Miracle Food Mart was a

supermarket A supermarket is a self-service shop offering a wide variety of food, beverages and household products, organized into sections. This kind of store is larger and has a wider selection than earlier grocery stores, but is smaller and more limit ...

chain in

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

, owned by Steinberg's, a

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirte ...

-based retailer in the 1970s and 1980s. Steinberg purchased the Canadian division of Grand Union, with 38 stores, in June 1959 to make its entrance into Ontario. These stores operated under the ''Steinberg banner'' until January 1969, when the marketing program of "Miracle Discount Pricing" was introduced and the entire chain of stores was converted to the ''Miracle Food Mart'' banner. The marketing philosophy was a simple one, reduce all of the "fancy" advertising such as colour flyers, television and radio spots and offer everyday items at deeply reduced prices as a line item within the weekly black & white flyer. This move proved to be successful as the chain expanded quickly (to approximately 80 stores) over the next ten years, gaining a substantial increase in market share. In 1973, the Miracle Food Mart division made a revolutionary move to abolish its general-image advertising and to mount a "give-'em-the-facts" consumer-oriented campaign. The program included a formal Consumer Bill of Rights, nutrition booklets, a key to the codes used to mark perishables, and clearly labelled price tags. The supermarket flourished in the 1970s, and expanded with the Miracle Ultra Mart banner into bigger stores with a wide range of health care and general merchandise. The company spent C$30 million in improvements for its Miracle Food Marts in 1987, creating several large 24-hour food-and-drug stores called Miracle Ultra-Marts. The stores offered fresh fish and deli departments, party-planning services, kitchen centres selling microwave ovens, and hardware and electronic centres. In 1989, the chain was sold to

A&P Canada A&P Canada Company was a Canadian supermarket company that operated from 1927 until 2009, when its stores were rebranded under the Metro name by Metro Inc. History In 1927, A&P opened its first stores in Canada. By 1929, A&P was present in 20 ...

. A&P converted the Miracle Food Mart stores into A&P,

Dominion The term ''Dominion'' is used to refer to one of several self-governing nations of the British Empire. "Dominion status" was first accorded to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Newfoundland, South Africa, and the Irish Free State at the 1926 ...

Food Basics Food Basics Ltd. is a Canadian supermarket chain owned by Metro Inc. The company operates over 130 stores throughout Ontario. History Food Basics was created by A&P Canada to compete with the successful No Frills warehouse-style supermarket ...

stores, but continued the Ultra Mart banner (dropping the "Miracle"), which it later rebranded as Ultra Food & Drug. Miracle Food Mart stores were often paired with

Miracle Mart Miracle Mart was a chain of discount department stores with locations in Ontario and Quebec, Canada based in Saint-Laurent, Quebec. The chain was renamed to simply M in the mid-1980s. History The company was founded in early 1961 as Miracle M ...

discount department stores (another Steinberg chain) in mall settings, some operating as one Miracle Beaucoup store. But in the latter years, they became stand-alone locations at smaller plazas across the

Greater Toronto Area The Greater Toronto Area, commonly referred to as the GTA, includes the City of Toronto and the regional municipalities of Durham, Halton, Peel, and York. In total, the region contains 25 urban, suburban, and rural municipalities. The Greater ...

Locations

Ontario

Most locations continue to be used as supermarkets, but some have been redeveloped for other retail or non-retail used:

References

{{The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company 1969 establishments in Ontario 1994 disestablishments in Ontario Retail companies disestablished in 1994 Defunct supermarkets of Canada Retail companies established in 1969 The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company

Locations

Ontario

See also

References