Simpsons (department store) — BrandWiki

Simpsons (department store)

Overview

The Robert Simpson Company Ltd.

type	Subsidiary
fate	Converted to The Bay
predecessor	Simpson & Trent (1858–1870)
successor	The Bay
foundation	(as R. Simpson, Dry Goods)
founder	Robert Simpson
defunct	August 14, 1991
location city	Toronto, Ontario
location country	Canada
parent	Hudson's Bay Company (1978–1991)
area served	Canada
industry	Retail
products	Clothing, footwear, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, appliances, housewares, tools, and electronics

The Robert Simpson Company Limited, commonly known as Simpson's until 1972, then as Simpsons, and in Quebec sometimes as Simpson, was a Canadian department store chain that had its earliest roots in a store opened in 1858 by Robert Simpson.[1]

In 1952, Simpson's started a 50–50 joint venture in Canada named Simpsons-Sears Limited (later Sears Canada) with Sears, Roebuck, the American retailer. Simpsons-Sears stores remained distinct from the Simpson's stores and the parent companies' agreement included language to keep them from competing too directly with each other.

The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) purchased the Simpsons-branded stores in 1978, but they were later converted to The Bay stores by the early 1990s. As part of the 1978 agreement, American-based Sears acquired full ownership of Simpsons-Sears Limited.

History

Robert Simpson's original store (Simpson & Bogart after 1861), was opened in 1858 in Newmarket, Ontario at what is now 226-228 Main Street South (original building since demolished).[2]

Simpsons-Sears

In 1952, General Robert E. Wood, the Chairman of U.S. retailer Sears, Roebuck and Co., sent a letter to Edgar G. Burton, President of the Robert Simpson Company of Toronto, proposing a partnership between their two companies in order to serve the Canadian market. The deal to create Simpsons-Sears Limited, a Canadian catalogue and department store chain separate from the Simpsons chain, was signed on September 18, 1952, and the terms were 50-50. Each company put up $20 million and had equal representation on the new company's board of directors. The new company was to have two main objectives. The first was to expand Simpsons' existing mail-order business, which was sold to the new company. The second goal was to build a string of stores modelled on Sears, Roebuck's format right across the country.

The agreement also contained a provision that would prove to be a major bone of contention in the coming years. Under its terms, Simpsons-Sears could not open a retail store within 25 miles of Simpson's existing stores in Toronto, Montreal, Halifax, Regina and London. In return, Simpson's promised not to build any stores outside of those five cities. Simpsons-Sears mail-order business, however, was free to operate anywhere in Canada, and so was the new Simpsons-Sears Acceptance Company, the credit arm of the operation.

The business operations of Simpsons-Sears began when the first Simpsons-Sears Spring/Summer Catalogue rolled off the presses of Photo-Engravers and Electrotypers, Ltd. and were delivered to 300,000 Canadian homes in early 1953.

On Thursday, September 17, 1953, the first Simpsons-Sears retail store opened in Stratford, Ontario at 9:15 a.m. The second Simpsons-Sears store opened in Kamloops, B.C., in December of that year.

In the 1960s, Simpson's was among the first 10 Canadian companies to start using computers in all their locations, and programming was done in Toronto and Montreal by accounting clerks, many of whom were women. Enormous rooms with special ventilation were built to house IBM punch card mainframe machines in those two locations.

In 1972, Simpsons and Simpsons-Sears agreed to end the 25-mile restriction and permit Simpsons and Simpsons-Sears stores anywhere. The following year, when Simpsons-Sears opened a store in the city of Mississauga, approximately 30 km west of Toronto, the company decided to use the Sears name alone in order to prevent confusion with Simpsons stores operating in Toronto.

Acquisition by the Hudson's Bay Company

In 1978, the Hudson's Bay Company acquired Simpsons and federal competition law required the partnership to terminate, thus Simpsons and Simpsons-Sears could no longer share facilities. Sears stores continued to carry the Simpsons-Sears name on signage and the name remained in use both informally and as its business name well into the 1980s. Simpsons-Sears officially changed its name to Sears Canada in 1984.[4]

Simpsons closed on June 27, 1981, the store in Regina, Saskatchewan it had operated since 1916 after four consecutive years of financial losses with that location.[5] It also closed its only store in Ottawa on January 29, 1983.[6][7] The 83,000 square feet multi-level store had never been profitable ever since Simpsons acquired it in June 1972 and was notorious for not having any escalators

The end

The Hudson's Bay Company attempted to operate Simpsons as a more-upscale nameplate than its main brand, The Bay, but was unsuccessful.[10] The chain's operations in Greater Toronto were merged with The Bay in 1991 and the Simpsons name was retired after a retail presence of almost 120 years.

