The Eatons: The Rise and Fall of Canada's Royal Family

Rating:
Summary: 'Are You Being Served?'
Review: A few years ago, the wonderful British comedy 'Are You Being Served' on Public Television portrayed a delightful group of store clerks and supervisors in a parody -- some might say a documentary -- of a traditional London department store.

At 'Grace Brothers' the counter clerks were superb, the floor walker was properly pompous but utterly decent, the supervisors clueless and the store owners were totally befuddled but always wonderful. It was fiction, it was funny. Had been set in Canada, it would have been 'The Eaton's.'

Instead, this superb book is available. It bears out Marx's observation that all history appears twice, "the first time as tragedy, the second as farce." McQueen has written the tragedy, hopefully some clever Canadian comedian is now writing the comedy.

So, what does a Canadian book about an unknown department store offer American readers? It's the painful story of how a family can totally ruin a revered national institution through their own hubris, arrogance, indifference and plain ignorance. I've seen it happen in some businesses within two generations; the Eaton family was more typical in that it took four generations.

The lesson is that times change. In 1870, when Eaton's was just starting, store goods were sometimes expensive, shoddy and unsuitable and unreliable. Timothy Eaton realized the most important guarantee for a customer was five words, "Goods satisfactory or money refunded." Today, most consumer goods have consistent quality, guarantees are almost automatic and customers look for something different -- price.

It's why Wal-Mart succeeds; its stores are big charmless boxes with indifferent clerks and mass anonymity. But the attraction is a reputation for low prices. It's why Amazon dot com succeeds; the Internet makes it possible to combine low prices with superb service. The four Eaton brothers who ran the chain -- which once had almost 60 percent of Canada's department store sales -- were oblivious to change. They committed the worst sin in business, instead of adapting "they did as Daddy did." The title for the musical comedy of this story will be "How to Go Bankrupt Without Really Trying."

Sure, other stores collapse. Where's Woolworth's these days? Look at Sears. Add up the J.C. Penney balance sheet. In Arizona, the Goldwater stores that funded the political career of Barry Goldwater vanished. This book details, sometimes with agonizing reality, why even a national institution can be reduced to irrelevancy.

One example may suffice. Some years ago, Eaton's stocked a particular item that invariably sold out within days. To solve the problem, the item was dropped because they couldn't keep it on the shelves. Wal-Mart would have ordered more and put it on sale to attract customers; Eaton's was embarrassed by empty shelves. Add up thousands of such petty mistakes by owners who ran Eaton's on the basis of offering customers what they should have instead of what they wanted, and you have the recipe for disaster. McQueen is unsparing in this portrait of self-indulgent arrogance.

Anyone who deals with customers will benefit if they read it on the basis, "Do we do that?" I've seen the Eaton attitude in a dozen or more family businesses, run by owners who have the emphasize "We've got the money to pay the bills" instead of responding to customers' wants. When anything replaces customer satisfaction, the business is headed for decline.

Eaton's did it, going from the most revered department store in Canada to bankruptcy within a generation. Anyone can do it if they follow Eaton's formula of elitist indifference to customers -- it's not patented. Many people will do it, even without reading this book. Some who want to avoid it will read this book. An old saying nicely expresses its value, "A smart person learns from his mistakes, a wise person learns from the mistakes of others."

Rating:
Summary: 'Are You Being Served?'
Review: A few years ago, the wonderful British comedy `Are You Being Served' on Public Television portrayed a delightful group of store clerks and supervisors in a parody -- some might say a documentary -- of a traditional London department store.

At `Grace Brothers' the counter clerks were superb, the floor walker was properly pompous but utterly decent, the supervisors clueless and the store owners were totally befuddled but always wonderful. It was fiction, it was funny. Had been set in Canada, it would have been `The Eaton's.'

Instead, this superb book is available. It bears out Marx's observation that all history appears twice, "the first time as tragedy, the second as farce." McQueen has written the tragedy, hopefully some clever Canadian comedian is now writing the comedy.

