The chain's headquarters was located at 1370 Sony Place in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and its warehouse distribution centre was situated at 3075 Trans-Canada Highway in Pointe-Claire, Quebec.

Brewster's new store, which appeared the following year, was built and designed for the owner Sir George Gibbons by London architects Watt & Blackwell.

[4] On March 30, 1929, the newly renovated and expanded Metropolitan Store and its Canadian head office opened at 136, 138 and 140 Dundas Street in London.

Of the 180 stores in the Metropolitan chain, there were 50 in Ontario, 15 in Nova Scotia, 17 in New Brunswick, 35 in Quebec, 8 in Manitoba, 7 in Saskatchewan, 11 in Alberta, 6 in British Columbia, 2 in Prince Edward Island and 29 in Western Canada.

By the mid-1970s, General Distributors' portfolio of Metropolitan Stores and its subsidiaries was riding high and annual sales stood at $137 million.

By 1996, cracks began to appear in the Gendis retail empire due to declining sales revenues and their MMG Management Group of Montreal was voluntarily assigned into bankruptcy on February 11, 1997.

The stores carried household items (batteries, locks, screwdrivers, hammers, saws, wrenches, pliers, wire cutters, nuts, bolts, screws, shovels, pitchforks, hand spades, spades, rakes, watering hoses, sprinklers), sundries, seasonal products, clothing and footwear (men, women, children, infants), food and snacks, jewellery, stationery, crockery, beauty products, furniture, toys (namely dolls, doll clothing including dresses, sleepwear and accessories, model cars, miniature pick-up trucks, container trucks, wheels, rigs and doll play bags), electronics, creative products like needlecrafts, fabrics and Phentex yarn.

On September 15, 1966, Metropolitan Stores of Canada Ltd. adopted its company logo consisting of a large red "M" which bears a stylized blue maple leaf as its centre containing "MET" lettered in white color.

[15] On October 22, 1937, a three-alarm fire that raged through three buildings in the downtown area of Göttingen Street in Halifax, Nova Scotia also destroyed the three-storey wooden structure of the Metropolitan, as well as water and smoke damage to adjacent firms.

[16] On September 10, 1938, a fire damaged the top floors of the three-storey Metropolitan store building at 101st Street and 101A Avenue in Edmonton, Alberta.

[17] On July 31, 1957, a fire which destroyed a whole corner block of stores and second-storey apartments, spread quickly to the adjoining Metropolitan and the Lady Ann Dress Shop at the Treasure Island Mall on Wellington Road in Tillsonburg, Ontario.

[18] On October 25, 1960, a massive gas explosion destroyed the building housing the Metropolitan at 439 Ouellette Avenue in Windsor, Ontario.

The explosion blew out the building's rear wall and the second floor collapsed, trapping employees and customers, many of whom were senior citizens who had been sitting earlier at the lunch counter.

On July 26, 1976, a fire destroyed the Metropolitan at the corner of Royal Road and Saskatchewan Avenue in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba.

[20] On December 6, 1979, improper furnace conditions at the Metropolitan on Rideau Street in downtown Ottawa, Ontario caused toxic gases to accumulate to levels that sent 21 employees to the hospital.