Dominion Stores (Ontario)

Infobox_Company
company_name = Dominion Stores Ltd.
company_
company_type = Division
company_slogan = We're Fresh Obsessed
foundation = Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 1927
location = Ontario, Canada
key_people =
industry = Supermarket
products = Master Choice Products; Dairy, frozen foods, grocery, general merchandise (non-food), meat/deli, pharmacy, produce, snacks
parent = Metro Inc.
revenue =
homepage = [http://www.freshobsessed.com www.freshobsessed.com]

Dominion Stores is a chain of supermarkets in the Greater Toronto Area of Ontario, Canada with 60 locations. The chain was founded in 1927 in Ontario and was once a national chain owned by Conrad Black's Argus Corporation. It is now part of Metro Inc., with its stores outside Ontario having been sold to third parties.

The remnants of Dominion Stores had been acquired by A&P Canada from Argus in 1985. A&P subsequently rebranded all its stores in the Greater Toronto Area as Dominion stores (absorbing Miracle Food Mart), while Dominion locations elsewhere in Southern Ontario took the A&P name. The territory of Dominion stores as compared to that of other stores owned by Metro Inc. is approximately the following: the City of Toronto; York Region, excluding Stouffville; the Cities of Mississauga and Oakville; and the Cities of Pickering and Ajax. In some markets west of Toronto Dominion Stores were bought by Canada Safeway. Metro acquired A&P Canada from A&P effective August 15, 2005. A&P has retained a minority ownership share of A&P Canada.

On August 7, 2008, Metro announced it will invest $200 million consolidating the company's conventional food stores under the Metro banner. Over a period of 15 months, all Dominion stores are to be converted to the Metro name. [ [http://www.cbc.ca/money/story/2008/08/07/metro.html "CBC News, "Metro to dump A&P, Dominion names", 7 August 2008] ]

The fate of the Dominion locations outside Ontario is as follows:

* Northwestern Ontario: At least two stores (located in Thunder Bay) were acquired by Canada Safeway
* Newfoundland and Labrador: Loblaws operates a chain under the Dominion banner; see Dominion Stores (Newfoundland and Labrador).
* New Brunswick: Shortly after the A&P acquisition, these stores were sold to Food Group Inc., which operated them under the Village banner until they themselves were sold to Loblaws (see Atlantic Superstore) in 1995.
* Nova Scotia: These locations were sold to IGA, but Loblaws took over IGA's Atlantic Canada locations as well in 1999.
* Western Canada: Dominion stores in these provinces were closed, leaving many suburban shopping malls scrambling to fill large, now-vacant sections. According to some, this event, coupled with the subsequent collapse of several department store chains, sparked a wave of mall renovations in many parts of the country.
* Quebec: The Dominion stores were sold to Provigo in 1983Dominion's original slogan was "mainly because of the meat", but is now "We're fresh obsessed", which is shared with A&P. The jingle for the original slogan was written by Bob Hahn, who wrote over 1500 Canadian advertising jingles. [http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=U1ARTU0001488]

Dominion's distribution centres are located in Toronto and Mississauga.

Locations

There are 35 locations.

ee also

*List of supermarkets

References

External links

* [http://www.metro.ca/ Metro Canada]
* [http://www.freshobsessed.com/ Dominion Ontario/A&P Canada]