So, what does a Canadian book about an unknown department store offer American readers? It's the painful story of how a family can totally ruin a revered national institution through their own hubris, arrogance, indifference and plain ignorance. I've seen it happen in some businesses within two generations; the Eaton family was more typical in that it took four generations.

The lesson is that times change. In 1870, when Eaton's was just starting, store goods were sometimes expensive, shoddy and unsuitable and unreliable. Timothy Eaton realized the most important guarantee for a customer was five words, "Goods satisfactory or money refunded." Today, most consumer goods have consistent quality, guarantees are almost automatic and customers look for something different -- price.

It's why Wal-Mart succeeds; its stores are big charmless boxes with indifferent clerks and mass anonymity. But the attraction is a reputation for low prices. It's why Amazon dot com succeeds; the Internet makes it possible to combine low prices with superb service. The four Eaton brothers who ran the chain -- which once had almost 60 percent of Canada's department store sales -- were oblivious to change. They committed the worst sin in business, instead of adapting "they did as Daddy did." The title for the musical comedy of this story will be "How to Go Bankrupt Without Really Trying."

Sure, other stores collapse. Where's Woolworth's these days? Look at Sears. Add up the J.C. Penney balance sheet. In Arizona, the Goldwater stores that funded the political career of Barry Goldwater vanished. This book details, sometimes with agonizing reality, why even a national institution can be reduced to irrelevancy.

One example may suffice. Some years ago, Eaton's stocked a particular item that invariably sold out within days. To solve the problem, the item was dropped because they couldn't keep it on the shelves. Wal-Mart would have ordered more and put it on sale to attract customers; Eaton's was embarrassed by empty shelves. Add up thousands of such petty mistakes by owners who ran Eaton's on the basis of offering customers what they should have instead of what they wanted, and you have the recipe for disaster. McQueen is unsparing in this portrait of self-indulgent arrogance.

Anyone who deals with customers will benefit if they read it on the basis, "Do we do that?" I've seen the Eaton attitude in a dozen or more family businesses, run by owners who have the emphasize "We've got the money to pay the bills" instead of responding to customers' wants. When anything replaces customer satisfaction, the business is headed for decline.

Eaton's did it, going from the most revered department store in Canada to bankruptcy within a generation. Anyone can do it if they follow Eaton's formula of elitist indifference to customers -- it's not patented. Many people will do it, even without reading this book. Some who want to avoid it will read this book. An old saying nicely expresses its value, "A smart person learns from his mistakes, a wise person learns from the mistakes of others."

Rating:
Summary: GREAT BOOK!
Review: So many people have such wonderful memories of this great store and of this great family. Others have not so fond memories. Either way, people who knew of the famous Canadian Retail Giant, no matter how they remember Eaton's will likely find something of interest in this book.
The Eaton's: The Rise and Fall of Canada's Royal Family chronicles the story of Eaton's from successful beginning, to tragic end, focusing mainly on what the private, and yet public family was like.
To Americans, this book will really give a story of Canada's own enormously wealthy family, and how they lived. We aren't just a country full of beavers and "EH"'s.
If you know nothing about this amazing store and family, or you know much, but want to learn more, this Great Book is definetely a must have.

Rating:
Summary: Authors' mean spirited commentary hurts otherwise great book
Review: To read the story of Eaton's is to read the history of Canada and Toronto in particular. What starts off as a well-researched and interesting story is increasingly hurt by the authors' obvious dislike of the family. (Whom he admits in the prologue did not want the book written) Still the book was interesting and filled with titbits that Canadians in particular will enjoy learning. The authors' synopsis that Eaton's failed because the family never took to the time to really understand retail could also have been applied to his own attempt to chronicle a business he never seems to have a grasp on.

Rating:
Summary: A flawed but fascinating book
Review: When I was very young I was with my mother and sister visiting relatives in a big city. One day I found myself sitting in a restaurant next to a young man, Nicolas, whose wealthy father, a friend of the family, had invited us to tea. The young man made no secret of his boredom, yawning widely and frequently. Searching for a topic that might lift his ennui, I asked him: "Do you drive a car?" He smirked and, holding up a couple of fingers, said: "No, I drive TWO cars."

