Mark this date down. I discovered when it is that Windsorites decided that big box shopping was way better than supporting the local shops.
It’s been going on for 40 years. However 40 years ago, those stores still stocked items made in this country. Now I realize, that many jobs have moved overseas and they’re never coming back. At least the best we can do is buy those Chinese made goods at a local business, rather that saving .60 cents by buying at Wal-Mart.
From the Windsor Star – September 3, 1968:
Now in contrast to the old here is the new type of shopping centre – typical of today’s design in building and with spacious parking areas nearby.
While today’s shopping may seem more impersonal, the experience is a thrill for most shoppers because of the vast array of merchandise and the convenience offered the customer.
The photo taken at Eastown, the big centre at Tecumseh and Lauzon.
This type of centre is the new general store.
This was the secound Woolco in Windsor. I was transferred to this one from the original store at Gateway Plaza to help get it ready for the Grand Opening. It and the N&D grocery store competed directly with K-Mart and the Dominion grocery store (I think it was a Dominion) across the street (Lauzon Rd). In February 1968, I bought a brand new ’68 Mustang for $2800.00. By the time this picture was taken, I (and the Mustang) had moved on. Good times!
I heard that this building is supposed to be demolished for a hotel next year. Is that correct?
I wouldn’t hold my breath…
MY Mom worked there in the late ’70s until about 1981. I remember her buying me my shoes there. The “new” general store…hardly.
Forgot to add. I wouldn’t hold your breath either. We know that Eddie, his minions and financial backers (who will profit from all of the surrounding land) want a hotel there, another “urban” village but with today’s credit market, slowing economy (dead in Windsor. hey Eddie how about combating that crisis?) I doubt the hotel will be built any time soon.
Besides, once people actually try to have games there and they can’t watch their kids play for lack of seating people won’t want any tournament there afterwards.
Lack of seating? Brister said this was just a case of “growing pains”. Get with the program, man! LOL.
The first of the “big box”, discount stores was Sentry, the anchor for Dorwin Plaza, erected in the mid to late fifties. It was replaced by a Dominion store and is now the location of Windsor.s first Value Village. I was at the grand opening of the Sentry store, a really big deal. I have an autographed copy of a Carmel Quinn LP of Irish songs purchased that evening when the artist was in attendance. Sentry was ahead of K Mart, Woolco and the much enlarged Zeller’s. I assume you know that Zellers was originall y a Mo, and Pop dry goods store on the west side of Ouellette Avenue?
i used to go there a lot. was always a toss up between there and the k-mart across the street. very similar stores, yet they both stayed open for many years. i miss those days. life was more simple. i ended up working at zellers in tecumseh mall which was my first paying job back around 1984, but never liked it much.
I remembery Sentry as well, except that it was in the present day Food Basics. Dominion was in the present day Value Village (I have a 60s photo showing this), but at one point Dominion moved into the present day Bingo hall at the far south end of the plaza before closing altogether.
This building is stil Leased by Walmart Corp for a few more years, and is storage for old equipment from both Walmarts in the City. The outside of this building is looking not so great now, but from what I understand the inside is perfect for storage area, as its perfect climate controled building. Maybe the city should invest in a place like this for storage of some of there old stuff that they want to be saved, as this would make perfect for keeping artifacts.
If people didn’t like this somehow, all these stores would have closed and everyone would still go to the corner shop for biscuits. It’s too late now anyway, these stores are not going away, at least some of them. There is a glut of retail big box in North America, because of overbuilding and such. Just read an article on CNN about life after a Walmart closes. The stores are converted into community centers, churches, etc. I imagine you could have quite a few basketball courts in there, daycare, etc. Maybe even put a pool in. Not much profit in that though….
Didn’t the Walmart on Tecumseh Rd just build additional store room and warehouse space to their existing building to deal with the overflow? I think it was built this year in anticipation of dumping the Woolco building by next year. I suspect that the Woolco blg will be demo’d by next year and probably end up being another useless parking lot for many more years to come.
Speaking of shopping does anyone remember the catalogue shopping in Windsor where you go in and they would have catalogues and you would fill out a slip and then they would retrieve your merchandise from the warehouse in the back. I think the stores were called consumers distributing. I’m pretty sure one of the buildings is still standing on Huron Church and is occupied by Columbia Sportswear.
Does anyone know if any of these are still operatinng elsewhere?
Consumers Distributing it was indeed, Guido. There was one on the east side of the 2400’ish block of Dougall as well. You browsed the catalog, filled out the form, stood in line, got the counter, waiting for the clerk to return and tell you the item you wanted is out of stock. I think that nonsense is what helped run them out of business in the mid ’90s.
Wrote about this Woolco a few years ago:
http://www.psychogeography.ca/blog/archives/00000031.htm
I remember my mom taking me here when I as a kid too. Followed by a stop at N&D to round out the trip.
