Timothy Eaton Converts to Methodism

When Timothy Eaton first immigrated to Canada, he was a Presbyterian.  However, within a couple of years, in 1858, he converted to Methodism, part of the tent revivals in rural Ontario at the time.  Circuit riders would travel the area on horseback and preach in each town.  As a new convert, Timothy Eaton taught Sunday School at Kirkton Methodist Church along side my great-great grandfather, Thomas Tufts, also a convert.

What Timothy Eaton learned from Methodism was servant leadership, a trait that he took with him to the big city of Toronto.  Just as Christ served his disciples, Timothy Eaton served his customers.  From the moment he opened his store with his skeleton key, to the moment he locked it in the evening, he was busy working.  Like any good business owner, he was not afraid to get his hands dirty.  And his employees appreciated this trait.  The Eaton's motto of "Faith, hope and human service reflected the Christian motto of "Faith, hope and charity".  

Nine years after Timothy Eaton passed away, his widow had a majestic Methodist church constructed in his memory, a fitting tribute to a passionate Methodist.

Kirkton Methodist Church circa 1910 courtesy 

http://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?Entt=RDMDC-PCR-1065&R=DC-PCR-1065.

The Maharaja's of Eaton's

Maharaja:  a Hindu prince or king in India ranking above a raja. 

Timothy Eaton, eager to fill the pages of his catalogue, sent buyers overseas to purchase the highest quality goods:  fine china from England, tweed suits from Scotland, rugs from the Orient, crystal from Czechoslovakia, high fashion from France.  As early as 1893, Timothy opened a foreign buying office in London, England.  Five years later, he opened one in Paris, France.  Offices were added in Manchester and New York in 1911; in Zurich, Switzerland in 1912; in Belfast and Leicester in 1913; and in Yokohama (1918) and Kobe (1919).

While most of the trips were a success, disaster struck when some buyers purchased tickets to the Titanic; a buyer named Mr. Graham went down with the ship (http://alinefromlinda.blogspot.ca/2011/09/unused-ticket-to-titanic.html).  The First World War interrupted Eaton's buying sprees in Germany.  Three buyers drowned when the Lusitania was torpedoed in 1916.  An Eaton's buyer was killed in the Tokyo earthquake of 1923.  However, most buyers came home to Canada safely.  Their purchases helped make the Eaton's name synonymous with quality.

Goods Satisfactory or Money Refunded

"Consider again the Eaton's slogan:  Goods Satisfactory or Money Refunded.  It said nothing about prices, low or otherwise.  It simply promised Timothy Eaton's Irish Protestant common sense: satisfaction or your money back.  Customers believed it." (John J. Wells, The Hamilton Spectator)

When Timothy Eaton's store opened for business on Queen Street in Toronto, no one had ever heard of the slogan "Goods Satisfactory or Money Refunded".  People were used to haggling when they bought goods.  They were used to bartering:  the doctor would offer his services in exchange for a sac of flour.  That all changed when Timothy Eaton came to town.  He sold his goods for cash only at one fixed price.  He guaranteed the quality of his products.  "Whether you were a naive child or a shrewd businessman you could rely on the same price, service and outstanding guarantee," explained one website (http://www.dippam.ac.uk/ied/records/37189).  

Unlike today, Timothy Eaton offered "no gimmicks, no fine print, no tricks".  The relationship he built with his customers was based solely on trust.  That trust kept his customers coming back again and again.  One 1937 patron explained that she "felt like she was in the home of an old friend" when she shopped at Eaton's.  Customers knew what to expect when they walked the aisles of an Eaton's store.  Consumer confidence led to consumer satisfaction.  Generations of Canadians reaped the benefits of the promise "Goods Satisfactory or Money Refunded".  It was the key to Timothy Eaton's success.

http://www.thespec.com/news-story/5441351-the-way-we-shopped-hamilton-and-the-golden-age-of-the-department-store/

Eaton's Catalogue: Icon of Canadian Culture

In 2012, I mentioned Eaton's to my daughter and she didn't know what it was.  What a shame that an "icon of Canadian culture" is now forgotten.  Timothy Eaton's first large department store was located on Queen Street in Toronto.  Later dozens of Eaton's department stores popped up all over the country.  In fact, it was estimated that 60% of Canadians lived within a 30 minute drive of an Eaton's.

One of Timothy Eaton's secrets to success was his mail order catalogue, which debuted in 1884.  If Henry Ford perfected the assembly line, Timothy Eaton perfected the catalogue business.  In a day and age before the Internet, the catalogue was a valuable tool for advertising.  Here is a brief history.

Timothy Eaton first published a 34 page catalogue in 1884, in large part as a means for Canada's rural residents to have access to the same products that city dwellers enjoyed.  by 1896, the mail order office was filling a tall order:  135000 parcels were delivered by post as well as 74,000 by express.  By 1920, Canadians could buy everything from clothes to farm implements to prefabricated homes and barns.  Catalogue offices were located in Toronto, Winnipeg and Moncton.

The year 1915 saw the first colour catalogue while four years later the first photographs were introduced, interspersed with illustrations.  Timothy Eaton tried to cater to specific groups, not just housewives:  Klondike miners and prospectors, Maritimes residents and French Canadians.  In fact, Eaton's started publishing a regular French catalogue by 1927.

