ZELLERS

'Zellers Inc.' is Canada's second-largest chain of mass merchandise department stores, with 282 locations in communities across Canada.^[1] Zellers is headquartered in the Toronto suburb of Brampton, Ontario, and is a subsidiary of the Hudson's Bay Company ("HBC").
In recent years, Zellers has been moving slowly away from the discount department store model, and has introduced better quality merchandise and different customer service concepts. New and remodelled Zellers stores are often compared to that of Target Corporation in the United States.

Contents

Current operations

Trivia

See also

References

External links

Current operations

Today, Zellers operates stores from St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, to Victoria, British Columbia, and employs over 35,000 people. The average store size is 94,000 square feet (8,700 m²). 'Zellers Select' stores are designed for smaller markets with populations under 25,000, with stores averaging 45,000 square feet (4,200 m²). Almost every Zellers location features a pharmacy and an in-store restaurant, the 1950's themed 'Zellers Family Diner'. Newer locations are typically larger than 100,000 square feet(9,290 m²), and also feature a hair salon, refrigerated groceries, major appliances, mattresses, and expanded electronics and cosmetics departments.
Over the past three years, Zellers has expanded its product assortment in the majority of stores to include big ticket items, patio furniture, electronics and ready-to-assemble furniture.
In the past few years, Zellers has made a notable push to drive sales through use of exclusive, private label merchandise. In a strategy similar to Target's, Zellers sells Big Star, Cherokee, Sportek, "Stuff by Duff", Gloria Vanderbilt, Homestyles, House & Home, Wabasso "Design Ideas", Alfred Sung Home, Truly, MarketSquare, Beaumark, Home Studio and many other labels that can only be found in their stores in Canada. Private brands now represent over 30% of Zellers sales.

'The Neighbourhood Market' is Zellers' expanded section of grocery items that goes beyond just selling dry snacks and other food. Frozen and dairy aisles, including ice cream, and frozen pizza, have been added to create an easy one-stop shopping experience. This may seem unusual to many customers, and was practically unheard of in a mass merchandiser in Canada until recently. In these stores, the food assortment has been expanded by 50%. Whenever a new store is built, or an old one renovated, Zellers will make Neighbourhood Market part of it. In spite of all of this, Zellers says it doesn't expect to take things to the point where it has all of the same products as a full grocery.
In early April 2005, three Zellers stores unveiled a new, state-of-the-art shopping cart system produced by Pflow, known as the "Cartveyor". It is designed to move carts between floors of multi-level stores and is placed in between the "up" and "down" sides of the escalator.
HBC announced in late May 2005 that as part of their sales growth plan, "The Big Ticket strategy" will be expanded to 97 Zellers stores across the country, after being piloted at select locations in Ontario, Quebec and Manitoba. Nine stores will offer a small assortment of appliances, 83 will offer appliances and mattress sets, and five will offer a full assortment of appliances, mattress sets and furniture. HBC is also expanding brands previously only sold at the Bay to Zellers, such as Jockey International and London Fog.

Trivia

★ Square One Shopping Centre, located in Mississauga, Ontario is home to Canada's largest Zellers store at 163,000 square feet. The store is also in the same mall as Canada's largest Wal Mart.

★ Zellers and the Bay are major tenants in the West Edmonton Mall in Edmonton, Alberta.

★ Zellers in store restaurants used to be named "The Skillet". Some older stores may still use this name today however the majority stores use "Zellers Family Restaurant" or "Zellers Family Diner" name.

★ Zellers had started a customer loyalty program called "Club Z" in 1986. Program members earned points on the purchases they made in the store. Today, the Club Z program has evolved into the HBC Rewards program where customers can earn points for their purchases at all HBC stores and other partners.

★ Zellers once published a line of unlicensed Atari 2600 games.

★ Zellers used to have a teddy bear mascot named Zeddy.

★ A Zellers in Brampton, Ontario was used in Emily Haines's music video for "Doctor Blind" from her debut solo album Knives Don't Have Your Back.

See also

★ HBC Rewards

★ List of Hudson's Bay Company brands

★ List of Canadian department stores

References

1. http://www.hbc.com/storelocator/


★ http://www.hbc.com/hbcheritage/history/acquisitions/retail/zellers.asp

★ http://www.hbc.com/hbcheritage/history/week/twih.asp?article=33

★ http://www.hbc.com/storelocator/?langid=En

External links

★ Zellers Official Website

★ Hudson's Bay Company Corporate Website