Eaton's
Former flagship store in downtown Toronto during demolition (1977); it would be replaced by a larger store within the Toronto Eaton Centre | |
| Eaton's | |
| Industry | Retail |
| Genre | Department stores |
| Founded | 1869 |
| Founder | Timothy Eaton |
| Defunct | 2002 |
| Fate | Bankruptcy and acquisition by Sears Canada |
| Successor | Sears Canada |
| Headquarters | Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
Number of locations |
|
Area served | Canada |
Key people | |
Number of employees | 70,000 |
| Parent | Sears Canada (1999–2002) |
The T. Eaton Company Limited, later known as Eaton's, 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.
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."