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Saks Fifth Avenue is being rebranded to Hudson's Bay, and Hudson's Bay is being rebranded to Zellers?
No.
But that would be funny!
Saks Fifth Avenue is being rebranded to Hudson's Bay, and Hudson's Bay is being rebranded to Zellers?
On the subject of Zellers, among other things..............announcements from HBC should be forthcoming very shortly.
It would be fascinating, on Queen St., if it were necessary to walk through Zellers to reach Saks.
I don't disagree.
One would tend to think, if there were a place for such a brand, it would be in the 'bargain basement' in such stores.
Yet, that's where Pusateri's can be found.
As noted, I can't wrap my head around this strategy which, also involves MEC inside the 'The Bay' and various other retailers as well.
It appears as though they are moving towards 'The Bay' being a brand only, a brand associated with being the home of other brands.
Its very odd. We already have a retail concept for this, its called the shopping mall. LOL
The only difference being, the malls actually own their real estate, where HBC has largely divested itself of its.
So it's a sub-letting landlord.......sort of......
Re Zellers, I told ya... lol
I wasn't really old enough to be buying any stuff there before it was gone, though my mother says she distinctly remembers shopping at Zellers and emphatically disagrees that it was ever a "discount brand," as the media is portraying it today, but was in fact "overpriced on everything" and usually out of stock on anything you wanted, which, hey, that's a lot like the Bay. My mother may be biased though as she worked at K-Mart in the early 70's somewhere in Mississauga (she can't recall exactly where that K-Mart was and remembers only that it was close to the QEW but I've always wondered its location).Took them a bit longer than I thought................
Zellers Stores to be Revived by Hudson’s Bay Company [Exclusive]
The 2.0 retail concept will include Zellers locations within Hudson’s Bay department stores as well as an online portal.retail-insider.com
HBC is reviving the Zellers brand as both an ecommerce site and physical stores, the latter of which are planned to be inside current 'Bay' stores (which will remain Bay stores as well).
The stores should be up and running sometime (likely in the 1st 1/2) of 2023.
Not yet clear how large these new stores will be or how they will separated from 'The Bay' physically within their footprints.
Retail-Insider has a bit more at the link above; with more details to be released in the months ahead.
Comments: I can see a potentially successful path in resuscitating the brand I have extreme difficulty envisioning that with the store-within-store concept discussed. To me the 'ideal' of Zellers
is essentially an over-sized dollar store with a bit of nostalgic cache and that doesn't jive well with the positioning of Hudson's Bay Company as an upper-middle store with more of an emphasis (in theory) on quality.
I find HBC's current retail strategy.....odd.
I wasn't really old enough to be buying any stuff there before it was gone, though my mother says she distinctly remembers shopping at Zellers and emphatically disagrees that it was ever a "discount brand," as the media is portraying it today, but was in fact "overpriced on everything" and usually out of stock on anything you wanted, which, hey, that's a lot like the Bay. My mother may be biased though as she worked at K-Mart in the early 70's somewhere in Mississauga (she can't recall exactly where that K-Mart was and remembers only that it was close to the QEW but I've always wondered its location).
I do remember the Zellers in-store restaurant though and if they bring back the plate of fries and gravy for $2 I'll be there.
I walked through the basement at Hudson's Bay on Queen this morning... Pusateri appears to be 95% empty, only a few counters are operational, and countless shelves would be ready to receive lots of cheap clothing. How about calling it "Zellers at Pusateri"?