The couple sold property in South Korea to rustle up the required $190,000 and when they inked the deal in March 2011, they could hardly believe their good fortune — it was “the dream,” Youk said. They just had to wait for construction to be done, after which the Loblaw kiosk would be theirs.When will the store be ready?
The first Creed immigrated to pre-war Canada with little more than his talent and ambitions, which was eventually spun into Creeds — a luxury boutique where the country’s wealthiest elite rubbed shoulders and sometimes flew in on private planes to buy the latest styles from Paris. Creed declined to comment for this story, and he and his family members did not respond to multiple emails with detailed questions from the Star.
The bankruptcy has plunged some dry cleaners into depression as they’ve helplessly watched their businesses, savings or retirement plans disappear. The original Jack, a charismatic chain-smoker with a chihuahua permanently nestled under his arm, wasn’t so much “self-made as self-fabricated,” Freedman wrote in 1991.
He sold his designs on Bloor St., where he became known as the “King of Mink” and eventually opened Creed Furs — a store that evolved into Creeds, a specialty boutique widely credited with transforming Toronto from a frumpy backwater into a fashion town. Like with so many family businesses, however, Creeds’ survival hinged on one thing: succession. When it was time for Eddie to hand over the reins, that was the beginning of the end.
“I come from a family with a s — load of money,” he once told the Star. “I don’t kid myself. I’ve never been hard done by.” But in Canada, a country where he and his wife hoped to provide their sons with a better education, job options were drastically limited. “The store is predicted to … at 15 per cent a year until it reaches $15,000 a month,” read Kim and Youk’s copy of their contract, where they wrote a Korean translation over the word “predicted” and circled the $15,000 figure.
The agreement allowed Creed Services to operate dry cleaning kiosks inside Loblaw “grocery stores throughout Canada,” Creed stated in court filings. And crucially, Creed and his company didn’t have to actually operate the kiosks; they could sell sublicenses to third-party dry cleaners. Dry cleaners who spoke to the Star said they felt squeezed over the years by Creed’s companies, which three of his children have directed at various points. “They were trying to get money from us in every little way,” one dry cleaner said.
These contracts with public agencies have funneled more than $11.7 million in taxpayer funds into SCM’s coffers over the past decade, according to municipal agencies and records obtained through freedom of information requests. Samina Vakil, whose husband had a Dry Cleaner kiosk in Brampton, often had to wait for months or more than a year to be paid for the vouchers. Chasing SCM for payment became a part-time job for Vakil, who started personally submitting her vouchers to SCM at its North York office so they couldn’t claim to have never received them in the mail.
In the spring of 2021, a small group of dry cleaners were running out of patience with SCM’s failure to pay them for the uniforms. Bazrafshan is particularly embittered; she only bought her dry cleaner business nine months before SCM filed for bankruptcy. She said she paid roughly $160,000 to the previous licence holders and a $3,000 transfer fee to SCM, using an inheritance from her father in Iran that she had been carefully saving for more than a decade.
The couple held out hope for a solution, asking Creed to work with them and offer other options. But when they received SCM’s bankruptcy notice 11 months later, that’s when they knew.
jyangstar Was car salesman Dan Creed part of that family?
jyangstar This is devastating. I had no idea. My dad did business with this family for decades. My mom and I are in shock. 😞
jyangstar Another proof one cannot ever trust any business, esp owned by individuals or family. Poor immigrants were sold useless, meant to fail franchises by crooked businessman as they were heading towards their failure. Personally, I trust only banks, for govt guarantees deposit.
jyangstar Shocking?
Sounds like you