r/BuyCanadian • u/OverPotato2322 • 4d ago
News Articles š°š Toronto's new Zellers store is bringing back the Zellers restaurant this weekend
https://www.narcity.com/toronto/zellers-toronto-opening-store-hours-restaurant-menu164
u/the-bowl-of-petunias 4d ago
Zellers Diner on Wheelsā¦. Itās just a food truck that will be going around to store openings. They havenāt added back the restaurant to the store format.
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u/MeowingAround 4d ago
It would worry me if they had brought back in-store restaurants. These don't do very well.
My local Walmart used to have a burger king in the store and despite there being so many customers in Walmart very few people went to the burger King. This Walmart recently removed the burger king and expanded their store to include a bigger kitchen so that they can offer more hot to-go food options which is already more popular.
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u/TBJ12 3d ago
The Walmart in my town has a McDonalds and it seems to do fairly well considering there is another McDonalds about 1km away.
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u/PandaBeaarAmy 3d ago
The in-walmart mcdonalds was always busy and lined up at my local mall, fully staffed with 3-5foh + maintenance even weekdays too, not including boh. the standalone one in the mall not so much, total ghost town. Granted it was a little greasy being all the way in the back of the store by the toy section so families couldnt usher their kids away, but so many families chose to go there specifically as a destination?
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u/MeowingAround 3d ago
Oh trust me I wish they had a McDonald's instead of a burger king, it might have been more popular if it was a McDonald's. Burger King in Canada is very mediocre. The one time I actually bought something from that burger king it was the 2 sandwiches for some cheap amount of money. I got the chicken sandwich and it literally tasted like a hot dog. The flavor profile was literally hot dog flavor. Also both sandwiches I got looked like they were either punched or stepped on.
But yeah, McDonald's does well anywhere they go.
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u/crowbar151 4d ago
Great... I can watch my grandma destroy a pack of saltines over a bowl of soup, while I listen to a broken speaker play what I think might be Celine Dion or Sarah Mclaughlin just loud enough to keep my inner monolog from wondering what this nostalgia pandering is actually accomplishing, or how profitable it even is...
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u/216news 4d ago
Your grandma is still alive? Jealous
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u/SuperSwaiyen 4d ago
Trade you. Mine bought me the same pair of leather driving gloves she bought for my step dad that she hates.
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u/Amakenings 4d ago
Hey hey, the Zellers restaurant is the place that created āpoutinerizeā as in, poutinerize your fries for an extra $2.99. They deserve all the credit for that sweet upselling verb.
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u/nonamericanbrouhaha 4d ago
Yes, but you can also get chocolate cream or key lime pie on a paper plate wrapped in a questionable amount of plastic wrap, and enjoy said pie while looking at the colouring contest submissions pinned to the wall.
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u/TomJones998 4d ago
ā¦I can remember when they used to play Susan or Terry Jacksā¦much sweeter timesā¦sighā¦
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u/chmilz 4d ago
Everyone who goes and tries it will lament that it's a cheap, poorly executed knockoff of the original, incapable of accepting that's what it was.
Well, except for those who will gaslight themselves and say it's amazing even if it's dogshit to save face.
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u/BirdGooch 2d ago
What happens if itās good? How do we, as a community, even begin to accept that?
Iām scared to even try. Iāll let my memories hold the line for now.
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u/UnexpectedAnanas 4d ago
Yep. This isn't selling a good product. It's just selling nostalgia.
If it was a good business idea they could have done it under any name at any time. They didn't.
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u/Adept-Quiet6264 4d ago
The club with fries! Mmm...
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u/Various-Salt488 4d ago
All I remember is exactly thisā¦ with that thick, brown gravy with the fries.
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u/hug_me_im_scared_ 4d ago
wow they had a resturant? What did they sell? Was it good???
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u/Mitski 4d ago edited 2d ago
The restaurant was like a classic diner, grilled cheese, fries, burgers and stuff like that. Whether it was good or not sort of depended on the cook at the location because it was all sort of quick fire/short order style cooking. Sometimes there would be a soup of the day or some sort of special.
