Zellers makes a comeback, will launch four stand-alone stores in B.C.
Zellers #Zellers
Zellers is returning, but what about Zeddy, the store’s lovable mascot?
The Hudson’s Bay Company has been letting promotions of the brand it shut down 10 years ago trickle out, and its announcement Wednesday that it will be opening stores in four B.C. locations at some as-yet-to-be-announced date is its latest move, following a pop-up Zellers in Ontario and store-in-store Zellers in some Bay locations.
The B.C. stand-alone Zellers will be in Vancouver’s Pacific Centre, Surrey’s Guildford Town Centre, 7 Oaks in Abbotsford, and Aberdeen Mall in Kamloops.
“This is the third Zellers announcement now,” said David Ian Gray , retail strategist at DIG360 , a national advisory with its headquarters in Vancouver.
“The first was on the heels of a knock-off company kind of poaching the brand in a one-off location in Quebec a few years ago, and the Bay, which owns the Zellers trademark, needs to be operating a business in order to protect its brand.”
Gray thinks the Ontario pop-up kick-started a notion that there might be interest in a revival of the store, where many older Canadians grew up buying discount clothes and eating breakfast at a counter while sitting on round chairs.
“I’m not surprised by the announcement of stores dedicated to Zellers,” Gray said. “The main thing here is that it’s nostalgia. A lot of young people who are the big shoppers have never heard of Zellers, so it’s going to have to stand up as a really competitive retailer and not win just on nostalgia alone.”
And nostalgia there is.
On Facebook, the site Canadian eh asked followers for their memories of Zellers.
There was the smell of gravy, value-for-your-buck (“Zellers made dressing rambunctious boys affordable”), lots of Walmart slagging, high school jobs, just general all-round fondness from across Canada for a store that was iconic for many.
Zellers was founded in London, Ont., in 1931, and bought by Hudson’s Bay in 1978.
By the mid-1990s Zellers had 350 stores across Canada. Its slogan was, “Where the lowest price is the law,” but began losing customers to competition and changing habits by shoppers.
When the announcement that Zellers would be returning was made last August, Adam Powell, its chief business partner, said the stores held a special place in the hearts and minds of Canadians.
“Zellers is a brand deeply rooted in the Canadian experience,” he said.
Lindsay Meredith , professor emeritus of marketing at SFU, said there is some sense in opening discount stores, a niche currently dominated by Walmart and Dollarama, at this time.
“They’ve realized that probably that’s where a lot of the action is going to come in their direction,” Meredith said. “People are starting to feel the pinch on income, and the debt levels and debt-servicing load the average consumer is carrying right now in Canada, coupled with inflation, puts them in the crossfire.
“Ultimately, they’re still going to have to buy stuff of various kinds. They still got to provision the household and they’re going to be doing it with a sharp eye to how to do it affordably.”
Meredith also specializes in macro-economics and doesn’t expect any relief soon on interest rates.
“(The Bank of Canada) is getting the right direction now that they want, but this dog is not going to drop the bone yet. They’re going stay on it and it’s going be tight times for Canadian consumers.”
As for Zeddy, you can still find teddy bears of him online .
He went on a long, lonely walk in the woods, according to a Zellers YouTube post watched by 105,000 people, after the stores closed in 2013, searching for new meaning and a new home.
No word yet if he will be back.
gordmcintyre@postmedia.com
twitter.com/gordmcintyre
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