"Honest Ed's, the iconic Toronto discount store ('There's no
place like this place. Anyplace') is up for sale and will be closing.
You may know it from its appearance in the Scott Pilgrim comic and film,
but it's been a landmark in Toronto for decades. Not a surprise, of
course, since it doesn't really fit in to today's retail landscape (they
have real hand painted signs for all their prices painted by real
honest to god sign painters that they employ full time) but of course,
that's why it's such an amazing place. It will likely be replaced by
yet another condo with ground floor stores that could be in any city in
the world and a little bit more of Toronto's personality will be gone."
I had an office facing Honest Ed's for a while -- I finished
Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town
there, and that building has always been an integral part of the
neighborhood for me. My grandparents shopped there. My parents shopped
there. I shopped there. Toronto, like all the world's cities, is being
crushed into a bland, multinational corporate sameness that makes us all
poorer, except for a few shareholders.
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