Those shops we're bored with, Zellers.

Des chaînes et des enseignes fort appréciées ont néanmoins disparu, laissant derrière elles des souvenirs sans prix. Tout au long de la semaine, ces magasins sont évoqués par nos lecteurs –plus de 700 ont répondu à notre appel à tous. Aujourd’hui: Zellers

The store of his victories of mom alone

"Zellers is my first memory of abundance as a mom," said her email.

Carole Therrien is in "The young fifties".His adventure takes place in the fall2002.

“My son was 5 years old.I separated in April. "

She had experienced eight years with a spouse who knew problems on which she remains discreet.

"I took my courage in both hands and left him.But it's been years since I had no control over anything financially, and yet I worked! "

His little man was visual disabled.

"I learned much later that he was autistic too.Functional.So not easy… ”, she sums up soberly.

His budget was extremely tight, and followed to the penny.She continues her story ...

"That morning, we are in November."

It was 20 years almost to the day before our interview, she underlines.

At 8 am, she was already by car with her son to do a few shopping, "before there are too many people in stores, you understand, with her handicap".

On the radio of the car, an advertisement bugger while Zellers offers a discount on the LEGO brick sets that day.

“They announce a big LEGO boiler, at the bottom of $ 20.I turn on: I have the means to give him that!He loves Lego, but he doesn't have much because it is expensive. "

She knew that the budget envelope for outings of the previous month still contained $ 30 unused.

"Lego!I said to him, "What would you say that we are going to enjoy this special?"

- A gift for Christmas?

—No, for right now! ”

"I would have liked you to see his smile.He didn't have his mouth big enough to smile so much he was happy. "

Maman and son immediately went to the Zellers store located at the time at the corner of boulevard Saint-Martin and the highway15, in Laval.She guided her son to the toys department.

“We were in front of a Lego wall.He said to me, "Mom, where are they?"I showed him the right section. "

The little guy shook a few buckets, to see that they all had the same content - an assortment for beginners, with which everything is possible with a little imagination.

"He chose him and he was holding his boiler tight in his arms."

Until the cash register, he feared that his mother will change his mind.

No miserability in its narration.Rather, it is serenity and a deep humanity that appear in his calm voice.

"We get along, I'm pampered, I have always worked.But being able to buy a gift like that outside a party for no particular reason! "

That day, she realized that she had latitude, an assumed control over her life and that of her little guy.

"It was a mom's victory.My first mom's gift victory against my son.Afterwards, there were others, but that was the first. "

20 years later

The day before, Carole Therrien had spoken to her son of the interview which she would grant the next day.

"He is now 25 years old.I said to him, "Do you remember the Lego boiler when we went shopping one morning in November?"He said to me, "Ah yes, mom!It was so much a magical moment!Me, if I hadn't caught up in the store, I would have cried. ""

She returned there often with her son.

"I have never had any difficulty in this guarantee."

She had concluded her email with these words:

“Zellers was my economic ally in my life as a single -parent mother.Even today, I did not find a replacement for him. "

His first apple pie

"The first time I ate a fashionable apple pie was at Zellers on Sainte-Catherine Street next to Eaton," said Viet-Hue Duong.

"I arrived as a refugee in 1975," she explains, in the subsequent telephone conversation.

With her parents and two young sisters, the 20 -year -old Vietnamese had completed her Boat People journey in Quebec.

Viet-Hue, "that means" Fleur de Lys "," she says.

"And Duong means" blue ".It’s predestined. ”

En 1976, la jeune femme avait trouvé un emploi de commis de bureau au centre-ville de Montréal.

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— Kylah Loftin💋 Tue Jan 07 19:59:31 +0000 2020

On pay day, she did not accompany her colleagues to the restaurant.

"I thought it was waste."His salary was too precious for his family."There was the apartment to pay and my two young sisters were old enough to go to school."

With the money saved on her first pays, she had been able to acquire with her mother a sewing machine.She bought from Zellers coupons of fabric on sale, pimples, zippers, wire.

She had spotted near the entrance to the store, a small snack counter.

"There was that soup smell that heated, which mingled with the smell of overheating coffee," she says.For me, it was nice, it felt the kitchen, it was warm.Like going to the grandparents, who always have something to offer, to warm us up. ”

She liked to take a look at the passage, and that is how she saw a small plate of apple pie "with a cloud, above" serve it.

"It was so appetizing!I still don't know why we called it fashionable apple pie.You have to pronounce “at the môde”. "

As in the United States, where the expression comes from.

"It was so beautiful, with the spiral and the way the person presented the plate!"

A spiral of ice cream?

"No, a spiral of whipped cream," she replies.

It was an artificial whipped cream on the can that the waitress placed a spinning sparkle, "like a sculpture".

The snack was rarely crowded."But I noticed that there were a lot of people of a certain age, who came to sit on stools at the counter."

Camaraderie was set up between customers and waitresses.

His first point

It took her some time for her to dare to stop there herself.

It was winter.It has been planning its release for several days."I said to myself: I can't just take the dessert.I have to take the soup. "

The soup ... When you are an immigrant, every first time is a challenge.

"I had a lot of difficulty handling the knives, forks, left hand, right hand ... We had been used to drinking the soup.When I ordered, I said to myself, "Be careful, don't make a noise when you are going to eat!" "

Surprise, the vegetable soup was accompanied by a sachet of Soda cookies.Another mystery, another obstacle ...

"I didn't know how we ate them with the soup.Did we dip them?Then I noticed that people were crushing the cookies in the bag, then tore it and put the crumbs in the soup. "

She imitated them.A disaster, she said."It was so salty!"

Fortunately, dessert, "really as I imagined," bought the meal.

"I see him arriving, on the small round plate, with the triangle pie tip, and a white thing cloud."

She has turned the plate several times, to see her from all angles and make the pleasure last, before resolving herself to stuck an awkward fork.

Viet-Hue Duong is often returned to Zellers for a vegetable soup-without soda cookies-followed by the apotheosis of a touch of apple pie.

But she never dared to sit on the counter stools, too high and exposed."On a bench, I was a little more hidden," she explains.“And I didn't want to destroy this conviviality.I preferred to stay away, observe and savor my "fashionable" pie. "

Epilogue

A few hours after our interview, Viet-Hue Duong sent a word by email.

"At the time, when I ordered a touch of apple pie, the lady asked me: fashionable?And I inevitably responded, with whipped cream, "she wrote.

"During all these years until today, I thought it was the fashionable apple pie that I had eaten!

"I was a little surprised when you mentioned the ice cream.After our interview, I started to google to discover that I was in error since that time ...

"Today, I learned, thanks to you, that an apple pie is in fashion when a ball of ice cream sits on top!"

The little counter of Zellers, long after his last visit, had given him a final satisfaction.

The little story of Zellers

Born in 1890 in the Kitchener region, Walter Zeller founded Zeller’s in 1931 - the apostrophe will disappear in 1973.

At the end of its first year, the small channel already held a dozen stores in Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick.

In 1952, the chain had 35magasins, for a turnover of $ 27 million.In 1976, he reached 407 million in 155 sales.

Two years later, the company was acquired by the bay, which has further increased its scope with several acquisitions.First located in Montreal, the head office moved to Ontario in 1996.

At its peak, in the late 1990s, the chain had some 350magasins.

In January2011, the Bay announced that it was giving in the 189 -miles of its stores to the American channel Target, the others to close their doors in 2013. Three stores, however, however.liquidation.The last two disappeared in 2020.

Died in 1957, Walter Zeller was buried in Montreal.