That is the type of hubris Rod McQueen depicts in his book about the rise and fall of Eaton's, Canada's famous chain of department stores. The four brothers who ultimately presided over the store's demise were cut from the same cloth as that long-ago Nicolas.

McQueen's book excels at guiding the reader through the financial sleights of hand performed by the various companies owned by the Eatons while the store itself marched toward its relentless demise. The author does not draw an appealing portrait of the Eatons, and most people would not dispute this depiction. However, his contempt is so blatant it detracts from what should be a more balanced account. He chides Eaton's for being slow to hire French-speaking staff in Quebec, but I lived in Montreal during the 'sixties and I recall that their catalogue order takers spoke English with a thick francophone accent. McQueen correctly shows the family coping with financial woes through excessive staff cutbacks starting in the 'seventies, but he fails to mention that this was a national phenomenon of the day, and applied to The Bay and other large stores as well. Thus began the rise of the small boutique.

Finally, McQueen's thesis about the difficulties of retailing in Canada and of Eaton's in particular is often indisputable. Yet some unflattering latter day comparisons do not seem quite fair. He contrasts a failing Canadian mall in the small free-standing city of Sarnia, Ontario with a thriving one in Troy, Michigan. Troy, although smaller, is close to the large population of metropolitan Detroit. Also, McQueen does not address all the issues. Malls fail everywhere, and not just in Canada. Many American malls near the border depend on Canadian shoppers and they fell on hard times when Canada's dollar did.

The book is, however, well worth the read, especially as it tells the fascinating tale of the beginning of the business in Toronto that was launched by Timothy Eaton in 1869. Parts of the history could do with more fleshing out, yet despite his bias, McQueen does make his case about what happens when a store's owners stop minding the store.

Rating:
Summary: A flawed but fascinating book
Review: When I was very young I was with my mother and sister visiting relatives in a big city. One day I found myself sitting in a restaurant next to a young man, Nicolas, whose wealthy father, a friend of the family, had invited us to tea. The young man made no secret of his boredom, yawning widely and frequently. Searching for a topic that might lift his ennui, I asked him: "Do you drive a car?" He smirked and, holding up a couple of fingers, said: "No, I drive TWO cars."

That is the type of hubris Rod McQueen depicts in his book about the rise and fall of Eaton's, Canada's famous chain of department stores. The four brothers who ultimately presided over the store's demise were cut from the same cloth as that long-ago Nicolas.

McQueen's book excels at guiding the reader through the financial sleights of hand performed by the various companies owned by the Eatons while the store itself marched toward its relentless demise. The author does not draw an appealing portrait of the Eatons, and most people would not dispute this depiction. However, his contempt is so blatant it detracts from what should be a more balanced account. He chides Eaton's for being slow to hire French-speaking staff in Quebec, but I lived in Montreal during the 'sixties and I recall that their catalogue order takers spoke English with a thick francophone accent. McQueen correctly shows the family coping with financial woes through excessive staff cutbacks starting in the 'seventies, but he fails to mention that this was a national phenomenon of the day, and applied to The Bay and other large stores as well. Thus began the rise of the small boutique.

Finally, McQueen's thesis about the difficulties of retailing in Canada and of Eaton's in particular is often indisputable. Yet some unflattering latter day comparisons do not seem quite fair. He contrasts a failing Canadian mall in the small free-standing city of Sarnia, Ontario with a thriving one in Troy, Michigan. Troy, although smaller, is close to the large population of metropolitan Detroit. Also, McQueen does not address all the issues. Malls fail everywhere, and not just in Canada. Many American malls near the border depend on Canadian shoppers and they fell on hard times when Canada's dollar did.

The book is, however, well worth the read, especially as it tells the fascinating tale of the beginning of the business in Toronto that was launched by Timothy Eaton in 1869. Parts of the history could do with more fleshing out, yet despite his bias, McQueen does make his case about what happens when a store's owners stop minding the store.