carlo@electro.UUCP (Carlo Sgro) (11/02/88)
On the way in to work this morning, my wife and I got into a discussion about wealth, farmers, and grocery stores. In this discussion, she stated that: a) the Weston family owns most of the chain grocery stores in North America, and b) they own over 200 big-name companies. Now I can sort of believe the latter (although I am wary of the 200 figure) but I really don't buy the former. Does anyone have any idea about the validity of these statements? What companies do they own, anyway? -- Carlo Sgro NET POLICE WARNING: .signatures that watmath!watcgl!electro!carlo are too long will be trunc
soley@ontenv.UUCP (soley) (11/03/88)
In article <164@electro.UUCP>, carlo@electro.UUCP (Carlo Sgro) writes: > > What companies do they own, anyway? Loblaws, Gordons, Zehrs in Canada. Bells and National Supermarkets in the US probably more too. The Weston empire has nowhere near the ubiquity that the Thompson family has in other retail sectors, there are only three large retailers in the country Eatons, Sears, and the Thompson empire (Bay, Simpsons Zellers, and many more)
36_5130@uwovax.uwo.ca (Kinch) (11/03/88)
In article <164@electro.UUCP>, carlo@electro.UUCP (Carlo Sgro) writes: > > On the way in to work this morning, my wife and I got into a discussion > about wealth, farmers, and grocery stores. In this discussion, she stated that: > > a) the Weston family owns most of the chain grocery stores in North > America, and > b) they own over 200 big-name companies. > > Now I can sort of believe the latter (although I am wary of the 200 figure) but > I really don't buy the former. Does anyone have any idea about the validity of > these statements? What companies do they own, anyway? > > -- > > Carlo Sgro NET POLICE WARNING: .signatures that > watmath!watcgl!electro!carlo are too long will be trunc WARNING RUMOR MILL STARTING -@#$%^&*():) I heard that G. Weston makes a buck a minute 60 min/hour 24 hr/day 365 days/yr. Nothing substantial to back that up but it would not supprise me at all! Dave Kinchlea Kinch@uwovax.uwo.ca
stewartw@neptune.UUCP (Stewart Winter ) (11/05/88)
In article <250@ontenv.UUCP> soley@ontenv.UUCP (soley) writes: >the Thompson family has in other retail sectors, there are only three large >retailers in the country Eatons, Sears, and the Thompson empire (Bay, Simpsons >Zellers, and many more) Are we ignoring Dialex and Comark because they aren't Canadian owned? They certainly are getting lots of our money! -- Stewart Winter Cognos Incorporated P.O. Box 9707 VOICE: (613) 738-1440 FAX: (613) 738-0002 3755 Riverside Dr. UUCP: uunet!cognos!neptune!stewartw Ottawa, Ontario "Now featuring ... blue masked lovebirds" CANADA K1G 3Z4
clewis@ecicrl.UUCP (Chris Lewis) (11/05/88)
In article <164@electro.UUCP> carlo@electro.UUCP (Carlo Sgro) writes: >On the way in to work this morning, my wife and I got into a discussion >about wealth, farmers, and grocery stores. In this discussion, she stated that: > a) the Weston family owns most of the chain grocery stores in North > America, and > b) they own over 200 big-name companies. >Now I can sort of believe the latter (although I am wary of the 200 figure) but >I really don't buy the former. Does anyone have any idea about the validity of >these statements? What companies do they own, anyway? Loblaws Corp is enormous, but I thing that "most" is a bit overstated (as might be "own" as well....). They have by far the largest part of the Canadian market (eg: Mr. Grocer and several of the larger Quebec chains). They also own quite a number of big US chains - interestingly enough, most of the employees of the US chains don't know it - unamerican you know. Wish I could remember the other major names I heard. -- Chris Lewis Ferret Mailing list:{uunet!attcan,yunexus,utzoo}!lsuc!gate!eci386!ferret-request {uunet!attcan,uunet,utgpu,yunexus,utzoo}!lsuc!ecicrl!clewis (or lsuc!gate!eci386!clewis or lsuc!clewis)