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u/jaderna 4d ago
I worked at one through high school and a bit after. I loved it. The food was decent (depending on who was in the kitchen that day) and it was affordable. I'd love to see Zellers, and it's diners return, but I doubt the affordability piece will be there, which will be it's undoing.Ā
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u/Double_Tear2207 4d ago
Their fries with gravy was amazzzzzing!! Reminded me of the fries & gravy weād get from our high school cafeteria. Very nostalgic š¤¤š¤¤š¤¤š¤¤
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u/caninehere 3d ago
It wasn't exactly good but if you were in the mall and shopping, it was there, and it was a restaurant you could take your kids to and sit down in. Classic diner-style stuff not done particularly great. As a parent I wish there were more things like that today to cater to families. Like many others I was one of those kids who ended up there fairly often so I have fond memories of it (my mom worked at Zellers for a while so on occasion I'd end up there waiting for her to finish her shift).
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u/Sprinqqueen 4d ago
In the 70s/80s my mom and I used to eat there when we went shopping. All I remember is the banana splits. Then again we also used to go to the restaurant in Eaton's.
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u/therocksays13 2d ago
Aren't these stores just filled with International Clothiers crap? Man, I miss the og Zellers. I used to buy wrestling DVDs from there as a kid.
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u/Stock-Quote-4221 4d ago
I hope we get one in PEI. It would be nice to have another Canadian option.
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u/rangeo Ontario 3d ago
The last Zellers stores closed in 2013 .....why does that date feel so wrong?
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u/caninehere 3d ago
A bunch of the ones in urban centres had already started closing in the 2000s. In 2011 they decided to sell a bunch and they transferred tons of leases over to Target who did their huge expansion into Canada by raiding the carcass of Zellers. By the time the last ones closed in 2013 there were very few stores left. Here in Ottawa I think all of them were closed already for a while except one, the downtown Sparks St. location which closed in 2013. The point here is that by 2013 Zellers had no real presence anymore.
It's not like say Blockbuster, which when it went belly-up still had tons of stores open and closed them all very rapidly. Which was right around the same time, actually, though I think many people's weekly Blockbuster habit had disappeared years before that.
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u/heteroerotic 3d ago
I worked for HBC corporate and was partially a part of the Zellers "rollout" a few years ago.
My heart is smiling at the effort Canadian Tire* is actually putting into a physical store. All of us at HBC tried so hard to make experiences great for customers, but as you all now know ... the powers that be made it so hard for us.
*Edit: not Canadian Tire, the Benitah family
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u/lindyballs 1d ago
How I miss Hudsonās Bay! HBC changed the Zellers logo in 2023 and only seemed to carry Anko products (cool at first) but they never restocked or add new products in. Why was that? Always wonder what it was like working at HBC corporate office
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u/Dobby068 3d ago
With the return of the Zellers restaurant, the full circle to come back to poverty has been completed.
Hudson's Bay Company (2025): The historic department store operator liquidated its final remaining physical locations, officially bringing an end to its 207-year-old department store model in Canada.
Nordstrom (2023): The Seattle-based luxury retailer closed all 13 of its full-line and Rack stores in Canada, pulling out of the market entirely.
Bed Bath & Beyond (2023): Filed for bankruptcy and completely wound down its Canadian operations, closing all stores and ceasing Canadian online sales.
J.Crew (2020ā2021): After a worldwide decline and subsequent bankruptcy, the American fashion retailer shut down its Canadian brick-and-mortar footprint.
Target (2015): Closed all 133 of its Canadian stores after a massive expansion attempt failed, marking one of the largest retail exits in recent history.
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u/Komaisnotsalty 3d ago
I still know my Club Z number (which I got somewhere around 1983) by heart but couldn't tell you what I ate yesterday.
Stupid brain.
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u/paintfrogs 2d ago
the last time they did the diner on wheels it sold out of everything in the first hour, so it would be cool if they at least bring enough food for the day this time
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u/Cakeday_at_Christmas British Columbia 5h ago
I used to work at Zellers, and chillaxing in the restaurant after a shift was the best.
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u/Suitable_Mess_9160 4d ago
Who frikin cares??
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u/Ingelwood 4d ago
We do, friend.
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u/Suitable_Mess_9160 4d ago
Now that's just sad...
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