Simpsons (department store)
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The Robert Simpson Company, or Simpsons (Simpson's until 1972), was a Canadian department store chain, founded by Robert Simpson in 1872. Robert Simpson had no male heir and on his death in 1897, the business was sold to a consortium of investors made up of Albert Ernest Ames, Joseph Flavelle and Harris Henry Fudger. The chain was eventually bought by the Hudson's Bay Company, and the Simpsons brand is no longer in use.
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[edit] History
Robert Simpson Company was first founded in 1871 in Newmarket, Ontario as a dry goods store, but it was relocated to Toronto. It was later renamed the Robert Simpson Company Limited in May 1896 shortly before his Robert Simpson's death in 1897. The Simpsons store in downtown Toronto included one of Toronto's most famous and exclusive restaurants, the Arcadian Court, which opened in 1929. The store was acquired by Hudson's Bay Company in 1978, and the Arcadian Court is still in operation today. Throughout its history Simpsons was the traditional carriage trade department store in Toronto--competing with the rival T. Eaton Co.
[edit] Name change
Until 1972, the operating name of the company was Simpson's. During a time of increased pressure and sensitivity towards French language issues in Quebec, the company dropped the apostrophe. Although not yet law, companies began dropping the English possessive 's from their names. Rival Eaton's became simply "Eaton". However, company management did not want the company known as Simpson, so it dropped the apostrophe and changed the name to "Simpsons" (as reflected in the logo above and photo below). After the Hudson's Bay Company acquired the company, it changed the name of the chain to Simpson for the stores in Quebec while keeping the name to Simpsons in other provinces.
[edit] Simpsons-Sears
In 1952, Simpsons partnered with Sears, Roebuck and Company, a U.S. department store chain, to create Simpsons-Sears Limited, a Canadian catalogue and department store chain separate from the Simpsons chain. The terms of the partnership agreement stipulated that no Simpsons-Sears store could be built within a 25-mile radius of existing Simpsons stores in Toronto, Montreal, Halifax, Regina and London, Ontario. Simpsons agreed not to build any new stores outside those cities.
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In 1972, Simpsons and Simpsons-Sears Limited agreed to end the 25-mile restriction, and permit Simpsons and Simpsons-Sears Limited stores anywhere. In 1973, when Simpsons-Sears opened a store in the city of Mississauga, just west of Toronto, the company decided to use only the "Sears" name in order to prevent confusion with Simpsons stores operating in Toronto. Through 1973 and 1974, the remaining Simpsons-Sears stores and the catalogue operation were converted to the "Sears" name, although the legal partnership continued under the Simpsons-Sears name.
[edit] Acquisition by the Hudson's Bay Company
In 1978, Simpsons was acquired by the Hudson's Bay Company. Under federal competition law, the partnership had to be ended, and Simpsons and Simpsons-Sears Limited could no longer share facilities. Simpsons-Sears Limited became Sears Canada, although some Sears stores continued to carry the Simpsons-Sears name informally well into the 1980s.
In the 1980s, the Hudson's Bay Company converted three Simpsons stores into Bay stores. On the other hand, an existing Bay store was converted to a Simpsons store.
In 1989 the flagship downtown Toronto Simpsons store completed a $30 million facelift with a relaunch known as the "Miracle on Queen Street", including a cosmetics area reputed to have been the largest in the world. The basement featured the addition of a gourmet food hall like that at Macy's in Herald Square in New York City or Harrods in London, and the St. Regis Room was expanded. Upscale shops such as Alfred Dunhill of London were included. The downtown store remains the largest department store in Canada.
The Hudson's Bay Company attempted to run Simpsons as a more upscale brand than its main brand The Bay, but was unsuccessful. The Simpsons operations were merged with The Bay in 1989 in the province of Quebec, and 1991 in the rest of the country. Since then, all of the stores have either been converted to The Bay or been closed, and the Simpsons name is no longer used.
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, some ten years after the name was officially 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.[1]
[edit] Remnants of Simpsons
While the Simpsons chain ceased to exist in 1991, the Hudson's Bay Company continued to accept old Simpsons credit cards in its Bay and Zellers stores until the HBC credit card was launched in 2001.
The Bay's largest and flagship store on Queen Street West in Toronto is a former Simpsons store. The high end restaurant at this location, the Arcadian Court, which opened under Simpsons is still in operation today.
The Simpsons stores that didn't have Bay stores around them have survived under the banner the Bay. All Simpsons stores that already had a Bay store next to them have been closed with either a new Sears store taking over the lease or the existing Bay store moving into the space.
In Quebec, there were five Simpson stores. Three of them - Anjou, Pointe-Claire and Laval - are now la Baie stores. The two others, in downtown Montreal and St-Bruno, were closed due to the presence of la Baie stores near them. La Baie in St-Bruno did however relocate to where Simpson was.
[edit] St. Regis Room and West End Shop
The two most "exclusive" clothing departments in the former Simpsons downtown Toronto location, the St. Regis Room 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 Feraud, Karl Lagerfeld, Balmain, Andrew Gn, Lida Baday, Belville Sasoon, 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. Dior, Oscar de la Renta, Yves Saint Laurent, Claude Montana, Courreges, and many others were featured in this luxury department.
