Zellers plays with toys, food as retailer's relaunch reaches Ontario
The new owners of Zellers will soon expand the relaunched brand to Ontario but are first making a few tweaks.
A new discount storefront is set to open near Toronto's Yorkdale Mall on June 18th, and another at Windsor's Tecumseh Mall in July.
Like the Edmonton location that marked the brand's relaunch last year, the stores will be stocked with apparel, home goods, luggage and seasonal items.
The Ontario stores will also introduce snack foods and toys, a category the owners initially wanted to leave out of Zellers because they felt it would be too hard to compete with Walmart and Amazon.
Zellers chief operating officer Joey Benitah says he changed his mind because a small selection of toys he trialed at the Edmonton location wound up being some of the store's best sellers.
The Benitah family, which owns the brand now, bought the rights to the almost 100-year-old Zellers name last year after its former owner, Hudson's Bay, went under.
The family is also behind apparel stores Fairweather and International Clothiers as well as home goods retailer Wyrth.
In the almost 100 years since Zellers was founded, the discount department store has died and been revived several times.
Its current owners are less than a year into their relaunch but say they have national expansion plans.
cbc.ca
