It’s Wayback Wednesday, sponsored by Jamie Lockwood, broker/owner of Sutton Group Muskoka Realty!
Do you remember the old Eaton’s department store on Huntsville’s Main Street? Does it bring back memories? It was situated where Pharamasave is now located. This rendering was posted by Brigitte Natalie Tessier Labby in If You Grew Up In Huntsville, You’ll Remember …
See more Wayback Wednesday photos here.
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Yes it was a godsend at the time. Over the years I bought most of my clothing, shoes etc. there. And numerous other items. It was the go to store in town when you needed things at a price you could live with.
I miss Eaton’s. I also miss stores like it, like Sears and believe it or not even Zellers as a few other examples.
Canadian Tire lies about in the middle, but at least they are Canadian owned and they make a fair effort at service. Same for places like Home Hardware and other smaller locally owned stores, which often seem the very best for service. Rent All for example, if they have it and sell it they can probably fix it and you seldom see that in many stores today.
No matter what it was if you found it an any Eaton’s store or catalog it could be made to arrive at your local store for no extra charge and usually fairly promptly.
Eaton’s had some class. When my father died they were the ONLY ONE who sent me a note as his executor with a full statement of current charges and highlighted the fact that this account could sit with no penalties until we had time to settle the estate. No other company cared at all.
Now we have larger stores but they just don’t have the depth of service that Eaton’s used to have.
Places like Winners leave me fairly ambivalent, their products are inconsistent, usually in the bottom half of the quality scale and customer service for anything you might buy is non-existent.
I suspect Giant Tiger will be no better.
I wonder often if all the big discount box stores are actually a benefit to us and our environment or just sort of like a temporary fungus on society that will eventually correct itself to a system that is more personal, more service oriented and with less environmental issues than at present.
Being big does not necessarily mean that a store has the product you actually need, and junk is junk at any price.
On the other hand, engineers have done a very good job of making things light, cheap and they tend to last just as little longer than warranted. Maybe the fact that they can’t be repaired no longer matters much. I still feel sad tossing something as large as a refrigerator in the scrap metal pile when all it needs is some small and unobtainable part to fix it.
I look at that scrap metal pile and think there just has to be some better way to run our society.
The Eaton’s store in Huntsville brings back a host of fond memories. I walked past Eaton’s every day to and from school kindergarten through grade 4. For a little kid it was a wonderful place of refuge 1) washroom up on the second floor 2) on hot days drink fountain just inside the side door, 3) warmth and friendly people on those freezing Huntsville winter days, 4) the “real” Santa Claus down in the basement at Xmas and best of all 5) when the store opened early one Saturday morning my brother Ron and I ran up the stairs to the sporting goods section to personally meet, all on our own, our hockey hero, the Eaton’s spokesman ….Gordie Howe! I can still remember his words “Well hello boys, welcome to Eaton’s.”……we of course were speechless.I
Yes I do remember the old Eatons store.
Wow.
My go to store for my back to school clothes.
If you lived in Huntsville in the 40’s, 50’s, 60’s as I did, what didn’t you buy at Eaton’s. Teamed with a catalogue that listed everything available in the free world, Eaton’s had it or would get it for you.
Need a rebuilt engine for your Chevy? Plates, cutlery or a stove for the kitchen? Siding for the house? Tires with the onset of winter? Clothes, shoes? A tin boat and a motor? Think of something and it was either in the store or could be found in the catalogue; which meant it was just a few days away.
But the thing I remember most of the store, was the people and the effort they would put into serving you. Doesn’t mean people didn’t get a little owly by times if something didn’t just go as planned; but generally, we were well served.
One person in particular I remember, because he was called to duty so often by my Dad. Lloyd Markle was Dad’s cousin, and worked in the Eaton store after he returned from overseas. For years he worked in the basement of the store, in the plumbing department.
Dad and I would go in in the evening, and Dad would explain to Lloyd the layout of the building, the dimensions, and what was to go where. There were few if any ‘drawings’ involved here; maybe a sketch on an opened cigarette pack, complete with a few numbers.
“Give me a day or two Dick. Kinda busy in here right now.”
When we went in a couple of days later, fittings would be in boxes and pipe lengths all taped together in the lean-to storage out back. You would have an extra box of spares and ‘just-in-case’ pieces. Everything right down to the sinks, toilets and tubs.
You were pretty sure that you had what was needed to do the job.
“Anything you don’t need, just bring it back.” And Lloyd was off to serve another customer.
The Eaton store on Main street was a big store for the size of the town, but it fulfilled a big service.
And it was staffed by some good people.