Miracle Food Mart

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Miracle Food Mart
Type	Division
Founded
Headquarters	Ontario
Industry	Grocery Retail
Products	Groceries
Owner	Steinberg Inc.

Miracle Food Mart was a supermarket chain in Ontario, Canada, owned by Steinberg's, a Quebec-based retailer in the 1970s and 1980s.

In 1973, the Miracle Food Mart division made a revolutionary move to abolish its general-image advertising and to mount a "give-'em-the-facts" consumer-oriented campaign. The program included a formal Consumer Bill of Rights, nutrition booklets, a key to the codes used to mark perishables, and clearly labeled price tags.

The supermarket flourished in the 1970s, and expanded with the Miracle Ultra Mart banner into bigger stores with a wide range of health care and general merchandise. The company spent C$30 million in improvements for its Miracle Food Marts in 1987, creating several large 24-hour food-and-drug stores called Miracle Ultra-Marts. The stores offered fresh fish and deli departments, party-planning services, kitchen centers selling microwave ovens, and hardware and electronic centers. In 1989 the chain was sold to A&P Canada. A&P converted the Miracle Food Mart stores into A&P, Dominion or Food Basics stores, but continued the Ultra Mart banner (dropping the "Miracle") which it later rebranding as Ultra Food & Drug.

Miracle Food Mart stores were often paired with Miracle Mart discount department stores (another Steinberg chain) in mall settings, but in the latter years they became stand-alone locations at smaller plazas across the Greater Toronto Area.

[edit] Locations

[edit] Ontario

• Belleville, Ontario - Quinte Mall, now a Toys R Us, East Side Mario's and Everything For A Dollar Store.
• Bramalea (Brampton) - Bramalea City Centre, now an A&P store.
• Etobicoke - Eringate Mall, Renforth Road south of Eglinton. Demolished and replaced by residential dwellings.
• Hamilton, Ontario - Gagemount
• London, Ontario - Oxbury Mall, now a Food Basics.
• Erindale (Mississauga) - Westdale Mall, now a Dominion
• Erin Mills (Mississauga) - Millway Plaza, became a Food Basics, now a Giant Tiger
• Malton (Mississauga) - Westwood Mall
• Oakville - Upper Oakville Plaza
• Scarborough - Cedarbrae Mall, now a Loblaw's
• Scarborough - Scarborough Town Centre, now lower food court and various stores
• Scarborough - Alton Towers, now Taiko Supermarket
• Simcoe, Ontario
• Thornhill, Ontario- Now a Food Basics store
• Toronto - Jane Park Plaza, now Food Basics
• Windsor, Ontario - University Mall, now an A&P.