Photo/DAN PELTON MERCHANTS SUPPLY CO., the fabled warehouse on Orangeville's Elizabeth Street, is being demolished to make room for One Elizabeth Street, an adult lifestyle residential complex being built by the owners of nearby Lord Dufferin Centre. The building that stood at the corner of Elizabeth and Faulkner Streets for more than 60 years will soon be gone, replaced by a large new seniors' residence.

Now being demolished, the single-storey structure started life as the site of Merchants Supply, a company founded by Alvin Grigg.

Mr. and Mrs. Grigg arrived in Orangeville during the 1920s and opened what was known as Griggs 5¢, 10¢ & 15¢ store. This was a take-off on the larger chain stores, Woolworths and Kresges.

Most of the items they sold were in the price range associated with the name. Business flourished for the large store on Broadway mainly because of the prices, and during the depression of the 1930s it was even better.

An ambitious man, Mr. Grigg took it upon himself to open more stores in Alliston, Haliburton and, I believe, two other towns. With five stores there was now a need for a wholesale war house.

The Orangeville store, located where White Truffles is today, was the largest in the group and so was the basement. It was in the basement that Merchants Supply Co. was founded.

As well as supplying his five stores Mr. Grigg found that now almost every small town had a 5- 10-15¢ store and needed a supplier. Soon they were supplying 15 or 20 stores out of the basement at 139 Broadway.

It didn't take long to outgrow the space they had with more and more small stores in small towns wanting to do business with Mr. Grigg.

He felt it was time for a move and in the middle of the 1930s depression he moved Merchants Supply out of the basement to a site in Toronto where it grew even larger.

Even though the Grigg family lived in Orangeville Mr. Grigg had to spend a lot of his time in his Toronto office, so he hired Mae Young to manage the Orangeville store.

As a man with foresight, Mr. Grigg realized that Orangeville was going to grow and was more central than Toronto for his customers in the various towns as well as his own small chain of five stores. So he purchased the vacant field at Elizabeth and Faulkner streets during the early 1940s when World War II was raging.

Like many nearby areas, it was simply an empty field but on the north side was the home of the Orangeville Tennis Club where they built Orangeville's only tennis court. During the war there was no building going on and the project was put on hold, but when the war ended in 1945 the new, large, Merchants Supply Co. building was under construction. I recall this was an exciting event for Orangeville and the grand opening took place in 1946.

The management staff, for the most part, moved from Toronto to Orangeville. I recall men like Ernie Bower, Mac McReynolds, Bill McCall, Charlie Warren, Gord Martin, along with others, whose names now escape me.

With the war over things were now booming and the 5-10-15¢ stores wee found in almost every small town in the country. Merchants Supply Co. was getting its share of the business and was now supplying stores not only throughout Ontario but in the Atlantic provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island.

Merchants Supply's claim to fame for good service, good prices and good people spread to the Western Provinces as well and they were supplying stores in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. They were now supplying close to 100 stores across the nation.

Mr. Grigg's son Jack came into the business following a stint with the Royal Canadian Air Force. When Mr. Grigg died in the early 1950s Jack took over as president.

With the staff he had behind him the growth continued, but Jack died suddenly in the early 1960s. His son, Steve, took over only to be killed a few years later in a car accident.

The business was sold and flourished for a few years, but the end of the 5- 10-15¢ stores was coming when large shopping malls began to spring up and giant retailers like KMart, Zellers and Wal- Mart appeared on the scene. As these large stores opened their doors the little main street stores had to close theirs. They simply could not compete.

As these little stores disappeared, the pain was also felt by Merchants Supply, for it was these little stores, clear across the country, who were the customers. Eventually, like their former customers, Merchants Supply Co. also had to close its doors.

The building became home to several other businesses over the years, before the property was purchased by Lord Dufferin Centre.

With plans for an ultramodern building, housing condo units for seniors, the 63-year-old building had to go. It had fallen into a state of disrepair and I am sure the corner of Elizabeth and Faulkner Streets will be much more attractive when the new structure is completed.