Loblaws

In June 1919, Toronto grocers Theodore Pringle Loblaw and J. Milton Cork opened the first Loblaw Groceterias store at 2923 Dundas Street West, in the Junction. Its self-service format — customers picking goods off open shelves rather than handing a list to a clerk behind a counter — was a radical departure from the standard grocery model of the era, and is generally credited as the first self-serve grocery operation in Canada.

The Weston takeover

The Weston family's involvement began separately: American-born George Weston bought a Toronto bakery in 1884, building it into George Weston Limited. Starting in 1947, W. Garfield Weston began buying up shares of the Loblaw grocery chain through George Weston Limited, securing majority control by 1953. Loblaw Companies Limited was formally established as a corporate entity in 1956, cementing Weston control over what would become Canada's largest grocery and food-retail empire.

A sprawling private empire

Through George Weston Limited and its holding structure, the Canadian branch of the Weston family today controls a network that extends well beyond grocery banners into pharmacy — including Shoppers Drug Mart, acquired in 2014 — making the Westons one of Canada's wealthiest and most retail-dominant families, still headquartered in Toronto.

Sources

• Loblaw Companies Limited — Who We Are
• HEC Montréal Chair of Family Enterprise — Les compagnies Loblaw ltée