Reasons for the Hudson's Bay Company's decision were the recession and the fact that it rarely made profits with the Simpsons stores ever since the acquisition in the late 1970s.[15] Simpsons struggled to stand out from The Bay.[16][17] Although Simpsons was slightly higher end than The Bay, the distinction was hardly noticeable to the average shopper. The Hudson's Bay Company came to the conclusion that it would be better to rationalize its operations than to divide its customer base.[15] Much of the operations of Simpsons and The Bay, such as purchasing, advertising and credit cards, had already been consolidated by the time HBC decided to merge the two chains.

Legacy

The Simpsons store on Queen Street West in Toronto continued to operate under the Hudson's Bay nameplate as the chain's, and Canada's, largest department store until Hudson Bay's bankruptcy in 2025. The adjacent Simpson Tower, which used to house Simpsons offices, served as the main headquarters for the Hudson's Bay Company until the mid-2010s.

In 1991, Sears Canada acquired several Simpsons locations in the Toronto market, primarily where HBC had both Bay and Simpsons stores operating within the same shopping centre.[15] When Simpsons folded in 1991, eight of its stores were absorbed by The Bay.[20] The other six Simpsons stores were sold to Sears.[20] Sears also acquired two existing The Bay stores at the Scarborough Town Centre and Yorkdale shopping malls.[20] On the other hand, the Sears store at the Burlington Mall was sold to The Bay.[20] The stores that went to The Bay were all rebranded on August 14, 1991.[21] The locations that Sears acquired were closed in July 1991, renovated and progressively reopened at various dates in August and September 1991 with the former Simpsons/The Bay employees.[22][23] The Sears store at Mapleview Mall in particular opened on August 14, 1991, the same date The Bay replaced its Simpsons locations.[23] None of Simpsons' locations in 1991 closed outright as they were all changed to either The Bay or Sears stores with limited job losses.[24]

Of the Simpsons stores in Quebec, three of them - Anjou, Pointe-Claire and Laval - switched to The Bay on January 29, 1989.[25] The three locations were rebranded in March 1989 after a transition period as Simpsons stores operated by The Bay.[26][27] The other two Simpsons locations, in downtown Montreal and St-Bruno, closed because there were existing The Bay stores near them.[28] HBC unsuccessfully tried to find a buyer for the Simpsons store in St-Bruno.[29] The Bay store in St-Bruno eventually relocated to Simpsons' vacated location that same year.[30] The downtown store closed on January 28, 1989, but reopened in mid-February for its final sale.[31]

The Simpsons stores outside of the Greater Toronto and Greater Montreal areas were actually the first to be converted to The Bay on July 30, 1986.[35][36] This included the stores in the province of Nova Scotia as well as Ontario locations in London, Kitchener, Kingston and Windsor.[37] Like the ones in Toronto and Montreal, many of these The Bay stores are still standing including those at White Oaks Mall, Cataraqui Centre, Fairview Park Mall, Devonshire Mall, Mic Mac Mall and Mayflower Mall. The Bay in Halifax, closed in 2011, was among the Simpsons stores rebranded in 1986.[38][37]

After the Simpsons chain ceased to exist in 1991, the Hudson's Bay Company continued to accept Simpsons credit cards in its The Bay and Zellers stores until the company launched the HBC credit card in 2001.

The Canadian Intellectual Property Office database reports that the trademark to the name "Simpsons" was owned by Sears Canada from 2001 to 2008. It was purchased from the Hudson's Bay Company in 2001, ten years after the name had been retired. In 2008, Sears Canada transferred all of its trademarks (including the Simpsons trademark) to 1373639 Alberta Ltd., which appears to be a shell company of Sears Canada.[39]

St. Regis Room and West End Shop

The two most "exclusive" clothing departments in the former Simpsons downtown Toronto location, the St. Regis Room (now known as the Room and extensively renovated in late 2009 by Yabu Pushelberg) for women and the West End Shop for men, are still in operation at the Bay's downtown Toronto Queen Street store. Designers in the St. Regis Room include Givenchy, Christian Lacroix, Valentino, Armani Collezioni, Louis Féraud, Karl Lagerfeld, Balmain, Andrew Gn, Lida Baday, Bellville Sassoon, David Hayes, and others. The West End shop designers include Hugo Boss, Strellson, and others.

While operated by Simpsons, the St. Regis Room offered some of the most exclusive fashion collections in Canada. Christian Dior, Oscar de la Renta