woods@gpu.utcs.toronto.edu (Greg Woods) (11/06/88)
In article <164@electro.UUCP> carlo@electro.UUCP (Carlo Sgro) writes: > > a) the Weston family owns most of the chain grocery stores in North > America, and > b) they own over 200 big-name companies. > >Now I can sort of believe the latter (although I am wary of the 200 figure) but >I really don't buy the former. Does anyone have any idea about the validity of >these statements? What companies do they own, anyway? They do own/control a lot of stores and make a lot of money: (from the 1986 annual report for Loblaw Companies Ltd.): USA: 35 % of Loblaw Companies' sales ($2.74 billion) Western CANADA: 25.9 % of sales (2.03 billion) Eastern CANADA: 39.1 % of sales (3.07 billion) Total income: $7.839 billion. Total net earnings: $74 million. Total assets: $1.978 billion. 258 stores in Eastern CANADA 53 stores in Western CANADA 130 stores in the USA 171 franchises of Peter J. Schmitt Co., Inc. in the USA 21 corporate Peter J. Schmitt Co., Inc. stores in the USA (Peter J. Schmitt Co., Inc. is, I believe, owned entirely by Loblaw's.) (There were 380 retail stores, 62 cash & carry units, 1,483 franchised accounts, and 19,803 unaffiliated accounts at the end of 1986.) I've not seen an annual report for George Weston Ltd. I'm not sure of the relationship between George Weston and Wittington Investments, Ltd., which I believe, is at the top of the pyramid. Under Loblaw Companies Ltd. there are seven "big name" companies, of which one is Central Canada Grocers Inc., which in turn controls five more well known companies. -- Greg Woods. UUCP: utgpu!woods, utgpu!ontmoh!woods, lsuc!gate!woods VOICE: (416)443-1734 [h], (416)595-5425 [w] LOCATION: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
clarke@csri.toronto.edu (Jim Clarke) (11/10/88)
In article <885@uwovax.uwo.ca> 36_5130@uwovax.uwo.ca (Kinch) writes: >... >I heard that G. Weston makes a buck a minute 60 min/hour 24 hr/day 365 >days/yr. Nothing substantial to back that up but it would not supprise >me at all! It would surprise me. That's only about $500,000 a year. (Occasionally useful mnemonic: there are about pi * 10**7 seconds in a year.) -- Jim Clarke -- Dept. of Computer Science, Univ. of Toronto, Canada M5S 1A4 (416) 978-4058 BITNET,CSNET: clarke@csri.toronto.edu CDNNET: clarke@csri.toronto.cdn UUCP: {allegra,cornell,decvax,linus,utzoo}!utcsri!clarke
dave@lsuc.uucp (David Sherman) (11/11/88)
>I heard that G. Weston makes a buck a minute 60 min/hour 24 hr/day 365 >days/yr. Nothing substantial to back that up but it would not supprise >me at all! > >Dave Kinchlea Kinch@uwovax.uwo.ca That's $525,600 per year. For the CEO of a large organization, it's certainly not out of line. There are plenty of executives around who make more. Ever wonder where the money comes from to pay for all the houses in the Toronto area that cost $800,000 or $1.2 million? There's a *lot* of money floating around. (Even professionals with what I used to think were "reasonable" professional incomes can't afford houses any more.) Followups to can.politix. David Sherman -- { uunet!attcan att pyramid!utai utzoo } !lsuc!dave
kornellm@cpsc.ucalgary.ca (Mark Kornell) (11/11/88)
In article <885@uwovax.uwo.ca>, 36_5130@uwovax.uwo.ca (Kinch) writes: > I heard that G. Weston makes a buck a minute 60 min/hour 24 hr/day 365 > days/yr. Nothing substantial to back that up but it would not supprise > me at all! > > Dave Kinchlea Kinch@uwovax.uwo.ca If you do your math (use your calculator :-) and multiply 60 x 24 x 365 you get just over half a million. ($525600) This seems quite a bit low if the man owns 200 stores, let alone a "financial" empire. Mark ================================================================================ > The meek shall inherit the earth -- | Mark Kornell < > in plots 6 feet by 3 feet | kornellm@cpsc.UCalgary.CA < > (but they do get mineral rights) | Kornell@UNCAMULT <