Canadian Heritage Moment: Hudson’s Bay is bringing Zellers back to life

This is an iconic tale of Canadian kindness if we’ve ever heard one. Hudson’s Bay plans to revive our nostalgia by reportedly bringing Zellers back to life come early 2023.

According to CBC News, Zellers will be relaunched online and also as an in-person shopping experience within existing Hudson’s Bay stores starting next year.

The revamped Zellers will be “a digital-first shopping journey that taps into the nostalgia of the brand,” said Hudson’s Bay to CBC.

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Recently, a Hudson’s Bay location in Ontario launched a Zellers pop-up with the look and feel of the old-school store, but without the famously low prices or Zeller’s restaurant.

It seems like the success of the pop-up may have inspired HBC to bring Zellers back in a much bigger way.

However, the company is embroiled in legal drama with a Quebec family that snagged the Zellers trademark and managed to open a couple of rogue stores.

According to Retail Insider, the Hudson’s Bay Company let the Zellers trademark lapse in September of last year, opening the door for the Moniz family in Quebec to register it themselves.

They did just that, and have apparently opened a small mock-up location of the Canadian store about 80 km from Montreal in the small city of Sorel-Tracy, but they certainly haven’t stopped there.

 They also have plans to open a second Zellers location in the near future – two moves that ultimately put them on HBC’s radar.

As you may have guessed, the Hudson’s Bay legal team is coming after the Moniz family hard, and the lawsuit is still ongoing.

At its peak, Zellers had well over 300 locations across Canada, but after 2013, things started to go downhill.

It seems like an exciting new chapter is about to begin for this beloved discount chain, and we’re totally here for it.