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I don't understand why people have such hard-ons for a corporation. HBC was probably bought up because none of us went there in the first place. Now that the US owner is going to liquidate it you wanna save it? It's so dumb.
Nostalgia, largely. I went less and less over the years but in my case it wasn't because of infrastructure issues or lack of staff-- though these are big issues both for the kind of prestige they wanted to have, and to remain accessible to the wider public. For me it was because they started going pseudo-luxury long ago (though clearance sales were fun at first), and because they eliminated meeting places like restaurants along the way.
It is the literal successor to a juggernaut of colonialism. Don't shed a tear.
no please won't someone think of the colonialist corporation
Some Canadian should buy em up and rebrand as Canadian only. Sell all made in Canada goods. Become Canada's Costco but better.
How about a wholly-Canadian co-op? Maybe sell camping and hiking equipment.
Whatever it becomes, the answer is not: a sad department store with goods that are too expensive for the average shopper, organized in the least efficient manner for shopping, and with a perfume gauntlet you have to run to get to said inefficient shopping. Oh and don't make it impossible to find staff to help you when you do want to pay...
Oh that perfume..damn I hate that. I live very far from any Bay store now but I distinctly remember the perfume.
This is infuriating. United States’ wealthy people should never be trusted or sold to.
The problem is the people running these companies always see cash as king and when someone flashes lots of cash in front of them, it weakens the knees and they sell. Investment Vulture Capitalists are the absolute devil though.
Vultures
I have a lot of nostalgia for the Bay. But shipping there sucks: it took forever to find an attendant, staff ignored customers, and selection was sparse. There may be good reasons for that, but it was alienating to customers.
On top of that:
She said customers likely noticed the lack of investment by Hudson’s Bay into its physical stores, where it wasn’t uncommon to find non-functioning escalators that went unrepaired for long periods of time. Amlani also pointed to several stores in the Vancouver area that temporarily closed last summer related to problems with air-conditioning systems.
She said another problem the company ran into in recent years was that its stores’ hours didn’t always align with that of the malls where they are located.
It's shitty that 10k people will probably lose their jobs because the company was so poorly managed.
She said another problem the company ran into in recent years was that its stores’ hours didn’t always align with that of the malls where they are located.
That's the case where I live: the mall opens at 10, but the Bay doesn't open until 11.
I've also found it hard to identify their target audience. With women's clothes, for example, they have a ton of stuff that says "hi, I'm 21" and a ton of stuff that says "hi, I'm 75" and... not really a lot in between. It's pretty confusing.
The crazy part is a 'Canadian' company that runs out of winter wear in November. Many problems with the business, but the whole Saks thing was a complete bust. Trying to do luxury when they aren't even doing ecommerce and retail basics for the year 2000 is obviously a going out of business strategy. Situation is that hedge funds have no idea how to run businesses, they just extract value if it goes well or juice the husk and discard if it doesn't and move on. Their path of destruction through the US and Canada destroys livelihoods and our economic capabilities. For some people, this is extremely profitable. Amazon comes to mind.
That's the point of a bunch of these hedge funds, they are strip miners they aren't in it to run the business and never were, it's an expected outcome that the remainder fails and someone else (the suppliers/lenders) are left holding the bag.
When you get a chance look up “cellar boxing”. Hedge funds have been doing it for a very very long time. Sears, AMC, Bed Bath & Beyond and a whole lot more.
It's shitty that 10k people will probably lose their jobs because the company was so poorly managed.
And adds to the shitty situation that people (like my university age kids) are already having with being unable to find work that isn't abusive schedules and limited hours for minimum wages.
It's been a long time coming. Department stores in Canada have been dying off one by one, and they were the last. It's a business model that just doesn't work here anymore.
*oldmanyellsatcloud.jpg *
Isn't Walmart a department store?
No, they're a big box store, not associated with a mall like a department store.
the next liberal government needs to reverse a lot of what harper did regarding foreign ownership
I'm unaware of any party being called labour on the federal stage. Closet I know of is the British labour party...
Not sure which party you are referring to either.
Oh, NO!
Anyway...
Here's to the death of a company that has always looked down its nose at working people, brown people not wearing at least pearls and diamonds, anyone under the age of, say 21, and insisted on spraying you in the face with the latest Vogue magasine full page ad perfume as soon as you entered. It's been a long time since HBC was anything more than a shortcut to some other place.
I know it's historical and all but I don't really care about losing a store I'll never be able to afford to shop in, anyway.
this post was submitted on 16 Mar 2025
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