Big V

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• David - wow I completely forgot about the Garfield nacho chips, great memory from my childhood!

• Okay one more comment about Big V, They treated their employees right, one of the perks was stock options , when it was sold to Shoppers many long time employees made a substantial amount on their shares.

  Another thing shortly after the purchase I did a phone survey for Shoppers, I basically stated to them that they took the Big V's and applied the Shoppers concept to them when they should have been applying the same Big V concept to existing Shoppers. Well I believe the statement had some effect because they did indeed phase in subtle changes that make Shoppers and enjoyable place to shop at today.

• The "V" in Big V was to recognize the "Victory" sign from WW2. It was used in various ways like Value. I worked for Big V for over 16 years until we sought a purchaser which was SDM. Big V was a great company, great people, great philosphy. What we did the BEST was make everyone (customers, employees, vendors,etc.) feel whatever we did was the BEST. And it worked. Beautifully. Amazing!

• Valdi stores where small off brand merchandice,one size of each product, no meat or vegtables, no milk or dairy products.They had three locatins in Windsor, the Dougal Rd. store lasted longest, under private ownership.
  There is a chain based in Germany that operates around the world with a similar name, it has packaged meat, vegtables, and dairy products. They are in the Detroit area, but not in Ontario yet.
  Maybe Stienburg tried to copy their idea, he tried to copy the French hypermart.

• Somebody asked what the "V" stood for - it was for Value, as for the stores having different names - Riverside Big V - Hoffman Big V - etc., the first name was for the original name of the store, before they all got together - was a great place to work, paid there employees well..

• Hi,
  I have a Coca Cola bag that was given out by Big V do you think people collect Big V items.

• I started working at Westdale Big V in Hamilton in 1984.Started as a delivery guy,then moved to working inside.After 5 years,wnt to Ralph Big V in Dundas as receiver.5 years later,moved on to Wilson Big V in Burlington as a section co-ordinator.It was a sad day when Shoppers took over.The Big V office treated us great.Shoppers-blah.
  Strange coincidence,my cousin's brother in law was Norm Puhl-Big v President.

• Two individuals started the first Big V in the town of Tecumseh on Riverside Dr. near Lesperance. They were located right next door to Redmond's Texaco. One of the owners first name was Vince. I don't know if the V in the name had anything to do with his name.

• In addition to the above info, this was approx. 1959. I was their first delivery boy.

• My Mom was a pharmacist for Big V for about 15 years, 20 if you count the time she trained at one of the originals before Big V existed (was Maxwell's pharmacy - a family friend Peg Maxwell was one of the first pharmacists to belong to the chain). V was supposed to stand for value, although as teenagers we got a kick out of calling it the Big VD store.