As final Zellers stores close, former employees swap memories, memorabilia

Zellers is pulling the plug on its final two stores in Ontario this month,but Richard Hall doesn't wantit to die.

He's rounded up a museum-worthy haul of Zellers memorabiliain his dining room, spilling into his kitchen.There's flashy branded buttons, bathroom key chains, even a fire extinguisher from one of thedoomed departmentstores.

His wife calls it hoarding. He calls itcollecting.

Hall spent 35 years employed byZellers, workingat 11 differentstores. Today, he relies on his memorabilia to reminisce.

"Every segment of my life, I think back of what store I was in," he said."It's weirdbut it's kind of a measurement of time."

The last two Zellers locationsin Etobicoke, Ont., and Ottawawill close on Jan.26, according to Hudson'sBay Co., the retailer'sparent company.

Hall's memorabilia spans hisentire dining room.He'sgot signed hockey sticks, limited editionbottles of Hudson's Bay Co. scotches, multiple copies of the same Zellers flyers all in mintcondition.

And this is after he purged the collection.

Perhaps his most prized possessionis a gift he was given: Aframed copy of a newspaper from 1945, just after the Second World War ended, containing an ad from the original Zellers location in London, Ont.The page celebrates the "glorious day of victory,"while also being dominated by a lengthy spread on Adolf Hitler's "mad career,"complete with swastika imagery.

"This isn't about Hitler. This is about the Zellers," he assures. "I point that out to everyone that I show:I say, 'No,I'm not a Hitler fan. I'm a Zellers fan.'"

Met his wife at Zellers

Hall started at Zellers when he was 15, working his way up to general manager of marketing,where he ended his career in2013. That's when most Zellers were closing down or converting to now-defunct Canadian Target locations.

Along the way, he met his wife. She was working at another department store, Towers, when Zellers took it over.

"I was asked to take the assistant manager from Towers under my wing, and so I did.And we've been married 28 years," he said. "I took the instructions literally."

Maria Hall remembershow Richard relentlessly tried to woo her. She worked at Store No. 64, so he sent her 64 balloons, 64 roses and then a limo to the store.

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"Isn't that crazy? The store was like, 'What is going on, Maria? Like, what is going on with this guy?'," she recalled.

Zellers stores, she said, startedmany relationships.

When Targetcame in, Richard and Maria Hallboth lost their jobs. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Richard kept the letter employees receivedwhen Zellersmade the announcement that the U.S. retailerwas taking over.

Target spent about $1.8 billion acquiringleases for 189Zellers locations across Canada in 2011, though the move north of the borderturned out to be a disaster: The last Canadian Target store closed its doors in 2015 and the company lost billions.

"Our lives are much better and it was a good thing," Hallsaid of losing his job. "It was a catalyst to go do something different after being in the same company for so long."

'It's like working for family'

A handful of Zellersstores remained open,ultimately outlastingTarget.

That includes the Etobicoke location, in Toronto's west end, which has seen hours-long lineups over the past few weeks, with shoppers snaking around the store, hungryfor sales.

The final two locations are a bit different than other, traditionalZellersthat Canadians may remember, Hall said.They instead liquidate the Bay's leftover inventory.

But theclosing at the end of the month still means the Zellers name will be officially gone.

"I think only us employees that have worked there can actually understand that, 'cause it's hard to articulate how important it was to people," he said.

Many people are active on a Facebook group called "If you ever worked for Zellers," where store and corporate employees fromaround the country reminisce. News of the last two closings has spurred a flurry of memories.

The group was started in 2013 by Brenda Scott, who worked at a Zellers store in Huntsville, in Ontario's Muskoka region. She wanted a way to stay in touch with colleagues as the stores were first closingand said the group has filled that void.

More than 4,500 employees have joined her group since.

"You work for a Zellers, it's like working for family," she said.

Scott, who now lives in Barrie, Ont., travelled down to the Etobicoke location earlier this month, wanting to say goodbye to the chain.She watched as crowds lined up in front of the store, waiting to get in before it had even opened.

She said it made her feel upset and longing for a Canadian company to shop at.

"I'm pretty sure Walter [P. Zeller] is looking down, watching everybody, and saying, 'This isn't necessary,'" she said.

"It's the end of an era. It really is. Being the end of an era makes a lot of people who worked there sad."