If you didn’t already know exactly where it was, “easy to miss” would be the understatement of the century. The understated Zellers pop-up store is practically hidden from public view, nestled as it is on the second floor of the Burlington Centre Hudson’s Bay store.
Understated, and perhaps also underwhelming. Marching up the frozen escalator, you’d be forgiven for walking right past it, but take a hard left at the top and you can spy the classic scarlet signage pasted to the walls just past the perfume counter.
The pop-up section itself occupies about a quarter of the upstairs floor, where pennants with the familiar red-on-white Zellers logo are plastered above racks of bed and bath products, children’s toys, and contemporary Canada-themed apparel. If you were expecting this throwback to include period-accurate or Zellers-branded merchandise, you may be sorely disappointed with the selection of goods on display; however, the discounted tag prices on some of the toys were a nice nod to the store’s history as the big-box bargain chain of choice.
That said, the lack of tribute paid to the Zellers restaurant, absence of any branded merchandise (not even a commemorative t-shirt?), and glossing-over of store mascot Zeddy felt like a series of missed opportunities to appeal to the sense of nostalgia they’re aiming to kindle.
Some may have been intrigued and confused at the fact that this pop-up is the only one of its kind nationwide, at least so far, but the nature of the final product may say something about the process behind its development. It smacks of a pilot project, and one with more fine-tuning to be done if there is to be a wider launch later down the line. However, it is not clear if this is a one-and-done or if it is part of a bigger project; our questions to management remain unanswered (though if a response arrives, this article will be updated accordingly).
Pop-ups acquired their popularity as a marketing tactic not because of superficial appeal to brand loyalty, but because as a rule of thumb, they offer a substantially unique experience for visitors to partake in.
One sales associate, who asked not to be named due to store policy, said when the pop-up first opened, “it was like nobody even knew it was there.” Yet despite the absence of publicity, the public took notice. “People started posting about it on social media, and all of a sudden it was Zellers, Zellers, Zellers.”
Depending on the metrics Hudson’s Bay uses to determine this pop-up’s success, it could be either a PR letdown or a marginal success. If their intent from the start was to provide a sincere throwback to a beloved retailer, then in that regard, they have failed.
On the other hand, if this was an experiment to see whether they could leverage the strengths of a minimal-effort organic advertising campaign to bring in more shoppers for the autumn season, then the resulting social media storm that shot Zellers to the top of the “trending” tab on Twitter serves as testament to its success.
Even if the short-term goal was to ensure they could renew and retain their licensing rights of the Zellers name and brand, which fell into contention over the summer after a failure to renew and an application by an unaffiliated company in Quebec to attain those rights, then it can be argued that it’s been a greater success than the Hudson’s Bay Company could have ever planned.
All press is good press, so the saying goes.
