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October 7, 2026 1:53 pm  #1


Weston Family Buys UK Drugstore Chain Boots In $8.9 Billion Deal

The Weston Family owners of Shoppers Drug Mart and Loblaws are purchasing UK based Boots Drugs. This is a brand that did operate in Canada in the 80's and 90's.  They were a major advertiser in print, TV and radio when they operated here.  Boots, founded in 1849 has over 1,800 locations in the UK, and Ireland.  More details from BNN Bloomberg..Weston family to buy Boots for US$8.9B

Last edited by paterson1 (October 7, 2026 1:55 pm)

 

October 7, 2026 3:19 pm  #2


Re: Weston Family Buys UK Drugstore Chain Boots In $8.9 Billion Deal

O loblaw.
Bringing there greed overseas.
Good thing metro's sticking to Ontario and Quebec, even if dominion used to be owned by germans.
Metro's not as bad as loblaws, but there workers are being treeted very bad and always misarable when I go there to shop, but they will atleast start conversations with you, unlike at loblaws where its robots working now.

Last edited by Scarboroughbluffsradiof99 (October 7, 2026 8:40 pm)

 

October 8, 2026 4:52 pm  #3


Re: Weston Family Buys UK Drugstore Chain Boots In $8.9 Billion Deal

Loblaw's has a past relationship with Boot's

Loblaws owned Tamblyn Drug Stores - It had a stylized "T" like Loblaws "L"
Tamblyns was sold to Boots in 1978 and the Boot's name was used in Canada until
Boots left the Canada and sold their drugstore holdings to Oshawa Group (another grocer) and became Pharma Plus
Pharma Plus was bought by the Katz group and the stores rebranded as Rexall

All these years later Loblaws now own's the company that bought their original pharmacy store holdings in Canada and of course Loblaws went on to buy Shoppers Drug Mart here.  Quite the circuitous round of deals for Loblaws to meet up with and now own Boots.

 

October 8, 2026 6:06 pm  #4


Re: Weston Family Buys UK Drugstore Chain Boots In $8.9 Billion Deal

LOSat wrote:

Loblaw's has a past relationship with Boot's

Loblaws owned Tamblyn Drug Stores - It had a stylized "T" like Loblaws "L"
Tamblyns was sold to Boots in 1978 and the Boot's name was used in Canada until
Boots left the Canada and sold their drugstore holdings to Oshawa Group (another grocer) and became Pharma Plus
Pharma Plus was bought by the Katz group and the stores rebranded as Rexall

All these years later Loblaws now own's the company that bought their original pharmacy store holdings in Canada and of course Loblaws went on to buy Shoppers Drug Mart here.  Quite the circuitous round of deals for Loblaws to meet up with and now own Boots.

But they're not going to bring Boots here, right? SDM will continue to carry on business as usual. 
Boots will not be rebranded as Shoppers drug mart either, right? 

 


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RadioWiz & RadioQuiz are NOT the same person. 
RadioWiz & THE Wiz are NOT the same person.

 
 

October 8, 2026 6:08 pm  #5


Re: Weston Family Buys UK Drugstore Chain Boots In $8.9 Billion Deal

Probably the only time I ever saw a Canadian Boots store was as a kid in the late '80s, at the Georgian Mall in Barrie, after the mall's first expansion. At the time, the mall also had a Marks & Spencer store, though significantly smaller than their British locations.

Here's a Boots commercial from Canadian TV in the early '80s, courtesy of The W/O/C Archive on YouTube.


 

 

October 8, 2026 6:20 pm  #6


Re: Weston Family Buys UK Drugstore Chain Boots In $8.9 Billion Deal

bmaudioworks wrote:

Probably the only time I ever saw a Canadian Boots store was as a kid in the late '80s, at the Georgian Mall in Barrie, after the mall's first expansion.
 

I remember Boots @ Bayview & Eglinton (plaza recently demolished, but was a Rexall/Pharma Plus for years)

I also recall a Boots back in the early 90's in the late great Don Mills Centre.  
Boots often had better prices than competing stores at the time. 


CityNews 24/7: https://toronto.citynews.ca/video/
RadioWiz & RadioQuiz are NOT the same person. 
RadioWiz & THE Wiz are NOT the same person.

 
 

October 9, 2026 10:12 am  #7


Re: Weston Family Buys UK Drugstore Chain Boots In $8.9 Billion Deal

But they're not going to bring Boots here, right? SDM will continue to carry on business as usual. 
Boots will not be rebranded as Shoppers drug mart either, right? 
 

The names are to entrenched in their respective markets, I can't see them making any changes.
In Canada - Shoppers Drug Mart/Pharma Prix (in Quebec).
and Boot's has been around forever in GB.

 

October 9, 2026 7:52 pm  #8


Re: Weston Family Buys UK Drugstore Chain Boots In $8.9 Billion Deal

LOSat wrote:

But they're not going to bring Boots here, right? SDM will continue to carry on business as usual. 
Boots will not be rebranded as Shoppers drug mart either, right? 
 

The names are to entrenched in their respective markets, I can't see them making any changes.
In Canada - Shoppers Drug Mart/Pharma Prix (in Quebec).
and Boot's has been around forever in GB.

Boots was well known here in my childhood.
The idea that comes to my mind (to make it work today), is, if Loblaws would like to bring back smaller drug stores
(the size of the smaller Pharmasave stores) it might work for Boots to be the smaller stores, serving people who just have basic drug store needs without having any desire to go to the larger Shopper's drug mart.  



 


CityNews 24/7: https://toronto.citynews.ca/video/
RadioWiz & RadioQuiz are NOT the same person. 
RadioWiz & THE Wiz are NOT the same person.