Winners Merchants International L.P. is a chain of

off-price Off-price is a trading format based on Discounts and allowances, discount pricing. Off-price retailers are independent of manufacturers and buy large volumes of branded goods directly from them. The off-price retail model relies on the purchase of ...

Canadian

department store A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store under one roof, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store mad ...

s owned by

TJX Companies The TJX Companies, Inc. (abbreviated TJX) is an American multinational off-price department store corporation, headquartered in Framingham, Massachusetts. It was formed as a subsidiary of Zayre Corp. in 1987, and became the legal successor t ...

. Its market niche is similar to the American chain

TJ Maxx TJ Maxx (stylized as T•J•maxx) is an American discount department store chain. It has more than 1,000 stores in the United States, making it one of the largest clothing retailers in the country. TJ Maxx is the flagship chain of the TJX Comp ...

, and it is a partnered retailer to department stores

HomeSense HomeSense (stylized as Homesense in Europe and the United States) is a Canadian chain of discount home furnishing stores owned by TJX Companies. It originated in Canada in 2001, and was expanded to Europe in 2008 and the United States in 2017. O ...

and

Marshalls Marshalls, Inc. is an American chain of discount store, off-price department stores owned by TJX Companies. Marshalls has over 1,000 American stores, including larger stores named Marshalls Mega Store (stores operating with HomeGoods combined), ...

History and format

Winners was founded in 1982 by David Margolis in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

, Ontario. It was one of the first off-price department stores in Canada. In 1990, it merged with off-price department store owner

. Winners offers brand-name clothing, footwear, bedding, furniture, fine jewelry, beauty products, and housewares. Products are at a 20-60% discount rate, and the stores generally do not carry the same merchandise for an entire season. The discounts are in large part due to the company buying excess or end-of-season merchandise from other stores, as well as its connections with TJ Maxx. The firm does not sell online. Since late 2001, Winners stores have been paired with

, a home accessory retailer, modelled on TJX's American

HomeGoods HomeGoods is a chain of home furnishing stores headquartered in Framingham, Massachusetts Framingham () is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts, United States. Incorporated in 1700, it is located in Midd ...

stores. Winners acquired the struggling "Labels" brand from

Dylex Dylex Limited was one of Canada's largest retailers during the 1970s and 1980s, where it operated a number of specialty retail stores, including womenswear, menswear and family stores, including BiWay, a large and now defunct Canadian discount c ...

in 2001. Labels had been meant to compete with Winners, but never succeeded; most of its stores have been turned into Homesense stores.

Les Ailes de la Mode Les Ailes de la Mode Inc. was a Quebec department store chain. Its flagship store was in downtown Montreal and was the anchor tenant of the Montreal Eaton Centre. Les Ailes de la Mode also subleased a section of their department stores to Bowrin ...

opened a similar concept under the Labels banner after Winners did not renew its trademark on the name.

Controversy

In 2016,

CBC Television CBC Television (also known as CBC TV, or simply CBC) is a Television in Canada, Canadian English-language terrestrial television, broadcast television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcasting, p ...

's ''

Marketplace A marketplace, market place, or just market, is a location where people regularly gather for the purchase and sale of provisions, livestock, and other goods. In different parts of the world, a marketplace may be described as a ''souk'' (from ...

'' investigated Winners' "compared at" pricing and found that retail price of the manufacture could be misleading and inaccurate. For example, one pair of pants was "on sale for $29.99, with a 'compare at' price of $80, or more than 60 per cent off. But next to the tag asanother tag with the manufacturer's suggested retail price: $29.99, the same amount that Winners was charging." Winners responded by defending their "compared at" prices as accurate and fair, but acknowledged that "sometimes errors can occur" due to the volume of merchandise received by stores. In a follow-up letter to ''Marketplace'', Winners was able to verify every "compared at" price for 20 of the 21 items that ''Marketplace'' had investigated, by finding the items at the "compared at" prices at a comparable retailer. For the remaining item, Winners admitted that it was an error on their part and pledged to fix the mismatch.

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1982 establishments in Ontario Companies based in Mississauga Canadian brands Department stores of Canada Discount stores of Canada Retail companies established in 1982 TJX Companies 1990 mergers and acquisitions

History and format

Controversy

See also

References

External links