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27-597: The Newfoundland operations were part of the national Dominion supermarket chain from 1963 to 1987 when that company was split up, with Loblaw acquiring the stores in 1995 but retaining a provincial licence to the Dominion brand. The current owner of the trademark, Metro Inc. , which operated the Dominion banner in Ontario until 2008, has no other affiliation with the Newfoundland locations. Under Loblaw ownership,

54-728: A bond to finance the facility, which then became property of the city. It officially opened in 1955. It is the former home of the St. John's Maple Leafs of the American Hockey League (1991–2001). The arena played host to many events, such as an exhibition game featuring the local senior hockey team, the St. John's Caps and the Soviet Red Army . It also played host to two NBA exhibition games and musical acts, as well as Pope John Paul II . Wooden bleachers were used throughout

81-577: A Colemans store, with a Bank of Montreal branch occupying the remaining space. Dominion (supermarket) Dominion was a national chain of supermarkets in Canada, which was known as the Dominion of Canada when the chain was founded. The chain was founded in 1919 in Ontario and was later acquired by the Argus Corporation . It was broken up in the mid-1980s, with key locations and

108-494: A new partnership with Loblaw Companies unit Atlantic Wholesalers involving what were by then 17 Dominion stores in the province. Atlantic Wholesalers also announced plans to separately open a location of its superstore format in St. John's, the fate of which is unclear. Loblaw acquired the Dominion chain in Newfoundland outright in 1995, and soon after began implementing its own private-label products and store designs at these locations. Ultimately Dominion's traditional "Big D" logo

135-437: A number of locations into the "market" or superstore formats. Whereas there were roughly six locations in the early 2000s in St. John's proper (and many more in years past), there are now only three Dominion stores in the city, none built before 2000. This transition culminated with the opening of a Dominion on the site of the former Memorial Stadium in St. John's in 2007. Coincident with that opening, two medium-size locations in

162-667: A wave of mall renovations in many parts of the country. Alberta stores were acquired by Safeway in the late 1960s. Much of the remainder of the chain in eastern and central Canada was ultimately acquired by Loblaw Companies , through several unrelated transactions: In 1985, during the chain's breakup, the Argus-controlled Dominion Stores Ltd.—renamed Domgroup Ltd. in April 1986—withdrew $ 37.9 million from its defined benefit pension plan for Canadian employees. The amount represented an actuarial surplus in

189-492: The Ontario Supreme Court of Justice ordered Domgroup to return the money to the plan, stating in his judgment that Dominion "had no right, under the plan documents, to remove the surplus". Domgroup eventually reached a settlement with the union to withdraw a portion of the surplus. A&P placed the stores it acquired in 1985 under a subsidiary named New Dominion Stores Inc., and initially operated them under

216-550: The "New Dominion" name (later adjusting the branding to "Super Dominion"). During a one-year transition period, these stores co-existed in Ontario with the "old" Dominion stores that Argus hadn't sold to A&P, causing customer confusion. At one point during this period, the head of A&P Canada said he called Black personally to ensure the Argus-owned stores' marketing abided by the sale contract, as some ads had referenced those stores still being Canadian-owned (whereas A&P

243-569: The A&;P or Food Basics name. The territory of Dominion stores was approximately the following: Toronto ; York Region , excluding Stouffville ; Mississauga and Oakville ; and Pickering and Ajax . Metro, which had operated solely in Quebec and the Ottawa area, acquired A&P Canada from the U.S.-based parent company effective August 15, 2005. A&P retained a minority ownership share of

270-623: The Argus Corporation. Moving the Dominion holdings into the Hollinger Inc. portion of Argus, Dominion was stripped of cash from the daily flow. A&P's Canadian division, A&P Canada , acquired 92 of Dominion's prime locations in Ontario, as well as a head office, warehouses, and rights to the Dominion name from Hollinger in 1985, the final year of Black's sell off of virtually all previous holdings of Argus Corporation. The chain's remaining assets were sold piecemeal over

297-495: The Dominion brand. In 1976, Dominion Stores announced a joint venture with Newfoundland conglomerate Baine, Johnston & Co., to operate the latter's wholesale division, which was renamed Donovans Wholesale Ltd. Eight years later, in 1984, the companies agreed to combine their retail and wholesale food operations under local management, adding the 13 Dominion stores in the province to the venture. The following year, Argus Corporation under new owner Conrad Black began to break up

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324-586: The building's earlier life, and plastic seats were installed later, towards the beginning of the arena’s AHL tenure. Memorial Stadium closed in 2001, replaced by Mary Brown’s Centre . The interior structure of the building was later torn down, and in July 2006, after much controversy, construction started on a new Dominion supermarket. Coincidentally, the parent company of Dominion in Newfoundland, Loblaw Companies , converted part of Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto ,

351-511: The chain has shared branding and marketing with other Loblaw operations—particularly, since August 2024, Real Atlantic Superstore and Real Canadian Superstore —while maintaining the historic "Dominion" name. The chain began as Ayre's Supermarkets, a division of local department store chain Ayre and Sons , which operated five locations in St. John's by 1959. It was acquired by Argus Corporation via Dominion Stores Ltd. in 1963, eventually adopting

