Zellers - > soon to be Target

Woolco.
Woolworth.
Pascal.
Eaton's.
Dominion.
Steinberg.
Miracle Mart.
Simpson's.
Consumers Distributing.

Now ... Zellers.

I always thought of Target as a knock-off of Zellers. I don't fully know the history of Target (I wasn't aware that some form of it existed back in 1902). Guess it doesn't matter now.

http://www.cbc.ca/money/story/2011/01/13/target-zelles-takeover.html

"The Zellers locations will continue to exist under that brand name for "a period of time," HBC said in a release. But Target will convert 100 to 150 of those Zellers locations to Target stores in 2013 and 2014 and sell the rest of the current Zellers network of store leases to other retailers."

I understand things change over time (heck the Hudson Bay Company, which is the oldest North American Company was long a source of British and Canadian pride, until four years ago, when it became just another division in an unimportant chain in some large conglomerate not many Americans can afford to shop at, or know about).

But still ... it's hard as a Canadian not to feel sad. I'm not trying to be all revisionist, but overall, I had a fair number of fond memories of buying all sort of toys and goodies at various places like Eaton's, Simpson's, and yes, Zellers.

Same thing with grocery stores like Dominion, and Steinberg - all the nice baked goods. Especially Dominion - they had this way of baking cakes - a smell and taste like no other (yeah I'm aware it may turn out to have been some poisonous ingredients that'll give me cancer some day. Fuck you - I'll live in my memories for a bit longer).

And there was something very Canadian and in my case very Quebecois about going to those places as a kid and even as a teenager. Yes they were businesses, but it's a part of the collective culture that'll never exist going forward, except in my head, and in the heads of others who may feel the same way.