I find the ad interesting…”While today’s shopping may seem more impersonal, the experience is a thrill for most shoppers because of the vast array of merchandise and the convenience offered the customer.” The loss of personal interaction was recognized even back then but apparently not considered overly important, a welcome sacrifice for “convenience”.
I wish I would have known the city before the ‘big box effect’ started.
I worked at the Zehr’s on Dougall when Consumers closed. Must have been 1991 or 1992.
Zehr’s bought the land and tore it down. The Zehr’s gas bar sits on the Consumer’s land today.
I forgot about the one on Huron Church.
honestly, that had to have been the dumbest set up for a retail store ever.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumers_Distributing
Also, kinda cool link… not Grade A web authoring but a quick fun browse down memory lane and back again – http://www.moonie.ca/glenap/cd/cd.html
Many folks remember when the LCBO operated much like a Consumers Distributing — but with added Protestant Ontario shame of getting your booze in a brown paper bag.
Interesting wikipedia link. Many former locations in New York and New Jersey, 3 former locations in Windsor, but not a single location across the river anywhere in the State of Michigan. Did K-Mart and Hudson’s overwhelm the whole Detroit retail scene?
I don’t know if the old Woolco and Kmart even compare to Walmart. Don’t forget that downtown Windsor still had a thriving retail base in the 70’s and 80’s. People went to places like Woolco and Kmart to buy cheap clothes and appliances, but if you wanted the latest styles, your best bet was downtown. The big-box stores remind me more of the giant, government-owned stores that operated in socialist countries before the fall of Communism than Kmart or Woolco.
Consumers Distributing reminds me of what M & M Meats does now, although with M & M the wait is pretty minimal to get your stuff.
Interesting website, John. Yes it’s veeeeerrrrrryyy basic, but it gets the point across. The guy who set up that site should have omitted the captions attached to the pictures, and gotten rid of at least half of the “rectal exam” references. Its funny how a man could walk around confidently back then in white shorts, tounging bears and wearing polka dotted shirts, but I digress.
I used to pick out my Christmas presents in the Consumer’s catalogue every year, then my mom would probably end up going to Zellers or K Mart to get the presents. I went into consumers once with her, and even as a child found it bizarre that you couldn’t just go back there and get the stuff yourself ; )
If I were alive back then, and writing for the Star, I would have described the place as “A department store with no departments”. But hey, give the guy credit, it was the 60s, man.
Thanks Andrew for the Wiki link I never even thought to check that.
On the states side they had something similar to consumers and they were called Service Merchandise also bankrupt.
Here is the Wiki link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Service_merchandise
I agree that going to Consumers was a pain but the catalogue… oh it was so much fun to plan out what you wanted for your birthday…
I am surpraised they have not knocked this building down it has been sitting vacant for years.
It’s funny when you drive by this location now that it looks the same as it did 40 years ago.
I never really liked Woolco even as a kid. It seemed dirtier and crappier than either Kmart or Zellers.
I remember well the dissapointment of Consumer’s Distributing never having your item in stock. That’s the store that makes me think of the Eastern Block: fill out paperwork; wait in long line; present paperwork to surly clerk; go home empty handed.
Okay, yes this was an early big-box retail location, and yes, it was the beginning of the end. But you’re forgetting, that if you looked just to the right of this photo, you would have seen the East town N&D. That was one of the last locally owned grocery stores in the city; certainly one of the most personal settings for grocery shopping that I’ve ever seen. So yes, big box, but not neccessarily bad big box.. as much of an oxymoron as that is. But still, a wonderful grocery store.
And as for shopping downtown for haute couture for those who snubbed Wolco and Kmart, you’re forgetting that Kresge’s was downtown for ages. Even I remember that location from when I was a kid in the late ’80’s. Downtown was a broad mix of everything then, we all know that. It certainly wasn’t a pricey, chic venue; if we ever go that way, you know we’ll be just as doomed as we are with the booze barns.
We need to have a thread on N&D. It was really an institution. I grew up in South Windsor. Did the Easttown location have Steve the sucker man too? Remember how they actually had baggers and how they would take the groceries to your car? Pre-scanners — the cashiers actually had to ring in the prices…
I worked a Dominion store from 1974 to 1983. Hollenger Enterprises bought out the chain back in 1978 and diverted all of Dominion store profits to their Algoma Steel Co. holdings. Thus selling the chain to A&P after all the money was gone. Hollenger enterprise was run by Conrad and Montague Black. In the first year of the purchase of the Dominion store chain, they had big plans for that paricular store at Tecumseh Mall. They were going to expand that store by building a huge Super-store right in front of the old one taking up most of that parking lot. My Union stuart informed me that all our job were safe and we had nothing to worry about. We were all duped and the Chain was sold in 1983.