Talk:Warehouse club/Archives/2020

Missing one of the originators of Warehouse Club Stores

Not sure what your exact definition as a qualifier as a Warehouse/Club store but I can honestly say that I do not see a difference between what Steve Stavro (former owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs) accomplished in 1963 compared to today's Bj's, Costco and Sam's. Knob Hill Farms did not require a membership to shop but did create loyalty programs and for-fee programs. KHF was more than a Big Box store as it focused on both shelf-stable foods but mostly farm to table perishables fruits, vegetables and full-service butchers on site. Stavro took his successful large format grocery store in downtown Toronto and created the first 65,000 sq foot Warehouse store in a northern suburb of Toronto and called it the Knob Hill Farms "The food terminal", however he started to add more non-food items, that complimented the food e.g. Olive oil bottles to decant the HQ canned Olive Oil from Italy.

He expanded into I think 6-7 locations throughout the greater Toronto area, expanding out to Oshawa, West of Toronto, and Pickering to the East the 1970's(?). I recall one store marketed as the 'largest store in North America', I think it was billed as 1/4 million square feet. In the late 70's is when KHF added more non-food products, clothing, toys, books, appliances and then more services, Dry cleaning, Dentist office, Photo labs, Alcohol, etc

When I worked at Coca-Cola in early 1990's, I had to sit in his waiting room for over 4-hours to receive a cheque on his past due account. My boss said I could not come back to the office without Stavros' cheque. Stavro was way ahead of his time.

Blair Vance Blair.vance@comcast.net Plugger2222 (talk) 16:22, 13 August 2020 (UTC)