Hardware, Dry
Goods and Grocery Wholesale Warehouses
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Dry Goods and Grocery Wholesale Warehouses
The Canadian Pacific Railway held a monopoly on freight rates
in Winnipeg at the turn of the century which greatly affected
the cost of shipping goods from eastern Canada and throughout
the West. Winnipeg businessmen fought for preferential rates
and in 1886 and 1890, the CPR granted concessions to the city.
This ensured that The Exchange District would become the major
wholesale centre for all goods being sold in Western Canada.
Major Eastern Canadian companies and Winnipeg-based business-
Thomas Ryan Co., George D. Wood Co., R.J. Whitla & Co.,
Gault Bros. Co. and J.H. Ashdown Co. among them-opened large
warehouses in the District to supply the growing west. many
of the warehouses were located on railway spur lines where
goods could be shipped in large lots, broken down into smaller
lots and then packaged with the wholesalers' own labels for
sale in Western Canada. Today, the names and products of these
inportant companies can still be seen on the rooftop and wall
signs on buildings throughout the District.
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