 | |
| Industry | Discount department store |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1960 |
| Defunct | 1991 |
| Fate | Converted to the Zellers name |
| Parent | Towers Mart 1960-1963 Allied Towers Merchants Limited 1963–1967 Oshawa Group 1967–1991 |
Towers, operating as Bonimart in Quebec, was a Canadian discount department store chain owned by the Oshawa Group, a now-defunct grocery retailer and distributor.[1]
Towers Marts began as a New York-based chain. The first Canadian store was opened on November 15, 1960 in Scarborough, Ontario (at the corner of Lawrence Ave. East and Midland Ave).[2] In March 1962, a group of Towers concessionaires incorporated as Allied Towers Merchants Ltd.[3] After Towers Marts went bankrupt in 1963, Allied Towers Merchants Ltd., purchased the 13 Canadian stores, initially acquiring only 43% of the outstanding shares and eventually getting full control of these Towers stores.[3]
In Quebec, the chain traded as Towers in the 1960s but the name was changed to Bonimart in April 1971, starting with the stores in the Greater Montreal, as part of a program by owner Oshawa Group to promote the French character among its subsidiaries in the province.[4]
Each selling department within a Towers store was operated as a licensed concession. Some Towers/Bonimart stores offered services such as restaurants, photo labs, and pharmacies within the store. Some stores were also paired with an IGA or Food City grocery store.
In October 1990, Towers/Bonimart's 51 stores were purchased by Hudson's Bay Company which intended to merge them with its Zellers subsidiary.[5] One store was transferred to The Bay and four others were going to be sold or closed.[6] The transaction was met with strong opposition from the New York-based F. W. Woolworth Company (owner of the Woolco stores in Canada) which also wanted to purchase the chain.[5]
In April 1991, 47 of the Towers/Bonimart stores were rebranded into the Zellers banner.[7][8] The remaining stores held closeout sales under their original name, some of them lasting until the fall of 1991. While ownership to the Towers name is unclear, the Bonimart trademark is the property of Sobeys, the successor of the Oshawa Group.[9]
Towers' mascot was an animated squirrel named Sparky. At the time of the Zellers buyout, print ads featured Sparky arm-in-arm with Zellers' bear mascot, Zeddy.