Zellers Makes Comeback Inside Hudson’s Bay, Set to Open in Alberta and Ontario This Week

A transport truck is seen outside a Zellers store in Lynn Valley in North Vancouver, B.C., on July, 26, 2012. (Jonathan Hayward/The Canadian Press)

Zellers will reopen its iconic stores starting on March 23, with the first stores launching inside existing Hudson’s Bay department locations in Alberta and Ontario.

The Bay, the parent company of Zellers, said in a March 14 news release that it will also launch its Zellers.ca e-commerce platform on March 23.

In Alberta, Zellers will open one store in Edmonton, at Kingsway Garden Mall, and one store in Calgary, at Sunridge Mall. Medicine Hat’s mall will also see the department store make a comeback.

Ontario is opening a location in Mississauga at Erin Mills Town Centre and one in Burlington Mall, Burlington. It will also open in White Oaks Mall, London, and in Scarborough Town Centre in Scarborough. St. Catharines will see a store located at Pen Centre Shopping Plaza.

Ottawa will initially open two locations, at Rideau Centre and St. Laurent Centre, and there will be a store in Cambridge, at Cambridge Centre, and in Kingston, at Cataraqui Town Centre.

Restaurant on Wheels

Over the first opening days, a limited return of the Zellers restaurant, via the Zellers Diner on Wheels, will go to various store locations, with the schedule announced for Ontario.

A March 17 news release said the food trucks “are revvin' their engines, ready to roll up and dish out nostalgic favourites from the original Zellers Family Restaurant: the Big Z Burger, Hot Chicken Sandwich, Grilled Cheese, Chicken Fingers and Fries with Gravy.”

Over the four-day opening, Zellers said its food trucks will appear for one day at different store locations in Ontario, but may not all be there on the opening day. The news release said there will be DJs playing music at each location and giveaways starting just after 8:00 a.m. local time.

The store has said additional locations will open in other provinces in phases.

Zellers first announced the opening of 25 stores in a Jan. 18 news release. It said then that the following locations were planned: four stores in British Columbia, four stores in Alberta, one in Winnipeg, one in Saskatoon, nine in Ontario, five in Quebec, and two in Nova Scotia.

“Opening in communities across the country, the brick-and-mortar locations will complement the first-ever Zellers.ca ecommerce site, ultimately bringing Zellers to nearly every community in Canada,” said Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC), which owns Zellers.

The Zellers section within Hudson’s Bay’s existing stores will be between 8,000 to 10,000 square feet, depending on location. The store will sell housewares and home décor, furniture, baby items, small appliances, toys, and pet accessories, as well as grow their offerings and include clothing.

A new Twitter account for Zellers has the slogan “New Year New Us” as its branding, and promises to “become Canada’s go-to for design and value, from lifestyle to home and almost everything in between.”

Zellers was first conceived in 1931 and HBC bought the discount department store in 1978, operating with the slogan, “Where the lowest price is the law.”

In the 1990s, Zellers had 350 locations. But by 2011, with fierce competition from Walmart and other stores, Zellers was sold to Target. The U.S.-based retailer initially opened inside old Zellers stores rebranding as Target, but closed most Canadian stores by 2013. A few locations were kept as outlet stores, but ultimately these last liquidation locations closed by 2020.