Toronto Photo Gallery - Retail Retrospective Exhibition
Toronto Reference Library

This exhibition shows off vintage shopping bags from mostly Canadian retailers that have disappeared from the city, either long ago, or quite recently.

Let's start with a few foreign examples, including the UK, Norway, and Egypt.

The Simpson's was founded in 1858. By 1894, he had built a 6-storey shop at Yonge and Queen, becoming Eaton's main competitor in the city. The company was bought by the Hudson's Bay Company in 1978 and the brand eventually disappeared.

The Bay is a fairly recent casualty, having closed just earlier in 2025.

This Eaton's box dates from the 1920s.

At the top is a shopping bag from Hercules, which was located at 577 Yonge Street. It sold army surplus items and closed in 1998. Beneath it is a Towers Discount store bag, which first opened in Canada in 1960. It was bought out by the Hudson's Bay Company in 1990, and a lot of their locations were converted to Zellers.

Opened in 1948, Honest Ed's was a major city institution with a very recognizable storefront at Bathurst and Bloor. The shop closed in 2016 and the site has been redeveloped, although it retains the original name Mirvish Village.