Toronto. The company had also expanded into the United States with Loblaw Groceterias Inc. outlets in Buffalo, New York. In 1928, with 69 stores throughout Ontario, the company unveiled its new state-of-the-art head office and warehouse at Fleet and Bathurst streets, along today's Lake Shore Blvd, in Toronto. At a cost of million, the Loblaw warehouse was likened to a "temple of commerce" and hailed as a model of efficiency. One newspaper report described it as, "the most modern warehouse building of its kind in the dominion." The warehouse, which served as a distribution centre and manufacturing depot, included an interior loading dock that could simultaneously accommodate eight railway freight cars and 23 large trucks. It featured its own electric tram railway, four giant ovens for baking a ton of cake and half a ton of cookies a day, huge drums for blending tea, 22 thousand feet of ammonia-filled pipes for refrigeration, and a system of pneumatic tubes for sending messages from department to department. A "punched card" tabulating system, forerunner to today's computer, would be installed for tracking inventory as the first of its kind in the Canadian grocery industry. For Loblaw employees, the warehouse included amenities such as bowling lanes and a billiards room, along with an auditorium for putting on plays. That same year, the American company expanded beyond New York State with the opening of outlets in Chicago, Illinois. Depression and war By October 1929, Loblaw Groceterias' rapid expansion had attracted the attention of competitor Dominion Stores Limited, another Toronto-based food store chain. In a letter to its shareholders, Dominion management put forward a plan to purchase a controlling interest in Loblaw, funded by a preferred share offering. Weeks later, though, stock markets around the world collapsed and the proposed acquisition never took place. In spite of the onset of the Great Depression, Loblaw continued to expand, albeit at a slower pace. By 1930, the chain boasted of 97 "spotlessly clean Groceterias" in Ontario. By 1936, that number had grown to 111, but press reports indicated the company had curtailed further expansion in order to increase the scope of its product offerings at the chain's existing outlets. Meanwhile, the company made a partial retreat from the U.S. market with the sale of its 77 Loblaw Groceterias Inc. stores in Chicago, Illinois, to the Jewel Tea Company. The stores had never shown a profit, although they had