JasonParis
Moderator
The old Simpson's Tower and CF's horrendously-approved job at modernizing it may even look a modicum better with "Zellers" slapped on all that blinding white.
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When I lived in a small town, zellers was the only department type store. I bought a lot of kids clothes there, sheets, small appliances and so on. It was like Target. Not top of the line but better than k Mart IMO. (I’m going back 35 years here). What I couldn’t get at Zellers, I ordered in from the Sears catalogue.
I wasn't really old enough to be buying any stuff there before it was gone, though my mother says she distinctly remembers shopping at Zellers and emphatically disagrees that it was ever a "discount brand," as the media is portraying it today, but was in fact "overpriced on everything" and usually out of stock on anything you wanted, which, hey, that's a lot like the Bay. My mother may be biased though as she worked at K-Mart in the early 70's somewhere in Mississauga (she can't recall exactly where that K-Mart was and remembers only that it was close to the QEW but I've always wondered its location).
I do remember the Zellers in-store restaurant though and if they bring back the plate of fries and gravy for $2 I'll be there.
There didn't seem to be as many K-Marts in Canada as Woolco and Zellers stores.
Woolco had Thorcliffe Market Place (now East York Town Centre) and Morningside Mall in Scarborough
When K-Mart was sold to the Bay it was 112 stores in Canada; it had been bit higher in the past, maybe ~130 not sure.
Woolco Canada ended with 160 stores when purchased by Wal-Mart.
Zellers peaked at well over 300 stores, but was 220 when its leases were largely sold off to Target.
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In the east end, we still had the forerunners of Woolco and Kmart around late into those chains evolution (Woolworths and Kresge respectively)
Kresge didn't close here til '94. There was one on Danforth by Woodbine and another at Eglinton Square.
Their tenure overlapped with the K-Mart version which was at Parkway Mall and at Markington Square.
Woolworth's also lasted in '94 and had a location on the Danforth right by Kresge and another in the Beach down at Queen and Lee (now a TD Bank, and not the same building)
Woolco had Thorncliffe Market Place (now East York Town Centre) and Morningside Mall in Scarborough.
Pusateris is open again too.I am told that traffic in the store has picked up considerably in the last month; moreso on weekdays than weekends. But still well off previous norms.
Pusateris is open again too.
Zellers has confirmed its first 25 'shop-in-shop' locations.
They are not freestanding, nor anything resembling a traditional zellers, only 8,000-10,000ft2 inside select Bay stores.
Only one Toronto location, Scarborough Town Centre.
Other Ontario stores below:
View attachment 451200
From:
Zellers Announces 25 Shop-in-Shop Hudson's Bay Locations Including Details on Store Sizes
The HBC-owned brand will open smaller shop-in-shops within Hudson's Bay department stores, including a mix of downtown and suburban locations across the country.retail-insider.com
Stores inside stores are nice but I wonder how well they will do.
I wonder if they are going to be used as a test bed for larger stores.