Toronto Eaton Centre - The Eaton Centre Today

The Eaton Centre Today

Despite the controversy and criticisms, the centre was an immediate success, spawning many different shopping centres across Canada bearing the same brand name of Eaton. The mall's profits were said to be so lucrative that it has often been credited with keeping the troubled Eaton's chain afloat for another two decades before it finally succumbed to bankruptcy in 1999. Today, the Eaton Centre is one of North America's top shopping destinations, and is Toronto's most popular tourist attraction.

One of the most prominent sights in the shopping mall is the group of fibreglass Canada Geese hanging from the ceiling. This sculpture, named Flight Stop, is the work of artist Michael Snow. It was also the subject of an important intellectual property court ruling. One year, the management of the centre decided to decorate the geese with red ribbons for Christmas, without consulting Snow. Snow sued, arguing that the ribbons made his naturalistic work "ridiculous" and harmed his reputation as an artist, and in Snow v. The Eaton Centre Ltd., the court ruled that even though the Centre owned the sculpture, the ribbons had infringed Snow's moral rights. The ribbons were ordered removed.

The mall contains a wide selection of 230 stores and restaurants. The mall is served by two subway stations, Queen and Dundas, located at its southernmost and northernmost points respectively.

With the demise of the Eaton's chain, the department store space at the north end of the mall is now occupied by Sears Canada, which is the chain's largest store in the world at about 817,850 square feet (75,981 m2), though they have converted the uppermost floors to corporate offices and the lowest floor was converted to mall space. Shortly after Sears' acquisition of Eaton's, the Timothy Eaton statue was moved from the Dundas Street entrance to the Royal Ontario Museum. The complex retains the Eaton Centre name, representing an ongoing tribute to Timothy Eaton and the small shop he once opened at this location.

In June 2010, a would-be shopper was filmed shouting at the locked doors of an entrance to the Eaton Centre, which was in the process of entering lockdown as the G-20 Summit street protests loomed nearby. The video quickly became an Internet meme, but was removed by the original poster shortly thereafter. However, the video has been re-uploaded hundreds of times by other users.

Renovations, begun in 2010, helped attract new retailers to the mall, including Victoria's Secret, Juicy Couture, Mercatto, and Michael by Michael Kors.