Zellers And Our Need For Nostalgia
The Saturday Huddle is a weekly column that features opinion, analysis, and reflections on Huddle stories, podcasts, and business news in the region. Derek Montague is a Huddle reporter based in Halifax.
Remember back in the 90s when everyone seemed to be dreaming about what the new millennium would bring? We imagined how futuristic the technology would become overnight and movies, video games, and commercials often reflected our eye to the future.
That’s the key about media and marketing, they rarely create a collective mindset but they most certainly cater to and reflect it.
If that’s the case, we millennials may have the saddest mindset of all time. Instead of looking at the present or the future, we are more focused on the past. We are so obviously nostalgic that movies, shows, and marketing targeting our generation give us warm and fuzzy memories of the 80s, 90s, and even the early 2000s.
I was shocked when I learned there was nostalgia growing for the early aughts. I lived those years during the prime of my youth. Do I have lots of fond, youthful memories of that era? Sure. But the music, movies, hairstyles, and clothing from that time were absolutely not worth bringing back.
It goes to show nostalgia isn’t about accurately remembering a particular era, it’s about selective memory. Most importantly, regardless of the pop culture of the time, nostalgia is about people remembering simpler times, before responsibly and stress and modern fears took over their lives.
A recent event really encapsulated how desperate my generation has become for a reminder of the past — any past. Out of the blue, Zellers announced it was making a limited comeback in certain locations — in Halifax, one will be at The Bay in our major mall.
I was shocked to see, out of all the daily news that comes out of Halifax, how viral this went. I remember when Zellers closed its doors. It was about 11 years ago. I went to the Fredericton Zellers when it was going out of business in the summer of 2012. I don’t remember people shedding a tear then.
But now people are excited for its return, after one measly decade? Boy, how much do we have to hate the present and the future for this piece of news.
I attempted to get an interview with the folks at Zellers to see why they chose Halifax as a location and, more importantly, why they chose to come back at all. Did they plan to bank on people being nostalgic?
They didn’t respond to my interview request.
Believe it or not, this nostalgia for an old store is also nothing new. “Retail nostalgia” (as I call it) is in fashion. Every Christmas, people post memes online for the old Sears Wishbook, remembering circling what they want and the parents having to spend hours on the phone reciting item numbers to a Sears rep, all while spending thousands on their credit cards.
And, of course, it’s common to hear people reminisce about neighbourhood shops from their childhood. Given how fast those mom-and-pop shops are disappearing, that type of nostalgia is more understandable than pining for the return of Zellers.
It would be easy to blame a lot of this on Covid-19. People are already nostalgic for 2019 (our last year of ‘normal’). But, much like nostalgia itself, it’s a selective memory. Covid, I have noticed, never created a trend, but rather put the inevitable on extreme fast forward.
Check out this Forbes article from way back in 2016. It talks about the power of using nostalgia as an emotional hook while advertising. It specifically mentions why this method is effective with millennials.
“Alongside hectic work schedules, unrelenting responsibilities, and more, fond memories make us smile — and that leaves us open to brand messaging. When we feel or care for something, we’re much more likely to act. Share a compelling blast from the past with a millennial, and you’re likely to reach them on an emotional level — the holy grail of brand marketing.”
“In an age of impersonal digital media, building social connectedness through nostalgia is an easy way for companies to leverage the optimistic feelings that often accompany walks down memory lane. Associating brand messaging with positive references from the 90s, 80s — and even the 70s — humanizes brands, forging meaningful connections between the past and present.”
But you don’t need to read an article or look at advertising trends to see a reflection on our collective, nostalgic mindset. If there is ever an industry to jump on and exploit a trend until it’s dead, it’s Hollywood.
That city is so desperate to exploit nostalgia that reboots, remakes, and sequels no one asked for are in vogue.
Sequels, traditionally, were a way for studios to quickly cash in on an original film’s success. A sequel would be hastily made, coming out a mere year or two after the original. But now, sequels are coming out 30-40 years later-like the recent Top Gun movie or Hocus Pocus 2 (who asked for that sequel?).
Recently there was even a Clerks 3 for some reason. Now, people are going crazy for That 90’s Show (eye-roll). Some may love reliving their youth at a movie theatre, but I find the lack of space for new ideas depressing.
I may sound like a self-hating millennial right now, and most of the time I am, but I’m not without understanding for why we are constantly wishing we had a time machine.
Our generation has yet to reap economic benefits. We are underpaid while essentials like housing, food, and university are overpriced. Climate change is no longer a futuristic warning, it is here and it is wreaking havoc. The future is so bleak that many millennials say that’s why they’re not having kids — they don’t want to raise a child in such a world.
So, yeah, you can forgive when you see people post online about nostalgic nonsense. But one has to ask: what happens when people are so focused on reliving the past that we have no eyes on the present and future?