It's very sad for me to see the death of Zellers right before my eyes while I am here in Alberta. Zellers is part of the Hudson's Bay Company, the oldest commercial corporation in North America, and as such is part of the Canadian fur trade legacy. Zellers was also quirky and cheesy in a very Canadian way.
When I was living in Vancouver Zellers was one of the 4 stores I checked for prices before I bought anything. But they only had the cheapest prices on a few important items. I also visited the Zellers parking lot every day to look for carts with the loonie still in them. I made $10 one day that way.
The demise of Zellers is the work of Target, who are working on a multi-billion dollar expansion into Canada. Some of the Zellers stores are also going to Walmart.
As part of the deal with the Canadian government allowing them into Canada, Target has agreed to meet a quota of Canadian content for sale in it's stores. They have also bought the rights the Target name from an enterprising company that had launched a bunch of stores called Target Apparel in the last few years, probably just to cash in when Target came knocking to buy the name.
I barely ever shop at Target in the US, they never have lower prices than Walmart, but I do buy my grey t-shirts there. Anyway, I'll have no love for a Canadian Target. Zellers you will be missed!
