PETERS: Nostalgia is a powerful drug — but is it powerful enough to sustain a Zellers revival?

It has a name, it has a logo and it has a sketchy-looking bear mascot named Zeddy who doesn’t wear pants, like a discount Winnie the Pooh.

And it has one more thing: memories.

People remember… what, exactly? The smell? The products that could be purchased at half-a-dozen other places at the same price point? Eating in the little restaurant, maybe?

All of the products they purchased at the local Zellers are likely long gone. After all, it closed more than a decade ago.

But nostalgia is a powerful drug.

People aren’t nostalgic so much for Zellers itself as they are nostalgic for all the other memories that happened in their lives while Zellers was still a going concern.

They pine for their own younger days, not for the beeping of bar code scanners and the ambience of fluorescent lighting.

And they’re also excited because this type of thing doesn’t happen very often.

Try to think of the last time a retail brand, especially in Canada, fizzled away into nothingness and then actually made a comeback.

It rarely happens because brands that die, die for a reason. They die because they weren’t making sufficient money for their owners or shareholders. It’s not complicated.

For big box retail, the economic environment is no more enticing than it was when Zellers went away.

In trying to revive the brand, HBC is banking on nostalgia giving it a big splash up front. But to sustain any kind of long-term future, it will need a far different business model than it had before.

The company says Zellers will focus on e-commerce, but also expanding brick-and-mortar locations.

It had better, because while nostalgia is a powerful drug, it wears off quickly.

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or Pattison Media.

by James Peters

PETERS: Nostalgia is a powerful drug — but is it powerful enough to sustain a Zellers revival?

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