Decline
Trouble started brewing for the chain after the death of Sam Steinberg in 1978; his laissez-faire dealings with the union and lack of a succession plan for the company began its decline. Things worsened rapidly when a power struggle developed between his daughter Mitzi, her husband Mel Dobrin, daughter Marilyn Steinberg Cobrin and daughter Evelyn Steinberg.
The Miracle Food Mart and Ultra Food & Drug stores in Ontario were sold to A&P Canada, who converted the Miracle Food Mart stores to its "A&P" and "Dominion" banners. The Ottawa locations of Steinberg's were bought by Loblaws and either converted to "Loblaws" or "Your Independent Grocer" banners or closed outright.
By the end of the 1980s, rising costs and increased competition were taking their toll, and Steinberg's was placed on the auction block for an estimated $1.5 billion. The Ontario-based Loblaws chain initially attempted to acquire Steinberg's, a move blocked by the Quebec provincial government on nationalist grounds. They arranged for the firm to be purchased by Socanav, a shipping firm with no experience in retail.
Read more about this topic: Steinberg's (supermarket)
Famous quotes containing the word decline:
“We can recognize the dawn and the decline of love by the uneasiness we feel when alone together.”
—Jean De La Bruyère (1645–1696)
“The chief misery of the decline of the faculties, and a main cause of the irritability that often goes with it, is evidently the isolation, the lack of customary appreciation and influence, which only the rarest tact and thoughtfulness on the part of others can alleviate.”
—Charles Horton Cooley (1864–1929)
“Or else I thought her supernatural;
As though a sterner eye looked through her eye
On this foul world in its decline and fall,
On gangling stocks grown great, great stocks run dry,
Ancestral pearls all pitched into a sty,
Heroic reverie mocked by clown and knave....”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)