The story of Honest Ed's is the story of one man, Edwin Mirvish. He was born in 1914 on July 24th in Washington D.C. as a son of poor russian jewish imigrants. In 1923 the family moved to Toronto. He was 15 years old when his father died. Then he quit school and took over the family grothery store.
Honest Ed's opened in 1948. It expanded from one small
store into the neighboring stores. That's why the map is so confusing.
Now it takes up more than three quarters of a city block.
Because of his bad experiences with giving credit (his father gave everyone a credit, and the family was always in bankruptcy), he decided to never give credit to anybody. This could be the secrect of Honest Ed's success: no service, no credit, no refunds, no delivery and no free parking. So he could keep prices down.
Another secret of his success are his media actions, because he's also famous for his publicity stunts. For example he arrange an 72 hour dance marathon or an in-store-roller-skating-derby, for which all the bargains were put away to have enough space. Almost legendary are his birthday parties in the Mirvish Village (the official name of the Markham Street) with free food, gifts and entertainment. On his 79th birthday he also was even mayor for one day.
But beside the retailer career, he startet in 1962 also a theatre career. Although he did know nothing about theatres he bought the Royal Alexandra Theatre (build in 1907) and saved it from beeing demolished. He was comitted to keep it at least five years. And these five years were hard, but after that time it was breaking even. Before he bought it, the theatre was dark about 40 weeks a year. After that it has never been dark again. He bought shows from London, Broadway and everywhere in the world, e.g. "Hair", "Les Miserables" and "Crazy For You". In 1993 expanded his theatre activities, and built the Princess of Wales theatre for 22 Million $(CAN).
But that's not enough, because he's a real businessman. Furthermore he owns a theatre museum, six restaurants and the Mirwish Village, where artists can have their working space.
Honest Ed's is a store of oddities: It has the world's largest electric
sign (over 22,000 flashing lights) and since 1988 it's an official
Ontario tourist attraction. The rest is not less larger: The store
contains four floors, with a huge area each. There are just few signs
that show where to find things. So you have to find the way to the
product you need (or better: NOT need) by yourself. The whole Store is
such a mess, that the hardest work people can imagine, is to do stock
taking at Honest Ed's. The walls are packed with funny slogans and,
because of his theatre background, pinned with pictures of show
business personalities and posters of famous theatre productions.
But what it really is, is hard to describe. Sure it's a
"bargain store", because you can get almost everything you want. You
get housewares, giftwares and clothing. It contains a pharmacy, a
grocery, a dentist and an optical service. But everything is so cheap,
that it's really hard to believe.
You should go there, because you must have seen it to believe it. You
have never seen so much cheap stuff in one place. But we dont't
recommend you to buy anything, because the quality of the products is
also very poor. The plastic plates (very cheap, only $0.99) we bought
had cracks after the first washing and the "HiFi"-department doesn't
issue you any guarantee. So you should go there seeing it, but you
better leave the stuff where it is or be sure that you don't need the
stuff for long...
It's located on the southwest corner of Bloor and Bathurst streets and it's really hard to miss. By TTC you just have to get off at Bathurst subway station on the Bloor Street line.
 | Honest Ed's 581 Bloor Street West, Toronto, ON Mon-Fri 10am-9pm Sat 10am-6pm Sun 11am - 6pm |
 |  |
 |  |
 |  |
 |  |
 |  |
 |
Honest Ed's - toronto.com (viewed on August 18, 2004)
http://www.toronto.com/infosite/147659/10.shtml
Canadian Professional Sales Association Hall of Fame (viewed on August 18, 2004)
http://www.cpsa.com/Awards/Gui/Html/EdMirvish_bio.asp
Toronto's super-salesmen: Mel Lastman and Ed Mirvish (viewed on August 18, 2004)
http://www.jewishsightseeing.com/canada/ontario/toronto/19990820-toronto_salesmen.htm
Floorplan and location map are taken from www.toronto-online.net/special/ed.html
Stephan Häußler & Sebastian Gauder
