In the block between Markham and Bloor there was a Toronto Dominion Bank and a Loblaw's groceteria which was purchased and occupied as part of the store complex in the early 1950s.

The exterior was covered with huge red and yellow signs advertising the store's name, lit up like a theatre marquee.

The interior was modest, with simple displays of low-priced merchandise from vacuum cleaners and winter coats to kitchenware, toys and grocery items.

[2] Ed and Anne Mirvish opened "The Sport's Bar", a women's clothing store, near Bloor and Bathurst Streets in 1943,[3] renting a property that was five metres (16') wide.

After a further expansion, Mirvish re-established the store as "Honest Ed's Bargain House" in 1948, adding general household goods to the inventory.

[8] On 16 July 2013, it was announced the site of Honest Ed's was for sale for $100 million, and the store was likely to be closed and replaced with a retail and residential building.

Besides big-box stores, other impacts on Honest Ed's business were internet shopping, the gentrification of downtown and the dispersion of the working and immigrant class to the inner suburbs of Toronto.

[13] The proposed redevelopment includes 1,000 rental apartments, a permanent public market; and retail space largely divided into small units that mimic the scale of storefronts on Bloor Street.

One of the fight sequences in the third volume of Bryan Lee O'Malley's Scott Pilgrim comic book series takes place at Honest Ed's, with the characters suffering sensory overload due to the incredible amounts of merchandise.

From February to March 2009, the store hosted "Honest Threads", an interactive artwork by installation artist Iris Häussler, curated by Mona Filip of the Koffler Centre of the Arts.

"[16] This synthesis of conceptual art and commercial space was well received and reviewed widely on a national[17][full citation needed] and local level[18] and in numerous blogs.

In November 2013, the Koffler Centre of the Arts produced 'Honesty', a site-specific play by playwright/director Jordan Tannahill in which performer Virgilia Griffith embodied seven real employees of the store.

Honest Ed's was featured as the setting for the music video "Wide Open" by Toronto singer Jenny Mayhem.

[21] On November 1, 2016, the Toronto Transit Commission created a temporary display at Bathurst station as a tribute to Honest Ed's.

[22] The TTC later installed a permanent tribute to Honest Ed's on the concourse level of Bathurst station consisting of five vertical panels with images and memorabilia associated with the former department store.