At Edmonton’s Londonderry Mall, a recently shuttered Hudson’s Bay was reopened today as a 60,000-square-foot Zellers in the latest resurrection of the bright-red Canadian retailer.

Ownership and the scope of the Zellers retail footprint is still shrouded in mystery after the mall’s landlord, Leyad, announced the relaunch late Thursday afternoon.

“I think most of the industry was caught off guard by this,” retail analyst Bruce Winder tells strategy. “It was a big surprise.”

CBC reported Thursday that federal registries show that the now-defunct Hudson’s Bay transferred Zellers’s brand trademarks to the owner of Fairweather and International Clothiers earlier this year.

Zellers was not among the brand assets purchased by Canadian Tire in May during HBC’s insolvency proceedings. The retailer initially ceased operations after HBC sold off the company’s lease agreements to Target in 2011. Zellers was later relaunched within a number of HBC locations in 2023.

The newly reimagined Zellers is starting out with a value-driven product line, offering clothing for women, men and youth along with contemporary home decor.

Winder says this type of selection could help Zellers succeed alongside the likes of Dollarama and Giant Tiger in the current climate of economic and geopolitical uncertainty.

“The owners look like they’ve kind of cherry picked the highest-margin parts of the former Zellers,” Winder says. “They’ve not invested in the hard-line side, or the health and beauty and food side, which are low margin. So it gives them a little bit of runway to make a go of it.”

Doug Stephens, a consumer analyst and founder of the consultancy Retail Prophet, tells strategy that while the current mood of patriotism in Canada could provide Zellers with a boost, it will be a challenge for the new entry to differentiate itself in a fiercely competitive retail market.

Zellers will be staring down established players like Walmart, Amazon, Winners and Marshalls, Stephens adds, while also contending with the popularity of second-hand chains such as Value Village, Goodwill and Salvation Army, which appeal to younger shoppers through their embrace of a more circular economy.

“I don’t think the Zellers nostalgia is something that is going to necessarily reach to a Gen Z consumer,” Stephens says. “If they’re going to make a go of this, if it is going to be successful, they are going to have to give consumers something beyond just a Maple Leaf that they can’t find anywhere else. I’m not sure what that is.”

Leyad said in a news release that it is the first landlord to secure a new tenant in HBC’s former retail footprint, adding that it is “thrilled to bring back a beloved Canadian brand that stirs up nostalgic memories.”

Though Winder acknowledges that past iterations have dented Zellers’s brand equity, he believes there’s still consumer fondness for the company.

“I still think that there’s going to be enough people that are at least curious about it to stop by and give it a shot,” Winder says. “And that’s where the new team has to wow them. You get one chance to make a first impression. If consumers go there and it’s not good, then it’s over.”

For Stephens, Zellers will need to forge a connection with consumers that goes beyond nostalgia, patriotism and cheaply made foreign products. While he’d personally like to see Zellers succeed, he anticipates challenges ahead.

“Is there anything they could potentially pull out of the archives, the old lunch counter, maybe, hearkening back to the days of Woolworth’s?” Stephens says. “Because product is just so heavily commodified in this market. It’s a fool’s errand to try and beat the market on product today.”