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Signs for Towers and Food City at the Galleria shopping centre on Dupont Street, Toronto, 1980.

Remember Towers?

Before the signs changed to Zellers, Towers was a discount department store fixture in Ontario. Here's where it came from and where it went.

3 min read

A newly opened Kmart store in the New Orleans area, 1978.

Retail Rewind

Kmart Canada: The Discount Chain Ontario Lost

Canada's first Kmart opened in London, Ontario, in 1963. Thirty-five years later the chain was sold to the Hudson's Bay Company, and the name disappeared within weeks.

3 min read

North Front Street in Belleville, Ontario, in 1974, with the Consumers Distributing store on the right.

Retail Rewind

Whatever Happened to Consumers Distributing?

Stubby pencils, order forms and a catalogue full of wishes. How a Toronto catalogue showroom grew into a national chain, and why it vanished in 1996.

5 min read

Crystal Beach in Fort Erie, Ontario, 2019.

Gone

Crystal Beach Park: The Ontario Amusement Park People Still Miss

For a century, a Lake Erie park near Fort Erie drew crowds from both sides of the border with the Comet, sugar waffles and a boat from Buffalo. Here's what happened to Crystal Beach.

Fort Erie (Crystal Beach) · 6 min read

Riders on the log flume at the Bob-Lo Island amusement park, June 1973.

Gone

Boblo Island: The Amusement Park at the End of a Boat Ride

For generations, two grand steamers carried families down the Detroit River to an island park off Amherstburg. Here's the story of Boblo, and what's on the island now.

Amherstburg · 5 min read