Eaton's
The T. Eaton Company Limited, later known as Eaton's and then Eaton, was a Canadian department store chain that was once the largest in the country. It was founded in 1869 in Toronto by Timothy Eaton, an immigrant from what is now Northern Ireland. Eaton's grew to become a retail and social institution in Canada, with stores across the country, buying-offices around the globe, and a mail-order catalog that was found in the homes of most Canadians. A changing economic and retail environment in the late twentieth century, along with mismanagement, culminated in the chain's bankruptcy in 1999.
Trade name | Eaton's |
|---|---|
| Company type | Private (1869–1998) Public (1998–1999) |
| Industry | Retail (department store) |
| Founded | 1869 |
| Founder | Timothy Eaton |
| Defunct | 1999 as a company 2002 as a brand |
| Fate | Filed for bankruptcy; assets were purchased by Sears Canada in 1999. Stores converted to Sears stores or shut down in 2002. |
| Successor | Sears Canada |
| Headquarters | Toronto, Ontario (with stores across Canada) |
Key people | Timothy Eaton John Craig Eaton John David Eaton |
Number of employees | 70,000 |
Eaton's pioneered several retail innovations. In an era when haggling for goods was the norm, the chain proclaimed "We propose to sell our goods for CASH ONLY – In selling goods, to have only one price." In addition, it had the long-standing slogan "Goods Satisfactory or Money Refunded."