Honest Ed’s
In 1948 Edwin Mirvish opened his ‘Honest Ed’s Famous Bargain House’ on the southwest corner of Bloor and Bathurst streets. Honest Ed’s was not only one of the first department stores in the city but also one of the first to offer discount prices on its merchandise.
below: Honest Ed’s, from across the intersection of Bloor and Bathurst streets.
below: The same intersection in 1948 when Honest Ed’s Famous Bargain House opened. As you can see, the exterior was covered with signs with humorous sayings from the beginning.
Along with the discount merchandise, Ed Mirvish filled his store with pictures and posters, especially movie posters. The stairwell walls are covered.
You can buy almost anything at Honest Ed’s! Clothes, shoes, toys, household items, groceries, hardware, prescriptions, souvenirs, … and so on.
There are hundreds of pictures of actors and other famous (and no so famous!) people.
All of the signs in the store are hand painted. In March 2014, Honest Ed’s had a sale of all their signs and the profits ($17,000) from this sale were donated to Victim Services Toronto.
Another sign sale is scheduled for 11 April 2015 starting at 8 a.m. If you want to buy a sign, arrive early and expect to wait as it is a very popular event.
In October 2013, the property was sold to a developer but as you can see from the sign in the photo below, the store is still open. It will remain open until the end of 2016. It’s been open for 67 years and will remain open for another 21 months.
[…] is the real Honest Ed’s store, a landmark for many years. Eighteen months ago, I posted some pictures of the store and at the end of that post I mentioned that the store was scheduled to close at the […]