Future of Summerside Zellers uncertain
Stephen Brun/Journal Pioneer
Target and Wal-Mart have taken a pass on the Summerside Zellers location.
SUMMERSIDE - The foray of a large American department store into Canada may leave Summerside's Zellers with an uncertain future.
Target has now finalized its purchase of the leaseholds for 189 Zellers stores across the country, including the one in the Charlottetown Mall.
But the County Fair Mall location in Summerside wasn't included in that list.
Another retail giant, Wal-Mart, recently purchased 39 of those leases from Target, but the Summerside location wasn't included in that deal either.
As for what it all means for Zellers in the County Fair Mall, the store's parent company will spend some time trying to figure that out.
"It will continue to operate as a Zellers location, so it is business as usual in 2012," said Tiffany Bourré, a spokesperson for HBC.
"Now that we have the final list of stores from Target, we'll be reviewing the options and we'll be coming up with our go-forward strategy."
In January, Target announced it had purchased the rights for up to 220 Zellers leases for just over $1.8 billion. The company chose 189 Canadian locations, which includes the 39 purchased by Wal-Mart.
The majority of the Zellers properties will be converted to Target stores by 2013.
That means HBC will continue to operate the County Fair Mall Zellers, along with 83 others in the country, for the time being.
"There are no plans to close them right now," said Bourré.
The Guardian has learned the conversion of Zellers to Target in Charlottetown will begin in the fall of 2012. Target plans nearly $10 million in renovations.
Just recently, it was announced that Target is teaming up with Sobeys to supply the U.S. retail giant with food.
Under the Sobeys deal, the Canadian grocer will supply Target with frozen, dairy, and dry grocery products, including both national brands and Target's private label products starting early in 2013.
Most Target stores will have a full grocery store.
Sources tell The Guardian Giant Tiger may be interested in the remaining Zellers stores, which means the Zellers store in Summerside could very well become a Giant Tiger.
While Target will have no further control over what happens to the 84 Zellers stores it didn't select, HBC now must decide how - or if - to continue operating them.
"Right now, we're honestly reviewing our options - it's a different landscape for us," said Bourré.
"Now we know what we're working with, so the process is really just beginning for us."
for Charlottetown,
for Summerside
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