In January 2011, HBC announced that it would sell the lease agreements for up to 220 Zellers stores to the US. chain Target for $1.825 billion. In turn, Target announced its intent to convert many of them to Canadian locations of Target, and re-sell the remainder to other parties such as Walmart Canada, resulting in their liquidation and eventual closure. While HBC retained 64 Zellers locations, it announced on July 26, 2012 that the all of them would be liquidated and closed by March 31, 2013 due to their lack of profitability. After the chain ceased, HBC repurposed three Zellers-branded locations as liquidation outlets for The Bay, with the last of those stores closed on January 26, 2020.