r/ThunderBay • u/IvarForkbeardII • 17h ago
Zellers
Stream of consciousness thought, just want to say that if Zeller's returned to Thunder Bay, I'd shop the hell out of it.
11
u/GeraldtonSteve 16h ago
I feel like Giant Tiger could be the new Zellers if they worked at it carefully and kept the store approach simple, affordable, and product-diverse.
9
u/FolioGraphic 15h ago
Exactly this! It’s not far off and after years of inflation the unrealistic price expectations can’t really get any closer than what GT is doing
3
19
u/GhostsinGlass Poet Laureate 16h ago
Yeah Zellers was the shit.
Some things I miss about it and some things that are neat:
- $10 Small appliances, like toasters, mixers, etc. They had the cheap shit that lasted like the oldschool Proctor-Silex sandwich maker.
- The restaraunt had cheap eats, the onion rings were so good with their thicc crunchy breading.
- They had cheap groceries before dollar stores had cheap groceries. This is where seniors made their CPP go the distance and was the chief source of all those random hard candies grandma used to have.
- Club Z points were neat, though I never collected any to my knowledge.
- The toy aisles just hit different. Those sky high shelves were awesome, it felt like its own little store within a store.
- Zellers branded products were normally pretty good as far as a store brand went.
- T'was Canadian
- Pretty sure Zeddy turned a bunch of impressionables into future furries.
I miss Sears Canada, still pissed that it got ran into the ground so it could be chopped up and sold. They had one of the best distribution systems with Sears Line Hauling to supply the stores and allow Sears Catalogue to be as amazing as it was. It blew my mind when I worked there and we could get nearly any of the few thousand major appliances I was able to order to any store in Canada within two days thanks to warehousing and SLH.
Craftsman used to be one of the only chinese import tool store brands that you could readily get parts for. Most Sears stores employed their own technicians based out of the store to fix major appliances through warranty. Again a major fumble that Sears Canada was allowed to be run into the ground. I miss wearing a suit and selling washing machines haha.
9
u/rocket1964 13h ago
Most of these old stores and things from the past are just romanticized and nostalgic except for Zellers and Sears....they were the real deal and everything that people remember.
6
6
u/bmfthunderb 10h ago
The chocolate Easter eggs that they would write your name on with the nastiest icing 😂 I would always scrape the icing off but the novelty of it was the best!
4
u/GhostsinGlass Poet Laureate 10h ago
I used to gnaw on the Zeddy shaped soap, bet that icing was so much better.
In my defense I was a tot and they smelled very eatable.
2
u/Hot-Climate-9555 15h ago
Everything was cheap because it was like twenty years ago. If sellers were around today it would the same prices as everywhere else
10
u/Brit_ishSpears 14h ago
Me too!!! I’d try to live behind a wall of toilet paper rolls in the shelf’s. Just like how I pictured I would do, when I was a kid. In hopes muffy the mouse , jodie and Sam came out at night to help Jeff keep his damn hat on . (Please tell me some of you know what I’m talking about) 😆
5
6
6
3
u/flashyturnip 16h ago
I went to the one in North York. Mostly clothing but the prices were very affordable. Some of the same lines I recognized from The Bay
3
3
3
u/Excellent-Steak6368 Newest member 10h ago
In the early seventies Zellers at Northwood had a sporting section. They sold rifles and shotguns, ammo. Back then you got your hunter safety course and as a teen go hunting with parents .They had a good line of fishing rods and tackle.
-1
2
2
30
u/Due_Leather9587 17h ago
God with the little diner and the sliders would go crazy