The Brands 4 Less pop-up store at 418 Eglinton Ave. West will close barely two months after it opened. An employee at the store said that it had been planned to run the store for at least six months but disagreements had developed with the landlord. Brands 4 Less is a cut rate retailer selling general merchandise and it has four other stores in Toronto, all of them permanent locations. 418 Eglinton was built in the 1930s and served as a grocery store. It is a large building and includes a basement. In recent years it has been a challenge for retailers. It was recently the home of Liv, a spin off of the Au Lit group. At one time, the building housed the Paul Slavens real estate offices which are now located in company-owned premises across the street on Eglinton West. 

He’s known to millions of TV viewers as the boneheaded Uncle Eugene. But Canadian actor and writer Levi MacDougall has created a near-legendary man among dumb men of Canadian advertising. And there are lots of dumb men in the contest. Uncle Eugene sells Rogers wireless service by embarrassing himself as the only jerk in sight who isn’t with Rogers. The grand-daddy of his blundering appearances is the visit to the Telecommunications Museum (above).  Eugene (Levi) is there with his nephew who humiliates his uncle in front of a large cast of characters. Anna Hardwick (second from left) is the slightly contemptuous guide who can’t believe that anyone could still receive the Internet over a phone line. Eugene is outed by his nephew for just this stone-age conduct.  Mortified, Uncle Eugene clumsily beheads a mannequin staged as an old-fashioned phone operator and draws further disgust from cool guy Jamie Spilchuk (right) who is always there to show up Eugene for the dope that he is. Spilchuck has been MacDougall’s second banana in several commercials. We particularly like the one where he aces out MacDougall for a chance to pick up the cute girl trying to find the address of the ballet school down the street. Faster search on his Rogers phone, you see.