Shoppers at a Hudson’s Bay store in Burlington, Ont., might be surprised to see the typical black typeface of their familiar department store give way to bright red signage — equally familiar to most Canadians who shopped for anything from housewares to hardware from the 1970s onward.
The name and logo of Zellers hang from the rafters on the upper floor of the Burlington Centre Bay store, hidden in a corner near the toy section just past a broken escalator.
It’s not a standalone, full Zellers in the style of decades past. It’s a pop-up store inside an existing store rather than a full outlet of the discount department store that had hundreds of locations across Canada until the early 2000s.
The Zellers pop-up had only a few items for sale when visited by CBC Radio’s The Cost of Living in late September.
There were fewer than 20 clothing items for adults, mostly labelled “Canada” with red and white styles. There was a small selection of wine glasses, pillows and bedsheets, and several toys up for grabs.
It was a far cry from the broad selection in a full discount department store such as Walmart or Giant Tiger.
The Zellers pop-up in a corner on the upper floor of the Burlington Centre Hudson’s Bay store had few customers just before lunch on a Tuesday morning. (Anis Heydari/CBC)
Customers used to the famous “law of low prices” that Zellers commercials referenced in jingle form may have been surprised at the pricing. The items at the pop-up discount brand were priced identically to nearby HBC stores, such as the Sherway Gardens Hudson’s Bay in suburban Toronto.
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But while the lowest price was the law at Zellers in days gone by, the Hudson’s Bay Company said the point of this pop-up store is customers’ emotional response.
The new Zellers is “meant to delight our customers with a fun and nostalgic experience with one of HBC’s most beloved brands,” said Hudson’s Bay Company representative Tiffany Bourré in an emailed statement.
Trademark oddities some months before
The Zellers pop-up launched several months after the Hudson’s Bay Company trademark on the Zellers logo and design was “expunged” or removed from the federal government’s Canadian Trademarks Database.
The Zellers pop-up isn’t visible when you walk into the Burlington Centre Hudson’s Bay and there was no signage to direct you to its location — a quick left turn after walking up the ‘escalator acting as stairs.’ (Anis Heydari/CBC)
Trademark expert and lawyer Julie MacDonell said this means the record no longer exists in the Registrar of Trademarks.
“Therefore you are not, from a registration standpoint, a recognized owner of that brand element, that name, logo, tagline,” said MacDonell.
Trademark lawyer Julie MacDonell cautions companies against thinking that picking up an expunged brand or trademark is an easy way to grab someone’s business name. (Submitted by Julie MacDonell)
Government records show the trademark office sent a renewal notice to HBC or its representatives for the trademark in December 2019. Months later, on Sept. 24, 2020, the trademark was “expunged” because of a “failure to renew.”
What happened next is unclear. Government records show a new application to register the Zellers name and logo design was filed in April 2021 by a “Zellers Inc.” based in La Trinité-Des-Monts, Que.
The new application to own the Zellers trademark does not appear to be affiliated with the Hudson’s Bay Company, despite the use of the name Zellers Inc.
In an emailed statement to CBC Radio, HBC confirmed it has nothing to do with the Quebec company, and said it remains the owner of all registered and unregistered rights to the Zellers mark.
“HBC is investigating the unauthorized use, or attempted use, of any Zellers trademarks and is prepared to take decisive action as necessary to avoid consumer confusion regarding our Zellers brand,” wrote HBC’s Bourré.
Some baby clothes and toys were on display at the pop-up Zellers, which was positioned next to the toy department of the Hudson’s Bay in Burlington Centre. (Anis Heydari/CBC)
The Cost of Living was unable to contact the new applicant for the Zellers trademark at the address in question. Phone numbers associated with the address rang as out of service.
Another application for the rights to the name “Kmart” is also pending for a Kmart Canada Limited, based at the same address. Kmart Canada was purchased by the Hudson’s Bay Company in the late 1990s, with most stores converted to The Bay or Zellers at the time.
Trademark lawyer MacDonell theorized a new company could be trying to grab what it perceived as an abandoned logo or brand — but she cautioned this is unlikely to be a winning strategy.
“This is a brand that had substantial reputation, substantial profit associated with it and it just doesn’t work that you can go and grab that up and start a new business with it,” said MacDonell.
Depending on your memories of Zellers past, these shelves may be less stocked or equally stocked when compared with the discount department store’s heyday. And there was no sign of Zeddy or the Zellers restaurant at this store. (Anis Heydari/CBC)
Both the new HBC application, and the unaffiliated “Zellers Inc.” application for trademark registration are in progress and have not been assigned to government examiners yet.
As for the store experience itself, the nostalgia HBC is looking for was felt by longtime Burlington resident N’gaire Lynn — at first.
She couldn’t hide the excitement in her Scottish brogue when telling CBC Radio’s The Cost of Living she phoned nearly half a dozen of her friends about the return of her favourite department store.
This is not Zellers. This is a second-hand part of The Bay. Sorry. Won’t wash with me.– N’gaire Lynn
“Guys, Zellers is back!” she said. “They said to me, I guess you’re going in the morning. Oh, I’m gonnae go.”
Lynn was less excited once she got to the Zellers.
LISTEN | Hear from shoppers at the Zellers pop-up store:
Cost of Living4:27Is the lowest price the law again? Zellers returns as a pop-up store
“This is not Zellers. This is a second-hand part of The Bay. Sorry. Won’t wash with me,” she said while browsing through some mini food processors priced at $69.99 and plaid shirts priced at more than $50.
Nostalgia — and a potential marketing test
According to retail experts, HBC could be testing out whether Zellers still has legs as a brand.
