Image: ABC News Grow up no more Toys R us kids! Toys R us is revived! Toys R Us is opening their first new US store since the 2018 bankruptcy at  Westfield Garden State Plaza  in Paramus, New Jersey just i n time for the holiday season. A  second location is expected to open next week at  The Galleria  in Houston.  The new store has a treehouse in the middle and many toys on display for kids to play with in different sections for each brand and genre and it has kiosks where you can order items online from Toys R Us' online store.

For today's retail history post, I'll be talking about Sobeys' discount grocery store chain, FreshCo and their failed Ontario discount chain, Price Chopper. Brief History of Price Chopper Price Chopper started out in the 90s by the Oshawa Group, which was acquired by Sobeys in 1998 as part of their entry into the Ontario market. Sobeys didn't really do much to their stores, so the stores slowly detereated until Sobeys finally woke up and decided to kill off the Price Chopper and "convert" most of the stores into Freshco. Freshco launched as a brand new discount chain and not just a rebrand of Price Chopper. There were 3 stores left opperating under Price Chopper, but as of the time of writing, only one in Scarborough remains open.  Freshco: Fresher, Cheeper and Successful Now, I'm going to talk about Price Chopper's de facto sucessor, FreshCo. FreshCo started in March of 2010 by Sobeys converting 8 of their Price Chopper locations in

Google Maps Street View of the now former Zellers Update October 15th 2019: Both Zellers will close in fall of this year according to the description of this Flickr photo by zayre 88.

Yesterday,  fast fashion retailer Forever 21 filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy . As part of its restructuring strategy, Forever 21 plans to close most of their shops in Asia and Europe, but will continue operations in Mexico and Latin America. They will also close all their Canadian stores as a result of the bankruptcy. This came as a shock to me because this is their second bankruptcy, and I thought Forever 21 was doing pretty well. But I guess not. It's sad to see them enter the retail graveyard. Until next post, DZ

A picture of a Knob Hill basket. Credit: Wikipedia For today’s lost retail post I’ll be talking about an old, local chain of grocery stores called Knob Hill Farms. Knob Hill Farms was a chain of 10 warehouse-like “food terminals” in the Toronto area. These stores were pretty large for a supermarket at the time they operated ranging from 65,000 sqft to a gigantic 335,000 sqft. Due to financial issues, Knob Hill Farms closed/sold all their stores in 2000. History Knob Hill Farms was founded in 1954 by Steve Stavro as a more conventional grocery chain operating 9 markets in Toronto. It wasn’t until 1963 that Stravro opened his first 65,000 sqft “food terminal” in Markham. In 1971, Knob Hill Farms expanded into Pickering with its second terminal. Knob Hill Farms than opened their first Toronto store  in 1975 and second Toronto terminal opened in 1977. Their fifth store, which was billed as the largest food store in North America at the time, opened in 1978 in Mississauga. Thi

Zellers' logo from 1975-present Today’s lost retail post is about the “Truly Canadian” discount store, Zellers. Selling everything from A-Z, Zellers was basically like a Kmart in the sense that it was struggling and that their stores were old, but had updated signage for the most part. That’s ironic considering they brought most of the Canadian Kmarts in 1998. However, the merchandise they sold was more like what Target sold. Sadly HBC sold Zellers’ leases to Target in 2011 and closed all but two stores in 2013 as a result. Early years The first Zellers store was founded on August 4 th , 1928 by Walter P. Zeller in London ON. Because the stores were doing good, an American retailer called Schulte-United brought them out. In 1931 Zeller brought 14 Canadian stores from Schulte-United and reverted them back to the Zellers brand. In its first year, Zellers had 12 stores in southwestern Ontario, Quebec, and New Brunswick with 11 being former Schulte-United stores and the Ki

Today's post is my first to feature pictures of a store. I did a mini tour around the renovated Clothing department in the Heartland Walmart Supercentre. Here's a streetview of the store. Store description This store opened in the mid 2000s with pre-impact and got a decor swap to 2nd gen Project Impact in 2011ish. The store features the market section on the left instead of the right side. The pharmacy is also in the middle, typical of early impact stores. This store recently got a remodel to the clothing department with new signs, fixtures and spotlights. They also have newer self checkouts and a PickUp tower at the front. However, the rest of the store still has Project Imapct Signs. This store has a pharmacy in the middle and a old original sign featuring the old Wal*Mart logo. Remodeled clothing department The last bit of this post features photos of the remodeled clothing department. Sorry about the bad quality.  Here's an example of new department si

Image: CBC Sobeys plans on removing plastic bags from all stores they own, including Sobeys, Safeway, and Fresh Co by the end of January 2020. "This is a first step, and we plan to make meaningful progress every year to take plastic out of our stores and our products. We decided to act now instead of taking years to study and only make long-term commitments. We're taking action now, making a tangible difference today and into the future. This is a significant first step, but it's only a first step.." said Michael Medline, President and CEO of  Empire (Sobeys' Parent company). This makes Sobeys first national Canadian chain to remove single use plastic bags. Source: Sobeys

Here are two diagrams that I've made showing a typical division 1 Walmart Supercentre and a large format Supercentre layout that Walmart Canada typically uses. All diagrams are made by myself by memory, so some things may be wrong. Large Format Supercentre Typical Impact Era Large-format Supercentre (One of my older maps I've made) Here's a map of a typical new build "Arch Model" Walmart Store. This model has a smaller single entrance version, which has the same basic layout. But the one above is of a regular Supercentre. Walmart typically puts the grocery on the right side, but will sometimes put it on the left side. Walmart still uses this layout to this day and has not changed it in the Yellow and Blue decor prototype. Division 1 Supercentre Typical remodelled Division 1 store expanded to a Supercentre A Division 1 Supercentre is a Division 1 store that has been upgraded to a Supercentre during the Project Impact Era without any physical expansio

