gourmet deli/specialty food shops around the GTA, located in stand-alone locations and within Loblaws stores as part of the grocer’s revitalization attempt in the mid-1970s. Their prices were considered high—when complaints of price jumps of up to 89% after the conversion of Loblaws’ Yonge [...]

Have you asked yourself recently “Hey, what happened to the “s” in my local Loblaw’s sign?” If so, you probably live in Toronto or Collingwood and are curiously attentive to detail. The missing “s” comes as Loblaw Corporation, parent company of Loblaw’s grocery chain, tries out a rebrand at three of their stores. Two of [...]

Toronto principal in controversial controversy over explicit poems he wrote and posted to his website. This is of course the first recorded case ever of somebody getting in trouble for something they wrote on the Internet, and the scandal has sent shock waves through the online community. “Wait, somebody actually reads this shit?” said Patrick [...]