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TORONTO -- Zellers, Canada's largest discounter, recently launched the Best Value "high convenience" discount store. Analysts are calling it a shrewd move.
With two store openings concluded in Toronto, Zellers plans to open five more of the small-format Best Value outlets by Oct. 1 and another 24 are in the planning stages, "assuming they are as successful as their potential indicates," said president and ceo George Heller.
Annual sales per sq. ft. are projected to be about $225 Canadian ($147 US), slightly less than Zellers.
Len Kubas of Kubas Consultants said the new retail format will help Zellers, the discount store division of Hudson's Bay Co., protect the bottom end while inching its way up the market.
Promising "simply better buys, every day," the stores average 20,000 sq. ft. to 50,000 sq. ft. and have a "low-price assortment for the home and family shopping needs augmented with special purchases of a wide range of merchandise," Heller said.
There's a more limited selection than shoppers find at Zellers, as those stores carry everything from brand name...