I recently stumbled across this Christmas time ad from 1962.
11 locations listed there. When they were acquired in 1995 by Shoppers Drug Mart, there were 135 locations across south western Ontario.
1939
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An interesting read of the locations…most of them made it to the end of Big V’s existence–but were abandoned by SDM in the first few years after the buyout. I grew up in Hamilton which was probably Big V’s other big market (though HQ ended up in London)–the stores always had a very “different” feel than other pharmacy chains–heavily stocked, narrow-aisles and carpeting, which always added to that “hushed” feeling.
I notice that the stores all had different names. Was Big V a distributor in the same way as Rexall?
Sweet, flash bulbs! I remember those but in the smaller cube form.
Doug yes it was a disributor.
Big V started right here in Windsor. Another great idea started in Windsor and then screwed up by outsiders. I gotta agree with JT all the way especially with the gross SDM’s. I now happily go to a local pharmacy.
A true Windsor success story as this company was was born through the affiliation of seven (I think) local pharmacists and eventually grew to the point where the competition needed to acquire the chain…
It’s interesting to note that that ad depicts the transition from 5-digit to 7-digit dialing.
I miss Big V !!! Thanks for posting this!!! Yup 1995 they were done!
Bought my son’s last pair of diapers there…
Andrew remember Valdies? was it spelt like that? Valdie’s i dont know how to spell it…..it was located where the block busters is now on Tec.W? & it another one located on Dougall?
I remember them bulbs! Thought they were the coolest!! when 1 burnt out you knew how many more pictures you could take !! haaaaaaaa I loved the sound it made…just like a crisp haaaa
In the beginning several local pharmacists banded together so that they could get bettter buying power. They had a warehouse on Tecumseh Road East, the building which is still standing across from the Daimler dealership. The rule was that only pharmacists could be owners of the chain. As the chain picked up momentum across Ontario London became the most central location to service the province. One by one, pharmacists did join until the early 1990s. The reason that Big V eventually capitulated to Shoppers was because the business strucure operated much like a pyramid. When the original owners were ready for retirement no one could afford to buy them out at the price they felt they were warranted. Shoppers indeed wanted them out of the way because their neighbourhood model was effectively putting the hurt on them (they located in malls and plazas only). The deal was done and Shoppers proceeded to thin them out. Funny thing is that Shoppers is now moving toward the neighbourhood model. So is Rexall. The struggle continues.
If my memory serves me right CL stood for Clearwater exchange ?? The BV on Ouellette was named Ponds Big V, if again my memory serves me..some days it doesn’t!
I remember the BigV on Seminole and George. It’s still open as a shoppers, but as more and more of those ginormous Shoppers stores open around it I worry that it won’t be around much longer.
Ok, this may be a dumb question but…what does the ‘V’ in BigV stand for? Anyone know?
Good question… I think the “V” was someone’s name… The first letter of the founder’s last name maybe?
Last year I stumbled upon a Big V logo on the back door of a former location in downtown Kitchener – one of the last traces of the chain? The Shoppers it was converted to moved to a new location a few blocks north around the time the picture was taken.
It’s too bad that SDM is going back to the “neighbourhood” drug store concept and building gigantic 20,000 square foot stores that don’t fit into any neighbourhood. In 15 years when they want to move on to a new location we’ll be stuck with this ugly gray, red and beige building.
hez – I’ve heard through the grapevine (hopefully it’s not true) that the Seminole /George and Wyandotte/St. Louis stores may close when the new store on Wyandotte near Pillette is completed soon.
Big Value.
Randolph – I heard that the new monster near Pilette is replacing the Wyandotte/St. Louis location. Not sure about the Seminole one.
Great find Andrew. As a child I used to visit the Riverside Pharmacy. The address shown (1300 Wyandotte Street East) reflects the fact that it was still in the town of Riverside then.
I heard the Shoppers on Seminloe is closing.Also the one at Rivard is closing and moving to Westminister & Techumseh. So 3 are closing and 2 large ones are opening.The one at Rivard is almost empty inside as I was there yesterday !!!!
Well the era of the one in Riverside is about to change, it will be moving to a much larger one on the site of the old Royale Tavern in July.
I have heard rumor that they will be relocating the smaller Tim Hortons from accross the street to this site, I hope to hell they don’t permit a drive thru in it.
They will be moving a Tim Horton’s to the Wyandotte/St. Louis site and it most likely will come equipped with a drive-thru.
I miss the local Big V too, Lilly. They gave out great yearly calendars with pockets for receipts to be collected inside: madly practical. They also had good products, albeit somewhat overpriced. Still liked shopping there back in the day. Ah, memories.
I used to work at the Pillette/Tecumseh location in the mid 80’s. I drove a ‘Big V’ branded Chevy Chevette, delivering prescriptions.
LILLY – I believe it was ‘Valdy’s’ and there was one at Tecumseh & Jefferson as well.
MIKE — you can bet there will be a drive-thru. They wouldn’t bother relocating if a DT wasn’t part of the deal. Tim Horton’s wants 60-75% of sales to come from the drive-thru so it would have to be a VERY special circumstance for them to build a non-DT store. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a double-DT (like the Jefferson/Queen Elizabeth location) exiting to St.Louis. Hopefully it’s just a rumour…
I’m almost sure it was “Valdi’s”….I remember the location on Tecumseh West from my childhood. It featured smaller than usual grocery carts and an unusually funky smell.
