Canadian department store Zellers hopes to make a comeback next year, a decade after the discount chain shuttered most of its locations.
Hudson’s Bay Co. says Zellers will debut a new e-commerce website and expand its brick-and-mortar footprint within select Hudson’s Bay department stores across the country in early 2023.
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The company says the relaunched Zellers will offer “a digital-first shopping journey that taps into the nostalgia of the brand.”
In an email to CBC News, a spokesperson for Hudson’s Bay did not confirm where the new Zellers stores will be located.
Initial inventory will include housewares, furniture and toys, with apparel to be introduced later in the year. The company also plans to launch a private brand, according to the release.
Lawsuit over Zellers brand ongoing
The return of Zellers comes as soaring inflation drives consumers to discount retailers in search of lower prices. It follows Tuesday’s announcement from Hudson’s Bay that outdoor gear retailer MEC will open shops in three Bay department store locations this fall.
It also comes amid an ongoing lawsuit over a Quebec family’s use of the Zellers brand.
The Moniz family is behind various recent trademark applications and corporate registries, including Zellers Inc., Zellers Convenience Store Inc. and Zellers Restaurant Inc.
In a statement of claim filed last fall, HBC accused the Moniz family of trademark infringement, depreciation of goodwill and so-called passing off — the deceptive marketing or misrepresentation of goods.
Bruce Winder, a Toronto-based retail analyst, said he believes the Zellers revival is partly a reaction to the lawsuit.
“They need to demonstrate that they are still interested in the brand and there’s no better way to do that than actually open some stores,” Winder said.
Mixed reaction from consumers, retail strategists
A Zellers storefront announces its closure in 2013. Consumers and retail strategists offered mixed reactions after the Hudson’s Bay Company announced it will resurrect the discount chain this year. (CBC)
CBC News heard a range of responses from consumers with fond — and not-so-fond — memories of shopping at Zellers. Some are hoping for the return of the in-store restaurant and the brand’s mascot, Zeddy.
Others expressed hope that Zellers could compete with big-box stores such as Walmart and Giant Tiger.
“I always thought the Zellers was the store that catered to everyone, and I was very disappointed to see it go,” said Diane, a longtime resident of Toronto’s Richmond Hill neighbourhood.
“And then we had Target. It didn’t meet up to the Zellers standards. I would love to see it come back. I think it would service a lot of people from different incomes.”
Others recalled bad customer service experiences, a shortage of advertised products and understaffed stores. Some expressed concern that the store wouldn’t carry locally made products.
Seeing way more posts about <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/Zellers?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#Zellers</a> today than I ever did in the 90s
Mark Satov, a strategy adviser at Toronto-based Satov Consultants who worked with Zellers in the past, is cautiously optimistic about the brand’s resurrection.
“They probably have to spend a little less to resurrect this brand than to create a new brand,” he said.
Satov added that he doesn’t think the brand has a negative connotation among consumers — but it wasn’t a successful business, which is why it was sold, he said.
“I think it’s an OK move. I’m not sure that this is going to be a home run, but let’s see.”
Others have lower expectations. While the move is meant to capitalize on consumers’ nostalgia for the Zellers brand, many will associate the company with a negative shopping experience, according to Craig Patterson, the founder and publisher of retail media site Retail Insider.
“I think people are just excited to get something that was in their lives in the past, and that could be almost anything. But I’m not sure if this Zellers move is going to be a positive one long term for Hudson’s Bay,” Patterson said. “It really remains to be seen in how it’s executed.”
“I think that there is going to be an uphill battle in developing this new brand and creating these shops and stores, as well as this entire new e-commerce division for the Hudson Bay Company, which is, again, an expansion for that company.”
Most stores closed by 2013
Hudson’s Bay launched a pop-up Zellers shop inside Hudson’s Bay department stores in Burlington, Ont., and Anjou, Que., in 2021. (Anis Heydari/CBC)
The Zellers department store was founded in 1931 and acquired by HBC in 1978.
It operated as the discount division of its flagship Hudson’s Bay department stores, with the slogan “Where the lowest price is the law.”
The store hit its peak of about 350 locations in the late 1990s, before losing ground to big-box competitors such as Walmart.
In 2011, HBC announced plans to sell the majority of its remaining Zellers leases to Target Corp., closing most stores by 2013.
The retailer kept a handful of Zellers locations open as liquidation outlets until 2020.
The company launched a pop-up Zellers shop inside Hudson’s Bay department stores in Burlington, Ont., and Anjou, Que., in 2021.
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese technology group SoftBank swung back to profitability in the July-September quarter, boosted by positive results in its Vision Fund investments.
Tokyo-based SoftBank Group Corp. reported Tuesday a fiscal second quarter profit of nearly 1.18 trillion yen ($7.7 billion), compared with a 931 billion yen loss in the year-earlier period.
