Canada, Loblaw tried to duplicate their success in Eastern Canada with the opening of its first combination store at Pickering, Ontario. Eventually, 13 superstores, four times the size of a conventional supermarket with about a third of the space devoted to general merchandise, were opened in Ontario and the Maritimes. Sales, however, lagged. By 1988, with corporate profits almost cut in half, the company downsized eight of the operations, in some cases changing store banners and leasing out the redundant space to other retailers. "Had Loblaw Companies not owned the real estate, the conversion and sub-leasing penalties might have proven prohibitive." Expansion By the mid-1980s, Loblaw Companies Limited had become Canada's largest supermarket retailer. Much of that success could be attributed to the effectiveness of the company's "control label" or private label program. In the case of President's Choice, a key management strategy had been to create a line of products available nowhere else but Loblaw stores. The company also began extending the brand's market beyond Canada, making international inroads and in particular into the highly competitive American market. By the early 1990s, not only were PC products increasingly available at select U.S. regional supermarket chains, Loblaw was supplying retail giant Wal-Mart, marketing President's Choice products under the brand Sam's American Choice, later shortened to Sam's Choice, named after company founder Sam Walton. All indications were that Loblaw's control label program was starting to pay off south of the border: President's Choice, the upscale private label at Loblaw's supermarkets, has been a resounding success in the United States - and has fired a rebellion of consumers and retailers against highly advertised, and therefore pricey, national brands. Its products have found their way into more than 1,200 stores in 34 states. The biggest deal is with Wal-Mart, which had $73 billion in sales in 1993. Dave Nichol, the man behind President's Choice, reports that Wal-Mart's volume on Sam's American Choice and Great Value lines, also developed by Loblaw's, was up 300 percent last year. Meantime, though, Wal-Mart had announced what media reports likened to an "invasion of Canada," namely the acquisition of 120 Woolco stores across the country. Though Wal-mart was barred from selling the private-label line developed by Loblaw in Canada, the two retailers eventually parted company as they increasingly became competitors in the Canadian marketplace. In November 1993, it was announced that Dave Nichol, who for the past decade