1908–1920s: Early years

The chain began in 1908 when F.H. Brewster, the founder, opened his first five-and-dime store eponymously named F.H. Brewster & Company at 483-485 Talbot Street in St. Thomas, Ontario. Other stores were opened under the name of "F.H. Brewster & Company" in London, Ingersoll, Chatham and other Ontario cities. Brewster lost his first two stores in London: one before it even opened when the neighbouring crockery store "Reid's Crystal Hall" collapsed into it during a renovation to the building on July 16, 1907, as two salesgirls were sorting out stock for the grand opening later that week;^[1] the other store was lost in a Dundas Street fire only a year or two after operation on the night of November 3, 1911. Brewster's new store, which appeared the following year, was built and designed for the owner Sir George Gibbons by London architects Watt & Blackwell.^[2]

On February 1, 1913, Brewster's new three-storey store at 146-148 Colborne Street in Brantford, Ontario, was also damaged by a fire to the extent of $25,000. The fire erupted in the morning when the store was open and employees and customers were inside. The store's large stock of flammable material flashed into a blazing furnace.^[3]

The company was incorporated in Canada as Metropolitan Stores Ltd. on May 11, 1920, and commenced business after "Metropolitan 5 to 50¢ Stores Inc." of the United States purchased control of the "Canadian Smallwares Company" chain of seven stores and merged it with four units of the "Variety 5¢ and 10¢ Stores" of Montreal, numbering eleven stores in all. At the close of 1928, Metropolitan Stores was operating a chain of 130 stores from coast to coast in Canada and the United States, with 31 Canadian stores alone located in four provinces: Quebec, Ontario, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.^[4]

On March 30, 1929, the newly renovated and expanded Metropolitan Store and its Canadian head office opened at 136, 138 and 140 Dundas Street in London. The buildings at 136, 138 and 140 Dundas Street were also built by London architects Watt & Blackwell in 1914: 136 and 138 Dundas Street was built for the Metropolitan Store, while 140 Dundas Street was combined and renovated with 136 and 138 Dundas to house the Canadian head office for Metropolitan Stores.

1930s–1970s: Rise and expansion

By 1930, Metropolitan Stores Ltd. was operating 52 stores and had assets of $10 million, sales of $7.4 million and a net profit of $423,000. On October 6, 1930, "Metropolitan 5 to 50¢ Stores Inc." sold its Canadian subsidiary to F. & W. Grand-Silver Stores Inc. of the United States and when this latter company went into receivership three years later, H.L. Green Company Inc. (also of the United States) acquired them both on July 26, 1933. Shortly afterwards, the Metropolitan name disappeared in the U.S. but it remained in Canada. In subsequent years, the Metropolitan Store chain prospered and expanded at a conservative rate, operating 85 stores in practically all of the principal cities in Canada between 1933 and 1960.

After 40 years of being controlled by United States interests, H.L. Green Company Inc. signed an agreement on March 3, 1961, for the sale of the operating assets of its wholly owned Canadian subsidiary of Metropolitan Stores Ltd. to investment bankers James Richardson & Sons Ltd. of Winnipeg, Manitoba,for approximately $19 million in cash, which returned the company to 100 per cent Canadian ownership. The agreement brought 86 stores and one warehouse located mainly in Ontario, Quebec and Winnipeg with annual sales in excess of $20 million and an annual profit after taxes of more than $1 million. Following the purchase, James Richardson & Sons transferred the business of Metropolitan Stores Ltd. to a newly formed Canadian corporation that became known as Metropolitan Stores of Canada Ltd.^[5]

Two months later on May 15, 1961, Albert D. Cohen, President of the Cohen family-owned real estate and investment company General Distributors Ltd. (headquartered in Winnipeg and whose name was changed to Gendis Inc. in 1983) announced that he and his associates had purchased a major interest in Metropolitan Stores of Canada Ltd. and, under his leadership, plans were underway for substantial expansion and development, including the opening of new Metropolitan Stores in shopping centres across the country. Soon after General Distributors acquired Metropolitan Stores, it closed the London, Ontario executive office and relocated that function to the new executive office and warehouse in Pointe-Claire, Quebec. By 1963, Metropolitan Stores of Canada Ltd. was the fourth-largest variety chain store organization in Canada, behind Woolworth's, Kresge and Zellers, operating 111 stores from coast to coast.^[6]

