The Birks family's failure to adapt presaged the Eaton family's similar failure. It's difficult to discern whether the failure reflected the sort of detachment implicit in the Buddenbrooks Cycle or simply the "boiled frog syndrome". Regardless of choice, the outcome is the same. As for Birks' having been Canada's largest jeweller, that would be a "no". That honour went to the ill-fated Consumer's Distributing chain (which completely failed in 1996). Of course, none of that detracts from the fundamental decency that men such as Drummond Birks showed in their dealings with employees and with ordinary citizens in the cities in which they did business.