Last trip to Honest Ed's - Toronto landmark скачать в хорошем качестве

Last trip to Honest Ed's - Toronto landmark

Well, on the off-chance you may have just recently emerged from a decade's living in a cave in Kyrgyzstan, you should know that one of Toronto's most memorable landmarks, Honest Ed's bargain store, has finally closed, ending 69 years in business. I went there the day before closing, on Dec. 30, and wanted to compare my memories of it from decades ago with the present situation. It was a stark difference. I have been in Honest Ed's during the summer, and once even dared to tour it on a day before Christmas Eve many years ago, when it was shoulder-deep in people, crushing and pushing themselves around in an seething, frothing ocean of humanity. By comparison, on this last visit, the place was stark and sterile-looking... the dozens of floor counters and racks were devoid of products, except for the very rarest spots where remaining unsold goods were gathered together in untidy piles. Almost half of those walking around were photographing rather than shopping. And upstairs, you could buy one of about 2,000 remaining small hand-made signs, posters and other promotional pieces. However, bring your shekels.... for example, one small tattered letter-size cardboard sign that was once used to advertise double-sided theatre posters for $15 was itself for sale for the princely sum of $50! (See it in the included movie). Most of the remaining goods were similarly ridiculously high-priced, with the vendors recognizing the "souvenir" value of these last end-of-the-line items available. Pricing considerations aside (I bought one of Ed's books for $10, some corporate stationery [mislabelled "stationary" by the signmaker], a movie poster [Carmen], a hand-made February Valentines cardboard heart [about 8" square and also $10!], and a couple other colour advertising posters used over the decades), it was a chance to look over the place one last time and mentally say farewell to a place as unique as any other in Toronto history. The little film below is a fast round-up and review of that final trip through 581 Bloor St. West, Toronto. Hope you can get a sense of what those closing days were like at the end of 2016!