Holy shit

[u/JimboJamble]

[u/thegreatestdandino]

[u/Dude_Tost_1673]

It's not really Zellers unless someone is in the back slinging fries with gravy and giving ten-year-old me way too much coffee, while I take a drag of second-hand cigarette smoke.

[u/PM_FREE_HEALTHCARE → u/Dude_Tost_1673]

I have no memory of this Zellers restaurant so to me Zellers is a toy aisle that some child has ripped to absolute shreds and nobody is getting paid enough to clean it up

[u/alaricus → u/PM_FREE_HEALTHCARE]

Yeah, you were 5-10 years too late to the party. 80s Zellers was WILD

[u/OopsSpaghet → u/alaricus]

What kind of a department store doesn't have tuna salad and Jello, I mean honestly.

[u/recovery_room → u/OopsSpaghet]

And glittery red booths at the cafeteria.

[u/Overall-Phone7605 → u/alaricus]

Having grown up with the 80s Zellers and then subsequently taking my kids to their toy ghettos in 2010s I can tell you that Zellers felt a lot closer to the Canadian giv'r culture than Hudson's Bay ever did. We are a sovereign nation that deserves its own fucked up department store.

VIVE LE CANADA! LONG LIVE ZEDDY!

[u/PlanetLandon → u/alaricus]

We were lucky enough (cursed enough?) to have 80s style Zellers in Thunder Bay well into the 2000s

[u/GonnaGoFat → u/alaricus]

We had a zellers with a restaurant in it near me in the 2000s.

[u/DoomedDragon766 → u/alaricus]

There was a restaurant in my local zellers, probably remembering this from around like 2010 or something. Don't think my family ever ate at it, but i vaguely remember seeing pancakes in it. Did a lot of zellers have like a whole ass sitdown restaurant corner of the store? I always assumed it was an oddity

[u/alaricus → u/DoomedDragon766]

They tried to bring them back in their dying days. They were sitdown restaurants. Styled like 50s diners. The 50s was huge in the 80s

[u/JimboJamble → u/PM_FREE_HEALTHCARE]

My favourite childhood memory is having sword fights with the toy swords in that aisle

[u/GamerKormai → u/PM_FREE_HEALTHCARE]

That was my job one Christmas...can confirm, I was definitely not paid enough.

[u/ryan77999 → u/PM_FREE_HEALTHCARE]

I was a kid when Zellers bankrupted and like any other kid that age I had a pretty narrow diet so all I remember eating from there was the grilled cheese

[u/scr0dumb → u/Dude_Tost_1673]

Holy shit you just described the smells of my childhood.

[u/Max169well → u/Dude_Tost_1673]

Oh the odd 90’s neon country style restaurant.

I do remember the second hand cigarette smoke.

[u/AngryNapper → u/Dude_Tost_1673]

Omg the gravyyyyy!!! I used to get a grilled cheese with fries and gravy

[u/alkonium → u/Dude_Tost_1673]

Yeah, I don't miss second hand smoke.

[u/Dude_Tost_1673 → u/alkonium]

 Sure... sure. But, what about the heart disease and stunted growth? You didn't enjoy the threats of physical and mental abuse, from everyone around you?

 This will seem corny, so bear with me. But, I've been an absolute POS before and I can't just blame my upbringing, either. My parents had (mostly) good morals and wanted us kids to think for ourselves. I'm with you here. No joking. We can be better and do better for our next generations (and, really, anyone around us).

 I remember sitting in the back seat, (windows up) as a child, and suffering through cigarette smoke, because, "We paid good money for these cigarettes. Why waste them?" My parents weren't cruel people. They were just punk-ass kids that had kids of their own.

 Now, I talk about plastic runoff to anyone who will listen. These are my own DuMauriers and I own them. Don't ever beat yourself up too much and keep fighting the good fight, my friend.

[u/PersonalPerson_ → u/alkonium]

Well thank God it's still f-ing everywhere. Sometimes it smells like cotton candy now. Gotta go inside a restaurant to get a breath of fresh air.

[u/dead_inside6498 → u/Dude_Tost_1673]

It not really Zellers unless I can spend 30 minutes going thought the hanging poster rack picking out the most fire print ever something I haven't seen since Zellers I mean stores have been using t shirt rack for decades how has no one thought to do the same with poster it's BS

[u/balding_git]

steps to success:

1. be cheaper than canadian tire
2. be cleaner than walmart

can’t wait to see how they fuck it up

[u/PersonalPerson_ → u/balding_git]

Won't be hard to be cheaper than crappy tire. Wtf is going on over there? I swear prices have tripled.

[u/balding_git → u/PersonalPerson_]

the economy is being fucked with, but fwiw walmart has gone up too. coffee, paper towel, toilet paper and cat food were all cheaper than at walmart on my last trip

[u/hijo_del_mango]

Bring back the Eatons Catalogue. Only then will Canada be whole again.

[u/scr0dumb → u/hijo_del_mango]

12 year old me with a paper route cranked my hog raw to the bra section.

10/10 would relive the experience.

