Consumers Distributing was bought by the Quebec-based grocery retailer Provigo in 1987,[citation needed] then was sold in 1993 to a group controlled by Ackermans & van Haaren, a Belgian holding company.

[4][1] Ten years following the bankruptcy, former Consumers Distributing employee Marc King relaunched the company as an online retailer.

The new Consumers Distributing website operated in the run up to the 2012 holiday season, taking orders for furniture and brand-name electronics.

[6] The main focus of the retailer was jewellery, appliances, kitchenware, toys, personal care, discount furniture, electronics and seasonal goods.

Customers were for the most part required to select their products from catalogues that were located throughout the store, filling out a request form for the item they desired.

[3] American competition was mainly from the catalogue showroom retail store chains Best Products (also known simply as Best) and Service Merchandise.

Consumers Distributing was plagued by the perception that items were frequently out of stock due to the catalogue shopping nature of the store.

Consumers Distributing was one of the first to implement real-time stock checking and prepayment for products available at other branches and the main warehouse.

High operating expenses, increasing competition, changing retailing trends (such as warehouse format stores), deflation in several product categories (jewellery and electronics), a deep lingering recession and the expansion of Walmart into Canada all contributed to the company's bankruptcy in 1996.

Consumers Distributing's final Canadian headquarters was located at 6303 Airport Road, in Mississauga, Ontario.