We were proud to work for Zellers
ITS GLORY DAYS LONG PAST, ‘The Store for Thrifty Canadians’ is bidding adieu after 82 years, leaving fond memories in its wake
Obituary: Zellers, 19312013. Discount retail store, finished operations in its 82nd year. Beloved offspring of the late Walter P. Zeller. Much-loved sibling of the Hudson’s Bay Co. Deeply mourned by thousands of Zellers associates in 176 stores in Canada from coast to coast, and by associates in the head office. Fondly remembered by hundreds of Zellers retirees who worked in the head office or “in the field” in various Zellers stores.
Iam one of those Zellers retirees; I worked in the Montreal head office from 1962 to 1986, holding the position of copy chief in the Zellers advertising department. Head office in 1962 was located next to an old-style Zellers store on Queen Mary Rd.
Applying for the job, I was ushered into the office of Miss Inda Miller, the company’s formidable advertising manager and an original associate of the company’s founder, Walter P. Zeller.
In my training, I soon became familiar with the company’s history. Miss Miller proudly showed me the company’s very first advertisement, a one-page newspaper ad published in 1931 for the 14 original Zellers stores, located mainly in southern Ontario. (The No. 1 store was Zellers on Dundas St. in London, Ont.) The ad featured fashions and dry goods, and was illustrated with handsome drawings. It proclaimed Zellers “The Store for Thrifty Canadians.” Shoppers were reassured that purchases were covered by the Zellers Guarantee: “No Ifs, Ands or Buts … Satisfaction Guaranteed or Your Money Cheerfully Refunded.”
The conce pt worked. Within 25 years of that ad appearing, Zellers was operating 60 stores and employed 3,000 people. The period between 1930 and 1960 saw the first of several changes in the company’s ownership, as Zellers became partners with U.S. retail chain W.T. Grant. Keeping up with the times, Zellers opened its first selfserve location in 1956.
After joining the company in 1962 I became a proud witness to, and participant in, the company’s tremendous growth. It became the go-to store for Canadian families looking for value and quality in a wide variety of merchandise. Assortments were expanded and quality upgraded throughout the chain. In-store restaurants, pharmacies and auto centres were added, and the first suburban location was opened in the 1960s.
By the mid-1970s, Zellers was operating 155 stores from St. John’s to Victoria, with more than $400 million in yearly sales. But the friendly, family-style downtown stores became mostly history as super-modern, brightly lit “one-stop-shopping” Zellers stores opened their doors in suburban malls. The old Zellers logo, too, was “modernized” to the sleek one that today’s customers know.
Then everything changed in our lives at Zellers. A new owner and new bosses came on the scene, as W.T. Grant withdrew and Zellers acquired the Vancouver-based clothing retailer Fields in a reverse takeover in 1976. The final change during my tenure occurred in 1981, when the Hudson’s Bay Co. acquired Zellers and Fields.
Through all those changes, all of us, thousands of Zellers associates across Canada — whether buyers in head office or clerks in the field — felt that we were part of the big Zellers Family. We all read the company magazine, the Forum, giving us news of company-wide happenings.
We were proud of the com- pany’s involvement in community affairs and charities. We enjoyed hearty meals in the Zellers restaurants, did our Christmas shopping in Zellers Toyland and sported the latest Zellers fashions. We watched proudly as the new head-office building took shape in Montreal.
In the advertising department, we worked on the weekly circulars in English and French, which started to be illustrated with shiny photographs — Miss Miller would have been amazed! We promoted Zellers’s own quality brands, as well as many leading brands.
In the 1990s and onward, after taking early retirement, I witnessed Zellers’s further expansion, with the addition of new stores and new merchandise lines, including groceries. I also participated in Zellers loyalty programs, earning many finere wards as a member of Club Z and then HBC Rewards. I also noted that at Zellers, still, “the lowest price (was) the law.”
Then in 1996, the head office in Montreal closed. It was eventually relocated to Brampton, Ont.
And now, as the company’s final chapter is written, the doors are closing on all Zellers stores across Canada, and the Zellers signs are being retired. “Thrifty Canadians” will have to look elsewhere for their bargains.
Many Zellers associates, I am sure, will get together to celebrate the life and times of the company. After so many years of faithful service to the Canadian public, they will wish this fine Canadian retail company a well-deserved rest.