The story
Founded by Robert Simpson in 1872, in Toronto.1
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).
it was co-founded with William Trent as Simpson & Trent Groceries, Boots, Shoes and Dry Goods. A fire destroyed the store in 1870, and a new dry goods store was opened two years later in Toronto. Robert Simpson lived at 384 Botsford Street in Newmarket from 1861 to 1876.
The company was renamed the Robert Simpson Company Limited in May 1896, not long before Robert Simpson's sudden death on 14 December 1897, at the age of 63. With no male heir, Simpson's death placed a heavy burden on his wife, Mary, and daughter, Margaret. They sold the business for $135,000 in March 1898 to a syndicate of three Toronto businessmen, Harris Henry Fudger (1852–1930), Joseph Flavelle, and Alfred Ernest Ames (1866–1934).
In 1912, Charles Luther (C.L.) Burton became assistant general manager at the Robert Simpson Company, then under the directorship of his old friend and mentor, H. H. Fudger. By 1929, Burton was president of Simpson's, becoming chairman of the board in 1948, when his son Edgar assumed the presidency.
The store in downtown Toronto included one of the city's most exclusive restaurants, the Arcadian Court, which opened in 1929 and still operates today (as an event space) after the store's acquisition by Hudson's Bay Company in 1978. Throughout its history, Simpsons was the traditional "carriage-trade" department store in Toronto, competing with the T. Eaton Company. The motto "You'll enjoy shopping at Simpson's" was conceived by Robert Simpson and remained the company's slogan until its acquisition by the Hudson's Bay Company.
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.
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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 (19 mi) 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.
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. It also closed its only store in Ottawa on January 29, 1983. 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.
In March 1983, The Bay store at Mayflower Mall in Sydney, Nova Scotia was rebranded to Simpsons.
In July 1984, Simpsons terminated 1,631 employees, including more than a thousand in Toronto alone. Simpsons lost $53 million that year alone.
The flagship store's acquisition of a large quantity of toy robots was a major plot point in the movie Short Circuit 2 in 1988.
Simpsons vanished from Greater Montreal in 1989 with its five stores either converted to The Bay or simply closed, leaving the chain with a presence only in the Toronto area. That year, the flagship Simpsons store in downtown Toronto completed a $30 million facelift with a relaunch known as the Miracle on Queen Street. HBC acknowledged at the time that Simpsons wasn't doing great in Toronto but was still performing well enough to continue there and even planned to add three more locations to the existing 11 stores in the area. The aforementioned openings did materialized in 1989 and 1990 at the Erin Mills, Mapleview Mall and Markville Shopping Centre.
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. 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. Simpsons struggled to stand out from The Bay. 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. 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. The Simpsons chain also suffered from an identity crisis within itself, with an upscale flagship downtown store filled with high-end merchandise in contrast to the mid-priced suburban mall locations that were basically like The Bay. When the merger was announced in June 1991, it had been suggested that the downtown location continue operating as a Simpsons store but HBC turned down the idea under the explanation that it would be too expensive to implement such plan.
Finally, the demise of Simpsons came at a time when the Hudson's Bay Company was seriously controlling its operating costs in anticipation of an eventual entrance to Canada by American giant Wal-Mart which was already conquering the retail landscape in its country and attracting Canadians living close to the border.
From Wikipedia’s article on Simpsons (department store), shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4