Photo: Where the Lowest Price Was the Law

When Target swept into Canada like a big, red wave made of bullseyes, it didn't enter an unoccupied niche. It swept up here because it was able to displace Zellers, a similar department store which was a fixture of my younger days but wasn't able to keep up with the modern world. Most Zellers locations were replaced with Targets, and the replacement has been so thorough that in most places you wouldn't even know that it had ever been otherwise.

Not everywhere, though. The West End Mall in Pembroke, Ontario was anchored by a Zellers--until March of this year, at least, after which it became anchored by an empty box with a vague impression of its name left behind. With the slow but implacable march north of chains like Target, Bed, Bath & Beyond and Marshalls, there's not nearly as much room left for something that called itself "truly Canadian," I suppose.

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