Kingston Chain Grocery/Supermarket Locations, 1948-2000 and 2018

2 Comments

1. 

   carlb

   31 October 2026 at 1:29 pm

   Reply

   “3 W Maintou Cres, Amherstview” should be 3 Manitou Crescent West in Amherstview. Foodland is still there as the primary (or lone) supper market for this outer suburb.

   “152 Bagot St” was “Albert Glover, Grocer” as far back as 1900 or 1910 city directories, pre-Amodeo’s. It’s now a coin laundry.

   “600 Bagot” was part of a long four-generation history of a Bennett’s grocer in town; they abandoned this LCL franchise sometime after opening a second Loblaws-franchised supper market at 235 Gore Rd. The chain refused to let them transfer the franchise to a fifth generation, so the Bennett name is now gone (600 Bagot demolished after a few years operation by subsequent franchisee, 235 Gore Rd still a ValuMart under a different franchised operator).

   “400 Bath Road” exposes a quirk in Kingston’s numbering scheme. The city numbered Bath Road from 10 (Cloverleaf Lanes, now Splitsville) to the lower 500´s, even numbers on south side. The forker Kingston Township numbered from 250 upward, even numbers on north side directly across the Cataraqui Creek as the former city limits. The city annexed Kingston and Pittsburgh townships in Jan 1998, renumbering the township section of Bath Road so that Dominion at the Frontenac Mall (300 Bath) becomes 1300 Bath and the former Loblaw (which was swallowed by K-Mart at 600 Bath) becomes 1600 Bath. That leaves an A&P and a Dominion almost exactly 1km apart on opposite sides of the same street – so, once A&P owned Dominion, “400 Bath” was likely surplufluous. Now a Dollar Tree and a furniture store, next to a Red Lobster – with the “400 Bath” numbering still intact as this is in the pre-1998 city.

   “1300 Bath Road” (was 300) was originally a Dominion, proudly expanded to “a whole acre” of food when the mall expanded in the late seventires, and became Food Basics. The Frontenac Mall has been dying since Walmart abandoend the former Woolco footprint (now Value Village and BGC) for a purpose-built Midland Avenue building. Food Basics permanently closed its location at the Frontenac Mall (1300 Bath Road) and opened its new store at the RioCan Centre (770 Gardiners Road) in late April 2024, as part of the mall was being torn down for apartments. The former Dominion/Food Basics footprint is now GoodLife fitness.

   “1600 Bath Road” (was 600) used to have K-mart on the left, Loblaw on the right, and a small second strip mall in a right-hand outparcel with a coin laundry, Bmo, barber, Tandy/Radio Shack. The grocer closed when K-Mart expanded to the entire main building; the side-mall tenants (BMO and RS in particular) abandoned the site when the Cataraqui mall opened in 1982. K-Mart is defunct, the property is being used by Martin as a self-storage facility with West Side Stories apartments in what used to be the carpark.

   “310 Barrie” is (as of 2026) still in operation, rebranded from A&P (the original 1984 branding) to Métro. A huge store (half a city block) and primary grocer to the Queen’s ghetto. It is targetted for redevelopment as two apartment towers (tallest being 23 stories, becoming the tallest in the city) with the grocer on the ground floor of the new building. The former Dominion (now Food Basics) at “33 Barrack St” is the only other large-format grocer still open in downtown Kingston. Effectively a Métro monopoly as they own both banners – or at least a locational monopoly for Queen’s students arriving on foot and in the day claiming A&P stood for “annoying and pricey”. No longer open 24 hours/day.

   “402 Barrie” is now a local goldsmith/jeweller’s shop.

   “1030 Coverdale Dr” is still operating as No Frills.

   “1201 Division St” (Kingslake Plaza) was IGA but closed to move a Shoppers into the former grocery footprint and a Dollarama into the former Shoppers footprint. This left no grocer until No Frills opened across the street at “1162 Division St” (originally Grant’s now Tanya’s as franchisee of the same banner).

   “1162 Division St” likely opened in the same era as the 1040 Division Street Canadian Tire. Possibly the last nail in the coffin for the former Bennett’s at 600 Bagot, now deemolished, despite the geographic distance between the two. As nearby Rideau Heights is otherwise a ‘food desert’ served by only small locals like “Ken and Marg” on Montreal Street, the Division/401 exit is a rare oasis.

   “607 Johnson” was small (little more than a c-store) and, after the Zakos and Amodeo era, became Travers Groceteria under longtime city councilcritter Gord Travers. Torn down for more student housing.

   “2212 King St, Kingston” and “1955: Red & White (Carlaw’s)” don’t exist – at least in Kingston. Maybe this is data for some other city. What did exist for many years was Cowan’s Red & White at 662 King Street West. The King Street West numbering ends in the low-1000’s at the Cataraqui Creek, becoming Front Road. Cowans is now gone, leaving just a c-store to serve the former Portsmouth Village.

   “115 Livingston Av” is Bearances, a small local independent likely still extant. I have no record of it being part of a chain, although Bearance did hold the IGA franchise for Kingslake Plaza (1201 Division) at one point when that plaza still had a grocer.