Metropolitan continued to expand directly and through its subsidiaries (Greenberg and SAAN Stores) throughout the 1960s and 1970s, totalling 180 stores in all Canadian provinces, including 64 junior department stores operated by Greenberg and 73 stores operated by SAAN, with 24 Metropolitan stores which opened between 1973 and 1976. Of the 180 stores in the Metropolitan chain, there were 50 in Ontario, 15 in Nova Scotia, 17 in New Brunswick, 35 in Quebec, 8 in Manitoba, 7 in Saskatchewan, 11 in Alberta, 6 in British Columbia, 2 in Prince Edward Island and 29 in Western Canada. By the mid-1970s, General Distributors' portfolio of Metropolitan Stores and its subsidiaries was riding high and annual sales stood at $137 million.^[7]

1980s–1997: Closures, bankruptcy and acquisition by SAAN

During the mid-to-late 1980s, several Metropolitan stores were either closed or converted into SAAN stores due to the harsh economic climate, as well as intense retail competition in eastern Canada. Metropolitan and its subsidiary Greenberg stores struggled financially in the 1990s as the Canadian retail landscape changed with the 1994 entry of Walmart Canada followed by its acquisition of 122 Woolco stores which exerted significant additional competitive pressure on retail stores.^[8]

During the mid-1990s, Gendis Inc. began converting some selected Metropolitan and Greenberg locations to a new department store format called Met Mart as an attempt to compete against Walmart; however, the Met Mart conversion strategy proved to be unsuccessful and was short-lived.

By 1996, cracks began to appear in the Gendis retail empire due to declining sales revenues and their MMG Management Group of Montreal was voluntarily assigned into bankruptcy on February 11, 1997. When Gendis placed into bankruptcy its remaining 169 Metropolitan, Met Mart and Greenberg stores in February 1997, SAAN acquired 89 of these outlets at a cost of $31 million and rebranded them under the SAAN Stores and Red Apple Stores banners.^[9]

Retail focus

Metropolitan stores were usually free-standing or located in strip malls or shopping malls and ranged in size between 20,000 to 40,000 square feet (1,900 to 3,700 m²). The stores carried household items (batteries, locks, screwdrivers, hammers, saws, wrenches, pliers, wire cutters, nuts, bolts, screws, shovels, pitchforks, hand spades, spades, rakes, watering hoses, sprinklers), sundries, seasonal products, clothing and footwear (men, women, children, infants), food and snacks, jewellery, stationery, crockery, beauty products, furniture, toys (namely dolls, doll clothing including dresses, sleepwear and accessories, model cars, miniature pick-up trucks, container trucks, wheels, rigs and doll play bags), electronics, creative products like needlecrafts, fabrics and Phentex yarn.

Slogans and logo

• "Where your money buys more"
• "Thrifty Canadians find it pays to shop at the Met"
• "Your friendly Met Store"
• "There's always a good reason to shop the Met"
• "At the Met, every day your dollar means more!"

On September 15, 1966, Metropolitan Stores of Canada Ltd. adopted its company logo consisting of a large red "M" which bears a stylized blue maple leaf as its centre containing "MET" lettered in white color.^[10]

Cafe Met

For many years, Metropolitan featured in-store lunch counter-style restaurants known as Cafe Met which were usually located at the back of the stores or, when a store had a second sales floor, they were located either in the basement or upstairs on the first floor. They served a fairly standard menu of hot and cold drinks, hamburgers, hot dogs, fries, and such other sandwiches as grilled cheese, hot turkey and turkey club sandwiches.

Subsidiaries

• SAAN was a chain of discount stores which began in Winnipeg in 1947. Surplus items from the Canadian Armed Forces were the company's first supply source until its sales grew and more SAAN stores opened. After filing for bankruptcy, SAAN closed its 126 stores nationwide with a going-out-of-business sale in 2008. The chain was purchased out of bankruptcy in August 2008 by Genuity Capital, the owner of The Bargain! Shop chain at that time, and stores reopened as Bargain! Shop locations.
• Greenberg was a small-size discount store chain operated by Gendis and were located in smaller towns. It was mainly a clothing store but also included a restaurant, toys, small appliances, candies and other departments. When Greenberg closed in 1997, many stores were reopened as SAAN.
• Red Apple is a small chain of clearance stores and a former division of SAAN founded in 1989 in Western Canada which offers consumers discount pricing on quality family clothing, clothing basics, housewares, snacks as well as limited grocery items. The Red Apple and SAAN names were purchased when SAAN was acquired by Genuity Capital in August 2008.

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