Catalogue de Noel circa 1952.

Eaton's introduced incentives to lengthen the list of people who received the annual catalogues.  One B.C. housewife sent in a list of neighbour's names and received a free winter coat.

Winter coats from Eaton's Catalogue.

Becoming an icon of Canadian culture, the Eaton's catalogue served not just as a mail order service but also reading material for new Canadian immigrants to learn English, paper for paper dolls for young girls, goalie pads for young boys and toilet paper in Canadian outhouses.  The catalogue was even featured in Canadian literature:  read Le Chandail by Roch Carrier to learn about a Montreal hockey fan who orders a Canadiens hockey jersey from Eaton's but instead receives a Toronto Maple Leafs sweater.  His mother addresses her letter, "Cher Monsieur Eaton", as she tries to rectify the problem.

Eaton's Catalogue circa 1942.

Timothy Eaton: Department Store Genius

"There is hardly a name in Canada, with the possible exception of the Prime Minister, so well know to the people at large as that of Mr. Timothy Eaton." (The Globe, 1905)

As I research for a new picture book that I am writing about Toronto of the 1940's, I realize what an institution Eaton's was in Canada at the time.  Growing up in Toronto, my dad said that my grandma used to buy everything at Eaton's.  It seems like every Torontonian either shopped there or worked there.  I borrowed a copy of my parents' book Eatonians to delve deeper into the department store which touched Canadians for over a century and a quarter. 

First, let's examine the man who started it all, Timothy Eaton, an immigrant from Ireland who came to Canada around the mid 1800's.  He settled in Kirkton, Ontario, where he briefly ran a small business with his brother, James. 

Timothy befriended my great-great grandfather Thomas Tufts, who provided the merchant with horses to transport his goods.  Timothy and Thomas used to make runs together from Kirkton to St. Mary's where Timothy opened his second business, this one a dry goods store. 

By 1869, Timothy set out for the big city of Toronto, which at the time only had 70,000 inhabitants.  It was there that Timothy, along with a staff of four, set up a dry goods store and haberdashery at 178 Yonge Street. 

The dry goods store faired well enough that Timothy opened his first department store at 190 Yonge Street in 1883.  The three-floor store, which included 35 departments, featured a series of firsts including:  the first electric lights in a Canadian business, the first telephone in 1885 and the first elevator in 1886. 

Timothy was the first merchant to offer satisfaction guaranteed or your money refunded.  Shoppers knew that they could trust Eaton's for quality products and service.  Their workers, known as Eatonians, went out of their way to serve their customers courteously and efficiently.  Quality and service kept the customers coming back.

The Eaton's catalogue, also the brainchild of Timothy, allowed Canadians from the rural parts of the country to order goods, those who would not normally have access to an Eaton's store.  Timothy was ahead of his time with his advertising techniques used in the catalogue (http://alinefromlinda.blogspot.ca/2012/10/an-icon-of-canadian-culture.html).

Another first for Timothy was the Santa Claus Parade in 1905, well ahead of its time.  Timothy pulled out all the stops having Santa arrive by helicopter one year and by real reindeer another year. My dad remembers attending the parade every year with my granddad, followed by a visit with Santa at Eaton's Toyland.  Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City, which didn't debut until 1925, took a page from the Toronto Eaton's Santa Claus Parade. 

In 1905, the Toronto Globe announced:  "There is hardly a name in Canada, with the possible exception of the Prime Minister, so well know to the people at large as that of Mr. Timothy Eaton." Sadly, the founder passed away in 1906.  However, his son son John Craig continued the practices started by his father and the company flourished. 

By 1911, Toronto had grown to about 250,000 inhabitants and Eaton's had 17,500 employees.  By 1919, Timothy's Queen Street store had over 60 acres of floor space.  His large plexiglass window, innovative for the time period, featured displays which attracted window shoppers from the Queen Street West pedestrian crosswalk, one of the busiest in Canada.  The window displays became even more extravagant as Timothy tried to outdo his competitor, Robert Simpson, whose department store was located across the street. 

The 1920's and 1930's saw Eaton's expand across Canada ushering in the Golden Age of the Department Store.  In Toronto, shoppers could dine in the fine restaurant on the 7th floor.  They could be entertained in the auditorium.  Or they could purchase their own entertainment by buying one of the grand pianos from the store.  My dad remembers a visit to the Queen Street Store where, at the tender age of four, he wandered off to the music department.  After several minutes, my horrified grandma discovered him there, tinkering at the keys of a baby grand.

By the 1940's, Toronto's population had risen to almost 1 million people.  The decade saw wartime shortages, but Eaton's still managed to turn a profit.  By the 1960's, Eaton's spread to the suburbs with a new store opening at Yorkdale Shopping Mall.  In the 1970's and 1980's, I remember my granddad purchasing my grandma's favourite perfume each Christmas at Eaton's.

Eaton's started to pull away from the traditions started by its founder, Timothy.  The first sign of trouble was in 1976 when Eaton's launched its last catalogue.  Six years later, the company pulled out of the Santa Claus Parade.  Finally, in 1999, the company folded. The Canadian institution that our great-great grandparents had shopped at had closed its doors. 

http://www.thedepartmentstoremuseum.org/2010/05/t-eaton-co-ltd-toronto-ontario-canada.html