   “1040 Midland Av” was purpose-built near the turn of the millennium for a Loblaw city market/”great food” which is still operating. This replaced the Cataraqui Mall location (“945 Gardiners”) which ended up as a SportCheck and a walk-in clinic below a Shoppers and beside an expanded mall food court.

   “254 Montreal St” is now residential apartments.

   “290 Princess St” closed when A&P opened a large-format 310 Barrie store as half a city block circa-1984. It became Biway, then Wallacks art supply, and is now ArtNoise. A Dominion at 445 Princess also closed at the same time, becoming Shoppers 603 (which is still there and has expanded by using the former Nozzles fuel station land – likely haunted – as parking).

   “811 Princess St” was purpose-built as Loblaws back when Highway 2 (Princess) was the main highway from Toronto to Montréal. Its close proximity to the former Kingston Shopping Centre (opened 1958 at at 1040 through 1100 Princess, anchored by Simpsons-Sears and Loblaw, enclosed in the mid-1970s as a 78-store mall) leaves this a surprise that it lasted as long as it did – especially since this is a small space which eventually flipped through multiple occupancts ranging from the Iron Horse Saloon and a restauraunt to a Leon’s Furniture before finally becoming Giant Tiger #150 (the current occupant) in late 2004. A limited grocery selection remains available, although much of GT’s line is clothing and housewares.

   “1040 Princess” and “1100 Princess” are opposite ends of the same former Kingston Centre or Kingston Shopping Centre, the largest local enclosed mall before Cataraqui (945 Gardiners) operned outside the city in 1982. When Sears abandoned the Kingston Centre to move to Cataraqui as a third anchor in 1999. their 1100 Princess footprint was torn down and a new Loblaws city market / “great food” (still operational) built in its place. The rest of the mall slowly died (starting at the end with the now-vacant former Loblaw and the food court) and was eventually torn down for box stores. Canadian Tire used the former indoor-mall’s footprint for a newly purpose-built structure in 2025, demolishing their existing location enarby.

   “1225 Princess St” was purpose-built for A&P (now Métro’s) Ottawa-regional banner Loeb, then rebranded Super-C and now Food Basics (still operational, same parent chain, different banners)

   “2327 Princess St” was purpose-built for Sobey’s “Price Chopper” (now FreshCo) on the footprint of a demolished motel. Still operational.

   “2433 Princess St” was the former Sentry Plaza, anchored by the Sarnia-based regional discount department store chain on one end and a Loblaw on the other. The “Sentry guards your dollar” chain folded in the early 1980’s, Loblaw abandoned the plaza when the Cataraqui mall opened in 1982. This left Beaver Lumber and Herbie’s drugs as anchors (both now gone). Loblaw has now also abandoned Cataraqui mall to build a free-standing Midland Avenue city market at the turn of the millennium. Sentry Plaza was demolished, the car park filled with outparcel box stores and the original footprint used to build a retirement home.

   “Sherwood Av, Kingston” should be Sherwood Avenue, Amherstview. There was a “Ken and Rays” as one of a set of three (the others were on Bath Road in Collins Bay village and 710 Front Road, Reddendale). Long gone; Foodland is now the lone large-format supermarket in the former Ernestown Township (as there’s nothing but a few c-stores in Odessa village). The other two Ken and Rays (or McEwan’s at some point – presumably the same family as former local MPP J Earl McEwan) are also gone:

   “4040 Bath Rd” in Collins Bay is no longer a supper market — although caution is required as the same renumber attempt that added 1000 to all Bath Road addresses in Lasalle Park replaced 4000-series numbers in Collins Bay village with different 4000-series numbers, so a “4000” that used to be a private home might have seen its numbers given to a marina on some different piece of land.

   710 Front Road (misidentified as “701 Front Road” or “5 Front Street” on this list) is in Reddendale, a post-war DVA suburb where 75′ x 150′ house lots were sold in pairs to returning veterans. This was “Ken and Rays” (or McEwan’s) for many years but likely died when the Frontenac Mall flipped banners from Dominion to Food Basics. Part of the footprint now houses a small ethnic grocer, the rest was converted to multiple, smaller shops by knocking out now doors and windows into what used to be the blank left-facing wall from the grocer to the carpark.

2. 

   carlb

   1 November 2026 at 10:51 am

   Reply

   Two corrections to the individual map markers:

   “Sherwood Av, Kingston” should not be pointing to Hwy 15 on the Barriefield side of the Cataraqui River. Sherwood Avenue is in Amherstview, one county west, as one of the three Ken and Rays historically. That land is likely now a Shoppers, or nearby to it. A county away and clear across the city, there are two modern grocers on Hwy 15 north of Barriefield, a 21st-century built-for-purpose Food Basics at 1200 Hwy 15 and the former Bennett’s (still a ValuMart, under a different franchisee after LCL refused to let the family pass this on) which you have already listed on Gore Road.

   “282 University St” seems to have a map marker pointing to 282 Princess Street? Likely that needs to point to University Avenue.

   “701 Front Road” is Svendsen Automotive, a repair garage founded by two WWII-veteran army mechanics, brothers Sid and Lyle. They knew their stuff; both are long retired but the garage is still operating as it always had. 710 Front Road is the former Ken and Rays supermarket, now gone.

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