The revived chain opens in Cambridge on November 12 with no pharmacy and no vitamin aisle. Here is who buys for it, what a snack or wellness product needs before a pitch, and what health stores near its malls can do with the traffic.
By IHR Editorial Team, IHR Magazine. November 10, 2026.
The average Hudson’s Bay store ran to 152,000 square feet. The Zellers that opens at Cambridge Centre on Thursday uses about 25,000 of them, on the lower floor of the old Bay. That arithmetic explains the Zellers expansion better than the teddy bear does. A family-owned apparel group is renting pieces of empty anchor space, and the department it says it will build next is food.
For natural health and better-for-you suppliers, that means a new buying office with an unfinished planogram. For health stores inside or beside these malls, it means a traffic draw that lists no supplements, no pharmacy and no health and beauty department in any of its announcements.
Three Ontario stores now share one footprint
Cambridge opens November 12. Shoppers World Brampton and Malvern Town Centre in Scarborough follow in 2027, with no dates yet. All three are described as roughly 25,000 square feet, the same size as the Toronto store that opened at 80 Orfus Road on June 18.
The footprint has been shrinking. Edmonton’s Londonderry Mall store, the first of the revival, sits on a 60,000-square-foot lease. In October 2025 the company described its concept as 30,000 to 50,000 square feet. By June the floor of that range had dropped to 20,000.
Two cautions belong beside the growth story. A Windsor store at Tecumseh Mall was promised for July and has not opened; the company has given no reason. And the claim that sales are “surpassing expectations” comes with no figure, in any release, for any store.
Landlords need the tenant more than shoppers need the store
Hudson’s Bay closed 80 department stores and 16 Saks locations in 2025. A Canadian Press count in March found at least 73 of the 96 still empty. The average mall lease in Canada is about 3,700 square feet, according to JLL, so a vacant Bay is the size of 40 ordinary shops.
JLL expects 65 per cent of that space to be re-leased within two years and 22 per cent to be redeveloped. Splitting the box is how landlords get there. Leyad, which owns Londonderry, says it has commitments for 83 per cent of the 323,000 square feet Hudson’s Bay left across its portfolio.
Morguard told investors on October 29 that Zellers had taken the lower level at Cambridge Centre, and that the upper level remained vacant. The mall reports 4 million visits a year, more than 130 stores and a primary trade area of 155,310 people with average household income of $128,415. Its leasing page names no pharmacy or health retailer among its major tenants.
An apparel family is learning to buy consumables
Zellers belongs to Les Ailes de la Mode, a Quebec company whose president is Isaac Benitah. His family’s banners include Fairweather and International Clothiers. Hudson’s Bay transferred the trademarks on August 6, 2025. Joey Benitah, the chief operating officer, also co-founded the home retailer Wyrth in 2019.
The store reflects that background. Apparel lines the perimeter in Toronto, with home goods, toys and confectionery in the centre. Disney T-shirts sold for $10 on opening day. The mix combines national brands such as Adidas and Dickies with private labels the family developed.
IHR found no published supplier terms and no named food or wellness buyer. A pitch goes to a small, family-run head office that decides quickly and has little history in regulated consumables. That cuts both ways for a brand used to category reviews and line-review calendars.
Food is the one category the company has promised to grow
In June, Zellers told Canadian Grocer it would bring snacks, drinks and specialty food to Ontario and push further into food and confectionery “over time”. The opening list included flavoured popcorn, international chips, grab-and-go drinks, an Italian grocery range under the Gigi brand, and “better-for-you snacks”.
Here is the catch. The shopper Zellers wants already has a habit. Dollarama ended its last fiscal year with 1,691 Canadian stores averaging 10,455 square feet, on sales of $7.26 billion, and plans 60 to 70 more this year. One Zellers holds the floor area of about 2.4 Dollaramas, and after Thursday there will be three of them.
Retail analyst Doug Stephens was blunt on CP24 in June, saying “no, nostalgia won’t be enough.” His test was a product assortment shoppers cannot find elsewhere. A discount store with a famous name and room on its food shelves has a reason to listen to brands that can supply one.
The label has to be right before the purchase order
A buyer new to food inherits rules that tightened this year. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency ended enforcement discretion on front-of-package nutrition symbols on January 1, 2026. Stock imported or packaged before that date can still sell through. Anything brought in since must carry the symbol where it applies, on a bilingual label.
That matters for international chips and candy, which often arrive with labels built for another market. It matters more for anything positioned as wellness. A product that makes a health claim as a natural health product needs a Natural Product Number, and whoever imports it needs a site licence.
American structure-function copy does not transfer. A claim is usable in Canada only when it matches the licence wording, and a shelf sign that goes further is the store’s problem as well as the brand’s. Suppliers who arrive with that file complete save a new buying team work it may not know it has.
Five moves before the 2027 openings
- Pitch a test, sized honestly. Three stores this week, five by the end of 2027 if both announced sites open, six with Windsor. Offer a short, shelf-stable, giftable range and ask for weekly sell-through in return.
- Send the compliance file with the price list. Front-of-package assessment, bilingual artwork, and the NPN and licensed claim for anything regulated as a natural health product.
- Sell the gap if you are the neighbour. Health stores at or near the three Ontario malls carry what Zellers does not. Opening weekend runs November 12 to 15, with family activities until 3 p.m. each day.
- Ask the leasing office what is left. Half a former anchor is still empty in Cambridge. Divided boxes produce mid-size units, and lease restrictions decide who may sell health products in them.
- Watch three dates. A Windsor opening, the e-commerce site promised for 2026, and the first sales number the company is willing to print.
The first of those to arrive will show whether this is a chain or a collection of leases.
Frequently Asked Questions
Did Canadian Tire buy Zellers?
No. Canadian Tire paid about $30 million in June 2025 for Hudson’s Bay’s intellectual property, including the stripes, the coat of arms and several private labels. CBC reported the purchase covered the old Zellers slogan about the lowest price being the law, but excluded the Zellers name, logo and Zeddy.
How many Zellers stores were there at the peak?
About 350 in the late 1990s. Walter P. Zeller founded the chain in 1931 and Hudson’s Bay bought it in 1978. Most leases were sold to Target in 2011 and nearly all full-line stores had closed by 2013. A 2023 revival placed small Zellers shops inside Bay stores.
What are the Cambridge store’s opening weekend hours?
The store opens 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Thursday, November 12 and Friday, November 13, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday. The first 100 customers receive a Zeddy keychain, and a ribbon-cutting with Joey and Isaac Benitah is planned.
When does Zeddy return to Zellers?
Zeddy plush bears go on sale in every Zellers store on November 12, in two formats: a keychain and the classic bear. A separate concept called Zeddy’s World, where shoppers dress and accessorize a bear, remains in development and has no launch date.
This is independent editorial analysis. IHR Magazine has no commercial relationship with Zellers or Les Ailes de la Mode, and brands are named as examples, not endorsements. Verify NPN status and licensed claims before listing any natural health product.
