The lowest price will be the law once more in St. Albert next month, as the Zellers department store returns to town.
Hudson’s Bay announced July 18 it will open a pop-up Zellers store in St. Albert Centre this Aug. 11. (Zellers Inc. is a subsidiary of Hudson’s Bay, which is itself part of the Hudson's Bay Company.)
Zellers was a popular Canadian department store known for its red-and-white colour scheme and “Where the lowest price is the law” slogan.
Longtime St. Albert resident Andre Rouault said Zellers first came to St. Albert in the early 1980s and was initially located where the Shopper’s Drug Mart on Gervais Road is today.
“They had a little restaurant in there,” he recalled, which made it a popular hangout for area seniors.
Zellers moved into St. Albert Centre in August 2002, taking over a space formerly occupied by Walmart, St. Albert Centre general manager Jillian Creech said in an email. (The space was on the north side of the mall where the Marks and London Drugs outlets are today.) The store closed Aug. 12, 2012, and was replaced by a Target outlet — part of a massive buyout of Zellers locations by that American retailer in 2013. That store closed in 2015 and the last few standalone Zellers in Canada closed in around 2020.
Hudson’s Bay Corp. started opening up pop-up Zellers stores in 2021. The company now has one flagship pop-up in Toronto plus 25 bigger, permanent “store-in-stores” in Canada, including one in Edmonton’s Kingsway Mall, said company spokesperson Tiffany Bourré.
The St. Albert Zellers is one of 21 pop-ups opening this August in B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, and Quebec, Hudson’s Bay announced. Three of the pop-ups are in Alberta.
Bourré said the St. Albert pop-up would be a Zellers-themed area in the Hudson’s Bay store in St. Albert Centre. It will be 1,000 to 2,800 square feet in size (roughly 10-by-10 or 16-by-16 metres) and feature a selection of Zellers-brand products.
Bourré said her company chose St. Albert for one of these pop-ups because it has a Hudson’s Bay outlet there and city residents liked the Zellers brand in the past. Should this pop-up prove popular, it could lead to a permanent store-in-store Zellers outlet in the future.
In the July 18 announcement, Hudson’s Bay president Sophia Hwang-Judiesch said these pop-ups are a key part of her company’s expansion plans and will let the company test out new markets before setting up bigger stores.
“Our customers are very much part of our growth process, and together we will shape the future of Zellers, building a shopping experience that truly connects with communities across Canada,” she said.
Creech said St. Albert residents have a lot of fond memories of Zellers and should be interested in checking out the pop-up’s products.
“Folks are eager to experience the nostalgia the pop-up will bring,” she said.
Rouault expressed skepticism about the store’s potential, noting most people prefer to shop online nowadays.
“I basically can’t see it thriving.”
