A First Job at Simpson's

The Robert Simpson Co. Ltd., which in the day was known as Simpson’s, was a Canadian institution with its flagship department store located on Yonge St. on the south side of Queen St. Across Queen was Eaton’s, another important business in Canadian retail history. In 1968, Ingrid Shouldice got her first job working for the downtown Simpson’s store. A recent university graduate with an honours degree in sociology, she’s still mystified about what she was supposed to do in the “Methods Research” department.

After being acquired by the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1978, the Simpson’s flagship store on Yonge Street (where Shouldice worked) was eventually rebranded as a Bay location. It closed in 2025 when the Hudson’s Bay Company declared bankruptcy and closed stores across Canada.