378-583: The combined company for a time. On August 7, 2008, Metro announced it would invest $ 200 million consolidating the company's conventional food stores under the Metro banner. Over a period of 15 months, all stores were converted to the Metro name, beginning with the Dominion stores in the Toronto area. Dominion's distribution centres in Toronto and Mississauga retained the old Dominion banner until 2009. Memorial Stadium (St. John%27s) Memorial Stadium

405-477: The east end of St. John's (older General Supermarket locations acquired in the early 1990s) were closed, while a third ( Churchill Square ) was converted to a SaveEasy . As a result, it is believed that all Dominion stores in the province have now been transitioned to the newer formats. Since then, SaveEasy in Churchill Square has closed. Most of the previous Newfoundland Drive location is now occupied by

432-673: The growth. During the Depression, Dominion lost both founders: Jackson went bankrupt and Pentland was killed in an auto accident in 1933. Dominion's leadership was not resolved until 1939, when J. William Horsey became president. He in turn sold Dominion Stores to Argus Corporation . Smaller stores were consolidated from 574 to 195 by 1954. In the 1950s, Dominion began to build large stores with airy ceilings and large glass fronts. The chain also expanded beyond Toronto to other parts of Ontario, Quebec, Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Atlantic Canada. In 1978, Conrad Black took control of

459-447: The maple leaf "L" logo used by Superstore and No Frills) though again remaining under the "Dominion" banner. In certain national advertising and e-commerce contexts, the chain has been referenced only with the maple leaf logo and the text "Stores in Newfoundland and Labrador", as Loblaw does not have rights to use the "Dominion" name across Canada. In all respects other than name, the majority of Dominion stores in Newfoundland operate with

486-479: The national chain, including the sale of most Ontario stores and the rights to the name to A&P Canada ; at that point, Dominion Stores Ltd. owned 60% of the Newfoundland operations. By 1987, the latter had been fully sold to Baine Johnston. Soon after, these stores were merged with two smaller local chains; the newly- amalgamated operating company was named Amalco Foods, but the combined chain's brand name remained "Dominion". Later in 1987, Baine Johnston announced

513-568: The next two years. In northwestern Ontario , Safeway acquired at least two stores in Thunder Bay . (Safeway's presence in Thunder Bay prevents Metro from offering Air Miles at its Thunder Bay locations.) In Western Canada , Dominion stores were closed, leaving many suburban shopping malls scrambling to fill large, now-vacant sections. This event, coupled with the subsequent collapse of several department store chains, sparked

540-619: The plan, and Dominion had approval from the provincial regulator, the Pension Commission of Ontario (a predecessor entity to the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario ) to make the withdrawal. However, the right to make that withdrawal was challenged by the union representing the employees, the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union . In September 1986, Justice Robert Reid of

567-537: The province were selected by the Newfoundland and Labrador Liquor Corporation to operate licensed cannabis retail outlets. In August 2024, alongside the rebranding of Loblaw's major market supermarkets in the Maritime provinces from Atlantic Superstore to Real Atlantic Superstore , Dominion stores similarly adopted revised branding and new pricing practices based on those of Real Canadian Superstore (including

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594-535: The rights to the brand sold to The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company (A&P), which restricted the chain to the Greater Toronto Area . Stores elsewhere in Ontario were converted to the A&P banner, and others were sold to third parties. A&P's Canadian division was later acquired by Metro Inc. , which rebranded the remaining Dominion stores to its namesake banner in 2008. Dominion started from one Toronto store on May 23, 1919. The store

621-681: The same appearance and format as the company's flagship Loblaws and Atlantic Superstore supermarkets, with some St. John's area locations being similar in format to the Loblaw-owned Real Canadian Superstore . Since 2002, these locations have in fact been operated as part of the Atlantic Superstore unit, with nearly identical advertising campaigns to Atlantic Superstore, and at various points sharing close similarities with both Real Canadian Superstore and Loblaws. The chain has relocated or consolidated

648-622: Was a 4,190-seat multi-purpose arena , in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador , Canada. St. John's previous indoor arena, Prince's Rink , burned down in November 1941, but the demands of the Second World War prevented the city from replacing it until well after the war ended. In 1948, a Citizens' Committee was established to raise funds to build a new arena to be named in honour of Newfoundlanders who died in that war. Fundraising went slowly until in 1954, St. John's City Council floated

675-463: Was based in the U.S. and controlled by Germany's Tengelmann Group ). Most of the remaining "old" Dominion stores ultimately closed in early 1986, ahead of A&P gaining exclusive rights to the name on April 30. Beginning a few months after the acquisition, and continuing into the 1990s, A&P rebranded all of its stores in the Greater Toronto Area as Dominion stores, absorbing Miracle Food Mart , while Dominion locations elsewhere in Ontario took

702-520: Was founded by American businessmen Robert Jackson of New Hampshire and William J. Pentland of Connecticut. Pentland was manager of A&P stores in Connecticut and was hired by Jackson. By the end of 1919, they had a 20-store chain of which 18 were acquired from rival Loblaws . A year later, they had 61 stores. In 1929, Dominion tried to acquire a stake in Loblaws, but the stock market crash ended

729-474: Was replaced with a derivative of the Loblaws logo, rotated to look like a D instead of an L. Circa 2017, renovated Dominion stores changed the orientation of the logo to match the Loblaws logo. This version was only intermittently used in advertising, with flyers soon reverting to the "D" version. Loblaws stated that it would continue to use the Dominion brand in the region. In 2018, ten Dominion stores across

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