Honest Ed's
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| Private | |
| Industry | Discount retail |
| Founded | 1948 |
| Founder | Ed Mirvish |
| Defunct | December 31, 2016 |
| Headquarters | Koreatown, Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
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Key people
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David Mirvish |
| Products | Department store |
| Website | http://www.mirvish.com/honest-eds |
Honest Ed's was a landmark discount store located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was named for its proprietor, Ed Mirvish, who opened the store in 1948 and oversaw its operations for almost 60 years, until his death in 2007. The store continued in operation until it was permanently closed on December 31, 2016.
Honest Ed's was on the corner of Bloor and Bathurst Streets, running the length of the block. The exterior was covered with huge red and yellow signs advertising the name of the store, lit up like a theatre marquee. The store sign used 23,000 light bulbs. The outside facade is covered with puns and slogans such as "Come in and get lost!" and "Only the floors are crooked!"
The store consisted of two buildings connected by a walkway that links up the west building on Markham Street and the east building on Bathurst Street. The interior was modest, with simple displays of low-priced merchandise, ranging from vacuum cleaners and winter coats to kitchenware, toys and grocery items. Much of the store's decor consisted of posters and photos from old films and stage productions from Mirvish's theatres in Toronto and London, England, and of actors and musicians who performed in them (many of these inscribed to Ed Mirvish himself). Every piece of store signage was hand-painted.
The building currently remains standing. However, the new owners intend to demolish the structure and redevelop the 1.8 hectare parcel of land on which it sits, which also includes Mirvish Village and a stretch of retail buildings south of the Honest Ed building on Bathurst Street running down to Lennox Street, which were rented out by the Mirvishes to local businesses.
Ed and Anne Mirvish opened "The Sport's Bar", a women's clothing store, near Bloor and Bathurst Streets in 1943 renting a property that was five metres wide. The store proved popular. In 1946, the Mirvishes expanded after acquiring several buildings along Bloor, renaming the store "Anne & Eddie's". After a further expansion, Mirvish re-established the store as "Honest Ed's Bargain House" in 1948, adding general household goods to the inventory. In 1952, the Mirvishes acquired their first property on Markham Street, behind the store and eventually acquired several more homes on the street with the intent of building a parking lot. Instead, this eventually evolved into the Mirvish Village neighbourhood in the 1960s after the city turned down the store's application to raze the buildings and Anne Mirvish persuaded her husband to rent the houses out to artists. In 1958, "Honest Ed's" expanded west to Markham Street to encompass 6,000 square feet and in 1984, the Honest Ed's annex building was completed expanding the store east to Bathurst Street.
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Wikipedia