Zellers reveals its food truck menu featuring 'comeback' items

CTV National News: Zellers comeback kicks off Heather Wright reports on the handful of locations where Zellers has reopened and will offer limited-time blasts from the past.

As Hudson’s Bay Co. revives the Zellers brand by opening store “experiences” within HBC locations, the company will also be cashing in on Zellers diner nostalgia with the rollout of food trucks this spring.

On Thursday, the company announced the menu for its “Diner on Wheels,” inspired by the results of an online poll HBC heldto have the public pick what items they’d want to see.

“It was a heated race, but five menu items are now preparing for their comeback,” HBC, which owns the Zellers brand, said in a press release Thursday.

The diners in Zellers department stores were styled with the 1950s in mind and featured traditional diner fare such as burgers, fries and milkshakes.

So,in the spirit of those diners, the menu is as follows:

Big Z Burger

Hot Chicken Sandwich

Grilled Cheese

Chicken Fingers

Fries & Gravy

Last month, HBC said the food would reflect “fan favourites” that were served at Zellers restaurants.

The food trucks will be at Hudson’s Bay locations, but dates and exactlocations will be announced at a “later date,” the company said in a press release Thursday.

In 2012, HBC said the Zellers brand was not financially viable. The last department store closed in 2013.

At its peak, there were 350 locations in the late 1990s, but the brand lost footing as more retailers like Wal-Mart entered Canada.

HBC decided to bring back the retail chain a decade later due to customer nostalgia and loyalty to the brand, along with the expectation that Canadians will embrace the discount chain a time when inflation is at high not seen in decades, business experts told the The Canadian Press in August. The move provides the illusion of creating more competition in the market, when really it’s all under HBC, Vass Bednar, executive director of the Master of Public Policy in Digital Society at McMaster University, told The Canadian Press at the time.

Hudson’s Bay announced on Jan. 24 that it will lay off two per cent of its workforce, as it navigates “significant external pressures” facing retail. Two years ago, the company laid of 600 workers amid COVID-19 lockdowns.

With files from The Canadian Press