It was straight up just called “Valdi” (a portmanteau of Value and Discount)…it was a Steinberg-owned chain, a discount cousin to Steinberg’s larger Miracle Food Mart chain.
The original drugstores that co-operated to start the Big V chain were Bryson’s and Patterson’s, both on Sandwich Street, at the corner and just west of Mill. I think there may have been a third partner but those are the stores I remember ’cause I was in them weekly with my parents.
“CL” was, indeed, “Clearwater” and became “25” just as “Yorktown” (YO) became “96”.
“Valdi” was a new store as far as I’m concerned. I hadn’t actually realized it was gone if it is! Don’t think I was ever in one.
In town last Saturday, I went by Sandwich and Mill for the first time in awhile and was amused to see an “IDA” drugstore in what was a “new” Shopper’s while the “newer” Shopper’s building sits vacant, I believe. There was a “new” CIBC (now also closed, I think) on the northeast corner to which the bank branch moved from their original location on the northwest. It seems to me that buildings and businesses used to last longer!
I seem to remember a Valdi on Dougall, just south of the Zehr’s.
Valdi was very discount. Almost like a Costco today where you could buy in bulk (ie. cases of soup, pasta sauce, juice etc). I don’t even think yoiu could get bags for the groceries. You either received boxes at tend of the check-out or brought your own boxes or bags.
If I remember correctly there wasn’t even produce.
The only thing I remember about going to Valdi’s is going there on a regular basis for a 1 pound bag of Garfield spicy nacho chips with a picture of Garfield sporting a sombraro. Whatever happened to that nacho brand?
Big V was a Windsor success story. It was founded in 1964 when seven local independent pharmacists joined forces to stave off the threatening competition from the discount chainstores which were opening pharmacy departments. By merging forces the local druggists could match the purchasing power and advertising budgets of the giants. Under the banner of Big_V and a logo of a crusader bunny, the alliance, had grown to 135 stores in Ontario when it was sold to Shoppers Drug for $243 million in 1995. Big-V was owned by the member pharmacists and associates. A founder once told me there was an unnamed eigtht druggist in the original group but he decided to drop-out before the alliance was formed. Wonder what he thought, years later, about walking away from a share in an organization that became worth a quarter billion dollars?
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.
My father was one of the original ” founding Fathers” of Big V. Someone asked what the V stood for. Well, the person who answered “Value” was correct….sort of. In the business it stood for value but when naming the company the story I was always told growing up was that my dad was a big fan of Sir Winston Churchill’s and his slogan during the war was “V for Victory”. Well, they wanted to be victorious in the drug store business. I think they achieved what they set out to do. People still tell me ” I wish those Big V stores were still around”. All I can answer is ” So do I”.
My very first job was at Westown Big V. I loved everything about it. There was a discount on merchandise, a great discount on prescriptions,they had contests all year long, and a great party at the end. Mr Sweetman was one of the original 7 owners, and he was a sweet as his name. What a wonderful experience for a first job…..
I was in a SDM just recently picking up some aspirins.15 minutes later I finally checked out.I am sick of going to a ” drug store ” only to wait in line while the rest of Windsor buys groceries. I’m not talking about paper towels and kleenex and dish soap, I’m talking frozen fish , produce, eggs and milk etc. If you they want sell these items then fine but at least open another checkout so that aspirin buyers like myself don’t have to burn 15 minutes of their lives at SDM….And by the way A little speedier and friendlier service overall at the checkout would’nt kill ’em either. Bring back Big V.
People seem to think convenenice, one stop shopping, is worth the higher food prices charged by SDM. Compare their food prices to regular grocery stores, (their not cheap but better than SDM). The last line in your post is needed at all retail stores, more freindly SERVICE. FIVE CENTS for a bag BS.
To their credit, SDM was open at 4am Sunday when I needed scripts filled from the E.R. doc!
Convenience ??? Not when you wait 15 minutes for aspirin. Next time I’ll pay the extra buck and go to Macs.
Also …I find it strangely amusing that some peolpe at SDM have their cart loaded to the max with pop chips and bacon and the last item to check out is Zantac or blood pressure meds.A unique way for SDM to drum up repeat customers.Provide people with crap to plug them up and then sell them meds. to un plug ’em.
Why does it say 1300 Wyandotte St. E at Reedmere? Wyandotte and Reedmere is not the 1300 block of Wyandotte St. E. It’s the 5700 block. The rest of them seem to be at, or very near the proper cross street.
The 1300 Wyandotte St. adress was one of the original B V stores located in Riversid before annexation in 1965. I think the original owner was Tony Cerncich (spelling may not be correct) the small store is sstill there, another buisness now.
Does anyone remember a restaurant called the Hob Nob. I think it was in the back of the Big V on the corner of Ouellette and Park in Windsor. I worked there in the late 1960’s
Looking for any info you may have
My husband Michael was the exclusive printer for Big V Pharmacies. Their shop still has copies of every printed piece.
Just some examples for trivia include: original artwork for the Crusader, banners, shelftalkers, price tags, Pandora gift tags etc.
Still located and operating in Windsor for over 60 years! Proud to have been a part og Big V!!