Janice Rudkowski, an assistant professor at Ryerson University’s Ted Rogers School of Retail Management in Toronto, has researched pop-up retail and theorized HBC could be using the retail experience at the Burlington Centre mall to research what comes next.
Cost of Living producer Anis Heydari is unsure if the lowest price is the law when it comes to $55 plaid shirts at the Burlington Centre Hudson’s Bay. (Anis Heydari/CBC)
“Perhaps it will give them some insights into how much investment they want to put into the Zellers brand in the future,” said Rudkowski, who added the company can gather information and data while the pop-up is running. The company has said future Zellers shops may be introduced at other locations.
Rudkowski also pointed out that Zellers still resonates with Canadians as a brand, so leveraging nostalgia could be on point, if not Club Z points.
“I’m sure a lot of people think back to their own childhoods and remember Zellers as being a really important part of that childhood so it taps into nostalgia, and that’s quite powerful,” said Rudkowski.
‘A lot of memories come back’
Customers walking through the Zellers section of the Bay in Burlington definitely described feeling nostalgic as they saw the familiar logo on the walls.
“You just kind of see the name and it pops and a lot of memories come back,” said Jennifer Morris, who was shopping along with Katie Bennink late on a Tuesday morning.
Jennifer Morris, left, and Katie Bennink said they would be unlikely to return to the Zellers pop-up, with Bennink calling it ‘the Bay with some Zellers signs.’ (Anis Heydari/CBC)
Both shoppers said they’d be unlikely to come back just because of those Zellers signs.
“It looks like the Bay with some Zellers signs in it,” said Bennink.
Listen to The Cost of Living on CBC Radio One, Sundays at 12 p.m. (12:30 NT) or download the podcast every Friday night.
TORONTO – Roots Corp. may have built its brand on all things comfy and cosy, but its CEO says activewear is now “really becoming a core part” of the brand.
The category, which at Roots spans leggings, tracksuits, sports bras and bike shorts, has seen such sustained double-digit growth that Meghan Roach plans to make it a key part of the business’ future.
“It’s an area … you will see us continue to expand upon,” she told analysts on a Friday call.
The Toronto-based retailer’s push into activewear has taken shape over many years and included several turns as the official designer and supplier of Team Canada’s Olympic uniform.
But consumers have had plenty of choice when it comes to workout gear and other apparel suited to their sporting needs. On top of the slew of athletic brands like Nike and Adidas, shoppers have also gravitated toward Lululemon Athletica Inc., Alo and Vuori, ramping up competition in the activewear category.
Roach feels Roots’ toehold in the category stems from the fit, feel and following its merchandise has cultivated.
“Our product really resonates with (shoppers) because you can wear it through multiple different use cases and occasions,” she said.
“We’ve been seeing customers come back again and again for some of these core products in our activewear collection.”
Her remarks came the same day as Roots revealed it lost $5.2 million in its latest quarter compared with a loss of $5.3 million in the same quarter last year.
The company said the second-quarter loss amounted to 13 cents per diluted share for the quarter ended Aug. 3, the same as a year earlier.
In presenting the results, Roach reminded analysts that the first half of the year is usually “seasonally small,” representing just 30 per cent of the company’s annual sales.
Sales for the second quarter totalled $47.7 million, down from $49.4 million in the same quarter last year.
The move lower came as direct-to-consumer sales amounted to $36.4 million, down from $37.1 million a year earlier, as comparable sales edged down 0.2 per cent.
The numbers reflect the fact that Roots continued to grapple with inventory challenges in the company’s Cooper fleece line that first cropped up in its previous quarter.
Roots recently began to use artificial intelligence to assist with daily inventory replenishments and said more tools helping with allocation will go live in the next quarter.
Beyond that time period, the company intends to keep exploring AI and renovate more of its stores.
It will also re-evaluate its design ranks.
Roots announced Friday that chief product officer Karuna Scheinfeld has stepped down.
Rather than fill the role, the company plans to hire senior level design talent with international experience in the outdoor and activewear sectors who will take on tasks previously done by the chief product officer.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
VANCOUVER – Mediated talks between the union representing HandyDART workers in Metro Vancouver and its employer, Transdev, are set to resume today as a strike that has stopped most services drags into a second week.
No timeline has been set for the length of the negotiations, but Joe McCann, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1724, says they are willing to stay there as long as it takes, even if talks drag on all night.
About 600 employees of the door-to-door transit service for people unable to navigate the conventional transit system have been on strike since last Tuesday, pausing service for all but essential medical trips.
Hundreds of drivers rallied outside TransLink’s head office earlier this week, calling for the transportation provider to intervene in the dispute with Transdev, which was contracted to oversee HandyDART service.
Transdev said earlier this week that it will provide a reply to the union’s latest proposal on Thursday.
A statement from the company said it “strongly believes” that their employees deserve fair wages, and that a fair contract “must balance the needs of their employees, clients and taxpayers.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
MONTREAL – Travel company Transat AT Inc. reported a loss in its latest quarter compared with a profit a year earlier as its revenue edged lower.
The parent company of Air Transat says it lost $39.9 million or $1.03 per diluted share in its quarter ended July 31.
The result compared with a profit of $57.3 million or $1.49 per diluted share a year earlier.
Revenue in what was the company’s third quarter totalled $736.2 million, down from $746.3 million in the same quarter last year.
On an adjusted basis, Transat says it lost $1.10 per share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of $1.10 per share a year earlier.
Transat chief executive Annick Guérard says demand for leisure travel remains healthy, as evidenced by higher traffic, but consumers are increasingly price conscious given the current economic uncertainty.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
