End of Steinberg's
The buyout of Steinberg's was highly leveraged. Despite improved profitability and cash flow results from Steinberg's after the buyout, various parts of the company were auctioned off by new owner Socanav to help pay down the heavy debt load incurred. The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec wanted Steinberg's real estate arm Ivanhoe for its attractive portfolio from the start, and acquired it for $887 million in 1990. Steinberg's 50% stakes in both Lantic Sugar and Price Club were sold in 1990 for $110 million and $58 million respectively.[9] After ongoing talks, A&P Canada agreed to buy the Ontario operations (consisting of 58 Miracle Food Marts, 11 Miracle Ultra-Marts, and Ontario divisional offices in Etobicoke) in July 1990 for $235 million, with the closing date of October 20, 1990. The stores continued to operate under their former names, but were eventually rebranded under the "A&P" and "Dominion", and Ultra Mart/Ultra Food & Drug banners.
The final 10 Ontario stores in the Ottawa, Cornwall and Brockville locations (not included in the sale to A&P since they were all part of the Quebec division) were bought by Loblaws (under National Grocer Co.) in January 1992 and either converted to "Loblaws" or "Your Independent Grocer" banners, or closed. The sale included two operating as Xtra discount supermarkets. Those were the final stores Steinberg's owned in Ontario, aside from 74 Valdi stores that the chain held onto (a combined 101 in Ontario & Quebec). Valdi Foods remained a company subsidiary until the stores in the western provinces were closed in 1991/92.
Attempts to sell off more assets and restructure the company (including rebranding some stores and franchising others) were difficult, due to Steinberg's higher labour wages, the 1990–1992 recession, suppliers unsure of supplying the highly leveraged company, pressure from creditors, mounting losses and interest payments on debt from the leveraged buyout. In May 1992, court protection was obtained in order to liquidate the company and pay off creditors. Loblaws again attempted to buy the chain. They were again foiled by the Quebec government, who arranged for Steinberg's stores to be sold to its two major local competitors Metro Richelieu and Provigo. To avoid accusations of monopoly, Provigo resold half of its Steinberg's stores to IGA.
By mid-1992, Steinberg's and its poor-performing department store chain M began to phase out. Most of Steinberg's grocery stores were absorbed and converted by its competitors, while the M locations closed outright as no buyer could be found for them. Even within the grocery chain proper, 16 of the locations had no buyer.[10] Six of these stores closed on August 29, 1992 and the other ten followed suit on September 5, 1992 in the cities of Rimouski, Chicoutimi, Longueuil, Hull, Saint-Hubert, Quebec City, Saint-Bruno, Saint-Jérôme, Laval and Bromont.[10] The Steinberg's stores that were acquired were split among five supermarket chains: Metro, IGA, Maxi, Héritage and Provigo.[11] None of Steinberg's locations directly converted to Super C though a few of the stores that turned into Metro in 1992 later rebranded to Super C in the mid-1990s.
Although Steinberg's, Miracle Mart/M, Miracle Food Mart, Valdi and Cardinal Distributors are now defunct, Sam Steinberg is survived by his real estate company Ivanhoe (which absorbed Cambridge Shopping Centres Ltd in 2001 to become Ivanhoe Cambridge). His restaurant chain Pik-Nik, founded in 1966, lasted until the mid-2010s.
Succession for the Steinberg's grocery chain was the subject of a 1974 National Film Board of Canada documentary by Arthur Hammond entitled After Mr. Sam.[12]
