How Zellers grew from a single store in London, Ont., to an iconic Canadian brand

As the Hudson Bay Company relaunches the Zellers brand with pop-up stores this spring, allowing Canadians to revel in their discount shopping memories, CBC News looks at the beginnings of the brand in London, Ont., in 1931.

“It was a department store, so it was a one-stop shopping place where you could get just about everything you needed for your home, and what mattered to a lot of people was the fact that when you shopped there, you were also supporting a Canadian company,” said Jennifer Grainger, a historian from London, Ont.

It’s been a decade since the Hudson’s Bay Company, which purchased Zellers in 1978, began shuttering those stores. The relaunch began Thursday with the opening of a dozen stores — nine in Ontario and three in Alberta — with the goal of 25 locations across Canada.

Ninety-two years ago, the first Zellers opened at 176 Dundas St. in the southwestern Ontario city. It’s now the location of a music venue. 

“It was not just an ordinary store,” Grainger said. “This was 7,000 square feet on the ground floor, with 21 different departments and 60 staff that were hired for the opening. It was a very, very large and exciting store, at a time when people went downtown to shop.” 

Walter P. Zeller, the founder, established Zellers in 1928, with the Dundas Street location also serving as head office. Zeller had worked at several department stores and wanted to establish a chain across the country. 

He had six stores within a year and was doing such good business that he was bought out by American chain Schulte-United, which promptly went bankrupt, forcing Zeller to buy the 14 Canadian locations and rebrand the store in 1931 as one for thrifty Canadians. 

Articles and advertisements from the London Free Press archives show how important the store was to the community. In 1951. London’s only escalator at the time went into service at the Zellers store on Dundas Street. 

“The addition of this convenience will save many weary shoppers tiresome steps in their shopping day,” a photo caption from September 2021 reads. 

A photo in the London Free Press about the city’s first escalator being introduced in the downtown Zellers location. (Supplied by London Public Library archives)

Store founder Zeller died in August 1957. His obituary described him as a businessman who was well respected for his drive and enthusiasm. 

The store had Club Zed points, a credit card loyalty program, and the slogan, with slightly different wordings throughout the late 1980s and 1990s, boasting, “The lowest price is the law.” 

Zeddy was a teddy bear mascot advertising Toyland, the toy section in the stores, and many stores had on-site restaurants, at first called The Skillet in the 1960s and later rebranded as the Zellers Family Restaurant. 

An advertisement for Zellers from the Free Press from 1966, when a new location was opening at Huron Street and Highbury Avenue. (Supplied by London Public Library archives)

A Free Press ad for a new location of the store, in the city’s east end, advertised all-you-can-eat chicken and fish every Thursday and Friday. On Thursdays, the all-you-can eat chicken went for $1.09 — the deal included “golden brown chicken served with green salad, French fried potatoes, roll, butter and honey.” 

During the Second World War, Zellers “led the way in decrying excessive profit-making, overbuying and the hoarding of goods in anticipation of shortages and a rise in prices,” a news article from 1944 states.

The company had a policy of only buying its fair share of consumer goods so prices would stabilize. 

At its peak in the 1990s, the brand had 350 stores across the country.