I'm starting a memorabilia series where I post items such as bags or flyers from current and old chains. For the first post, here's a No Frills bag that has been in use by the chain since 2016. This bag was introduced along side their "Get the frills out of your bill" secondary slogan. Until next time, DZ Retail

Future Shop Logo Today for Lost Retail History.  I 'll  be talking about  a  old chain of electronics stores called Future Shop. Best Buy owned future shop from 2001 till its 2015 demise after Best buy decided to permanently close 65 stores and keep 60 or so stores open as Best Buys due to overlapping stores. Beginnings Future shop was founded in 1982 by Hassan  Khosrowshahi  in Vancouver .  The store sold computers, software, games, videocassettes, audio equipment, music, and other electronics. Future shop reached $2.8 million In sales by December 1983.    The 90s By 1990, Future Shop became the largest retailer of computers and consumer electronics in Canada and was operating 38 stores across the country and parts of the United States.    In 1998, Future Shop purchased the Canadian division of Computer City from CompUSA.   By the end of 1998, the U.S. locations of Future Shop were performing badly, with $53 million in losses over the last f

Last week, Walmart launched their new urban Supercentre concept at theit Stockyards store in Toronto. The new concept i ntegrates ecommerce, third-party shops, state-of-the-art technology, and an updated assortment into a new design and layout for urban markets. This concept includes the following new features: Image: Walmart New revamped Market, with new wood accents and spotlights in produce A new Grab and go food section with seating Third party shops such as Freshii, UPS Store, and Miniso Image of the Fast lane checkouts at another location Fast lane checkouts where My Walmart App users scan the barcode on their order, have the order charged to their credit card on file and show the receipt on their phone to the "Fast Lane" associate.  walmart.ca section A dedicated Walmart.ca section , where customers can see and shop for extended aisle products and speak with expert associates who can answer questions and assist with online orders.

Image credit: Walmart Last Thursday, Walmart Canada announced that they are going to renovate 32 stores. Additions include: Dedicated parking spaces for online grocery pickup and new areas in stores devoted to online orders. Refreshed look and feel with yellow light up signs for the departments Expanded grocery offerings About 17 stores in Ontario will be renovated.I hope more stores will be renovated in the future because this decor looks more high end than the stale Project Impact garbage they'be been using for the last decade. Until next post -DZ Source:  Walmart

I can't believe that this week, it has already been 25 years since they brought Woolco's Canadian stores in March of 1994.Walmart came along way from the  run down Woolco days. Walmart now boasts around stores, up from the 122 stores they had when they first started in Canada. Here's a Instagram post from Walmart for their 25th anniversary. View this post on Instagram Posted @withrepost • @leetappenden Happy 25th birthday @walmartcanada! It has been our pleasure serving our customers and helping to build strong communities. Thank you to our associates for your hard work and dedication. Thank you to our customers for continuing to put your trust in us. I’m so proud of what we’ve accomplished in the last 25 years and I can’t wait to see what the next 25 have in store! #thisisthatplace Bon 25e anniversaire Canada @walmartcanada! Nous avons eu le plaisir de servir nos clients et d’aider à bâtir des communautés fortes. Merci

Here's a shot of the abandoned Sears store at Erin Mills Town Centre in Mississauga. This was the last Sears in the city, which made it till the very end and closed in January, 2018 due to the bankruptcy. I believe that this store might have been renovating to the Sears 2.0 concept judging by the blackdout sign above the doors that said "Major reinvention in progress" or something like that. You can see to the right rhe old labelscar from the watch repair place in the Sears. I hope that you like my post on the abandoned Sears in Erin Mills Town Centre. Until next post -DZ

Gap plans on spinning off Old Navy as it's own company. The new company will house Gap and Banana Repuplic, while Old Navy will become it's own company. Gap made this move because Old Navy has better growth and sales than Gap's other divisions.

Here are some facts about one of the most interesting Walmart locations in Mississauga. The Square One Walmart opened as a Division 1 store in 1994 after Walmart brought most of the Woolco stores. It was renovated into a Supercentre in 2012.  Open 7am-11pm Store #3055 is one of the last remaining “Walco” stores in the area.  It still retains Woolco's overall exterior design of grey concrete squares. Google Street View of the store, showing the old Woolco exterior The store is 2 floors and is about 225,000 sqft.  It has a whopping 42 lanes and 8 self checkouts.  This store has all of the typical Walmart services, including a Pharmacy, Vision Centre, Photo Studio,and Travel. Map of the store that I've made. Updated March, 2019 Above is a map of the store. This store still uses Woolco's old Auto garage as a Mr. Lube. It used to be a Walmart Tire and Lube, until they sold them to Mr. Lube.  Instead of a Pickup desk, this store has pickup lockers at the f

Yikes, Another one bites the dust! Hudson's Bay Co. announced that they are closing all 39 Home Outfitter locations by the end of the year. HBC says that this move is part of a plan to "costs, simplify the business and improve overall profitability."  HBC is also reviewing their Saks OFF 5th Chain and might shutter some stores. This news comes after Payless announced last week the closure of all their US and Canadian stores. This news comes after Payless announced last week that they are closing all of their Canadian and US stores. Source:  Global News

Source: Wikimedia Commons Here we go again, Payless shoes announced that they are shutting down all of their North American stores, including 248 stores in Canada as it files for bankruptcy for the second time since 2017. Liquidation sales are already beginning at some locations and all Payless stores will close by the end of May. Source: Retail Insider