Quarterly sales edged up about 6% to nearly 1.77 trillion yen ($11.5 billion).
SoftBank credited income from royalties and licensing related to its holdings in Arm, a computer chip-designing company, whose business spans smartphones, data centers, networking equipment, automotive, consumer electronic devices, and AI applications.
The results were also helped by the absence of losses related to SoftBank’s investment in office-space sharing venture WeWork, which hit the previous fiscal year.
WeWork, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2023, emerged from Chapter 11 in June.
SoftBank has benefitted in recent months from rising share prices in some investment, such as U.S.-based e-commerce company Coupang, Chinese mobility provider DiDi Global and Bytedance, the Chinese developer of TikTok.
SoftBank’s financial results tend to swing wildly, partly because of its sprawling investment portfolio that includes search engine Yahoo, Chinese retailer Alibaba, and artificial intelligence company Nvidia.
SoftBank makes investments in a variety of companies that it groups together in a series of Vision Funds.
The company’s founder, Masayoshi Son, is a pioneer in technology investment in Japan. SoftBank Group does not give earnings forecasts.
Shopify Inc. executives brushed off concerns that incoming U.S. President Donald Trump will be a major detriment to many of the company’s merchants.
“There’s nothing in what we’ve heard from Trump, nor would there have been anything from (Democratic candidate) Kamala (Harris), which we think impacts the overall state of new business formation and entrepreneurship,” Shopify’s chief financial officer Jeff Hoffmeister told analysts on a call Tuesday.
“We still feel really good about all the merchants out there, all the entrepreneurs that want to start new businesses and that’s obviously not going to change with the administration.”
Hoffmeister’s comments come a week after Trump, a Republican businessman, trounced Harris in an election that will soon return him to the Oval Office.
On the campaign trail, he threatened to impose tariffs of 60 per cent on imports from China and roughly 10 per cent to 20 per cent on goods from all other countries.
If the president-elect makes good on the promise, many worry the cost of operating will soar for companies, including customers of Shopify, which sells e-commerce software to small businesses but also brands as big as Kylie Cosmetics and Victoria’s Secret.
These merchants may feel they have no choice but to pass on the increases to customers, perhaps sparking more inflation.
If Trump’s tariffs do come to fruition, Shopify’s president Harley Finkelstein pointed out China is “not a huge area” for Shopify.
However, “we can’t anticipate what every presidential administration is going to do,” he cautioned.
He likened the uncertainty facing the business community to the COVID-19 pandemic where Shopify had to help companies migrate online.
“Our job is no matter what comes the way of our merchants, we provide them with tools and service and support for them to navigate it really well,” he said.
Finkelstein was questioned about the forthcoming U.S. leadership change on a call meant to delve into Shopify’s latest earnings, which sent shares soaring 27 per cent to $158.63 shortly after Tuesday’s market open.
The Ottawa-based company, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, reported US$828 million in net income for its third quarter, up from US$718 million in the same quarter last year, as its revenue rose 26 per cent.
Revenue for the period ended Sept. 30 totalled US$2.16 billion, up from US$1.71 billion a year earlier.
Subscription solutions revenue reached US$610 million, up from US$486 million in the same quarter last year.
Merchant solutions revenue amounted to US$1.55 billion, up from US$1.23 billion.
Shopify’s net income excluding the impact of equity investments totalled US$344 million for the quarter, up from US$173 million in the same quarter last year.
Daniel Chan, a TD Cowen analyst, said the results show Shopify has a leadership position in the e-commerce world and “a continued ability to gain market share.”
In its outlook for its fourth quarter of 2024, the company said it expects revenue to grow at a mid-to-high-twenties percentage rate on a year-over-year basis.
“Q4 guidance suggests Shopify will finish the year strong, with better-than-expected revenue growth and operating margin,” Chan pointed out in a note to investors.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
TORONTO – RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust says it has cut almost 10 per cent of its staff as it deals with a slowdown in the condo market and overall pushes for greater efficiency.
The company says the cuts, which amount to around 60 employees based on its last annual filing, will mean about $9 million in restructuring charges and should translate to about $8 million in annualized cash savings.
The job cuts come as RioCan and others scale back condo development plans as the market softens, but chief executive Jonathan Gitlin says the reductions were from a companywide efficiency effort.
RioCan says it doesn’t plan to start any new construction of mixed-use properties this year and well into 2025 as it adjusts to the shifting market demand.
The company reported a net income of $96.9 million in the third quarter, up from a loss of $73.5 million last year, as it saw a $159 million boost from a favourable change in the fair value of investment properties.
RioCan reported what it says is a record-breaking 97.8 per cent occupancy rate in the quarter including retail committed occupancy of 98.6 per cent.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