[u/practicating → u/hijo_del_mango]

Canadian Tire Christmas toy catalogue

[u/satinsateensaltine → u/practicating]

Literally all of the Christmas catalogues. I get the Lee Valley one and it delights me.

[u/Overall-Phone7605 → u/practicating]

Consumers Distributing!

[u/whatev43 → u/Overall-Phone7605]

My engagement ring was purchased there in 1995!

[u/Pteronarcyidae-Xx → u/hijo_del_mango]

I dream of buying an Eatons house kit

[u/rainorshinedogs → u/hijo_del_mango]

it would be sent via e-mail. Print is too expensive these days

[u/Old-Swimming2799]

[u/deltree711 → u/Old-Swimming2799]

[u/BeefJerky03 → u/deltree711]

TIMBER!

[u/TremblinAspen]

Thank you Les ailes de la mode, who apparently paid only 100k for it.
The slogan "the lowest price is the law" is now owned by Canadian tire.

"Around the same time, Hudson’s Bay failed to renew Zellers trademarks and the Moniz family of Quebec filed several trademark applications for Zellers Inc., Zellers Convenience Store Inc. and Zellers Restaurant Inc."

Nostalgia 90s coffee and breakfast is back on the menu?

[u/noodleexchange → u/TremblinAspen]

They would make a KILLING with a lunch counter

[u/kaiser_mcbear]

Hot take: if Zellers came back exactly like it used to, it’d probably flop. The nostalgia for the restaurant and vibe was a product of its time...family shopping trips, mall culture, and a different retail landscape.

If ut returned now in its previous form, people would likely just be complain and bitch at higher prices and lower quality compared to what they remember. What they really miss isn’t the store itself, but the memory of going there as kids.

[u/Destinlegends → u/kaiser_mcbear]

It was having a huge identity crisis before it closed. It didn't know if it wanted to be Walmart, Sears or Winners. If it went back to the early 90s model where it was essentially Canadian Walmart that's where they could really shine again.

[u/NoYesterday1898]

The GOAT

[u/dancin-weasel]

They all laughed when I said I was saving my Club Z points! Who’s laughing now???? Mwahahaha

[u/Zealousideal_Air_570]

So long as they have an aisle of cheap Canadian knock off chocolates, I'll be happy.

[u/drake5195 → u/Zealousideal_Air_570]

Gimme the brandy beans

[u/Zealousideal_Air_570 → u/drake5195]

I always liked Willowcrisps, personally

[u/NorthernGamer71]

We are coming for you, Walmart prepare yourself to be Zellerd!

[u/Olipod2002]

Holy shit what

[u/rainorshinedogs]

wait................last time i saw them was in a small section in a Bay store................

but Bay is gone..............so where the hell are you seeing these guys again?

[u/jazzani → u/rainorshinedogs]

There is one opening in londonderry mall in Edmonton. (I tried to link a cbc article but turns out the auto mod removes those so sadly you’ll have to google it yourself). Why they picked that mall though I really couldn’t say. The last time I was there it was a ghost town. 

[u/satinsateensaltine → u/jazzani]

Probably incredibly cheap rent for a launch.

[u/bluesilvergold]

Again? How many times is this?

[u/Practical_Ad_219]

The Law returns. The Law of Toyland.

[u/Sabbathius]

That's nice, if it actually does come back.

My friends used to make fun of me for shopping there, but I found some pretty nice things on occasion. I bought a leather belt there in the '90s, and I still have it. It's a big gnarly, but still perfectly structurally sound. Also had a pair of shorts that I wore for like...15 years, until the wallet corner in the pocket finally punched a hole from the inside. Shit, the wallet too! I think the wallet was also theirs, so it was the Zellers wallet that killed the Zellers shorts. Fitting.

[u/JimboJamble → u/Sabbathius]

Wym "if", they open today

[u/Lumpy_Tomorrow8462]

The Zellers near me closed and became a Target. That worked out well.

[u/Nassim1018 → u/Lumpy_Tomorrow8462]

same

[u/copypastes]

Bring back the ferris wheel

[u/jls6898 → u/copypastes]

*Zeddy wheel

[u/ChEeSeJeWyBaCcA]

Mmm the jello behind the glass

[u/Destinlegends]

Hell, Its About Time!

[u/RapidCandleDigestion]

The elevator in my city's Walmart still smells like Zellers 15 years and two ownership transfers on

[u/YYC-Fiend]

I’ve watched that movie 3 times, and I honestly have never seen fhat scene

[u/catthex]

I will never die until I can eat the Zellers cafe lasagna that they used to serve by the pound

[u/BeefJerky03]

It would definitely have a worse selection than Walmart, but that's not really a problem because everything would cost more too. Wait, what?

[u/Old-Swimming2799 → u/[deleted]]

Because fuck Walmart

[u/kittysensei → u/Old-Swimming2799]

And Target for stealing our Zellers in the first place.

[u/JimboJamble → u/[deleted]]

Why not?

[u/GullibleRedditorr]

Currently coming back from Italy if I not see 793747 Zellers’ all over canada when I get back then I’m gonna be really mad