The Jewish Immigrant's Son Who Built Canada's Biggest Drugstore Chain — Then Sold It All

How did the son of two Romanian Jewish immigrants, born above a College Street drugstore, build Canada's first coast-to-coast pharmacy chain — and why did he sell all of it at the top? In 1941 Leon Koffler died at 47, leaving seventeen-year-old Murray two Toronto drugstores and nobody to run them. This video tells the full story: the 1955 associate system borrowed from Kentucky Fried Chicken; the 1962 Shoppers World store and the "Mart" borrowed from Loblaws; a $150,000 stake in Four Seasons; the speech he abandoned on June 6, 1968; the 1978 sale to Imasco for about $70 million; and Super-Pharm, founded in Israel with his children Leon and Theo. It ends where the story stands now — more than 1,300 stores, owned by Loblaw since a $12.4 billion deal in 2014. — SOURCES: "Shoppers Drug Mart" — The Canadian Encyclopedia https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/shoppers-drug-mart "Shoppers Drug Mart Corporation" — International Directory of Company Histories, via Encyclopedia.com https://www.encyclopedia.com/books/politics-and-business-magazines/shoppers-drug-mart-corporation "Four Seasons Hotels Inc." — International Directory of Company Histories, via Encyclopedia.com https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences-and-law/economics-business-and-labor/businesses-and-occupations/four-seasons-hotels-inc "Murray and Marvelle Koffler" — Ontario Jewish Archives, OJA50 https://oja50.org/36-murray-and-marvelle-koffler/ "Our history" — Shoppers Drug Mart https://corporate.shoppersdrugmart.ca/en/about-our-history/ "Remembering Murray Koffler (1924-2017)" — University of Toronto https://www.utoronto.ca/news/remembering-murray-koffler-1924-2017 "Going back to our roots..." — Toronto Outdoor Art Fair https://toaf.ca/news-releases/going-back-to-our-roots/ "Nature Study" — University of Toronto Magazine https://magazine.utoronto.ca/people/students/koffler-scientific-reserve-arthur-weis-jokers-hill/ "Shoppers Drug Mart founder Murray Koffler was a business visionary who leaves a philanthropic legacy" — The Globe and Mail https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/shoppers-drug-mart-founder-murray-koffler-dead-at-93/article36853847/ "Shoppers Drug Mart founder was a pioneering businessman and philanthropist" — The CJN https://thecjn.ca/news/obituaries/shoppers-drug-mart-founder-murray-koffler-pioneering-businessman-philanthropist/ "Philanthropist Marvelle Koffler dies at age 90" — The CJN https://cjnews.com/obituary/philanthropist-marvelle-koffler-dies-at-age-90 "Industry mourns SDM founder Murray Koffler, 93" — Chain Drug Review https://chaindrugreview.com/industry-mourns-sdm-founder-murray-koffler-93/ "Murray Koffler" — AMA Toronto https://ama-toronto.com/inductees/murray-koffler/ "The Inn on the Park 1: Resort-style Relaxation by the Don Valley" — Jamie Bradburn's Tales of Toronto https://jamiebradburnwriting.wordpress.com/2021/01/14/the-inn-on-the-park-1-resort-style-relaxation-by-the-don-valley/ "Just a Simple Pharmacist: The Story of Murray Koffler, Builder of the Shoppers Drug Mart Empire" (McClelland & Stewart, 1988), Frank Rasky — the full-length biography of Koffler, published during his lifetime