In Canada, the Hudson's Bay Company closes its doors after… 355 years of existence
An iconic chain of department stores, Hudson's Bay, founded by two French adventurers in the 17th century, closed its 80 stores on June 1, unable to make a profitable transition to online commerce. It marks the end of a long, sometimes controversial, history inextricably linked to that of the country.
Zofia Sadkiewicz unenthusiastically rummaged through a small pile of mismatched cloth napkins at one of Hudson's Bay's Toronto stores on May 30. The 65-year-old, who has been a customer of the chain for 30 years, finally admitted to the Globe and Mail that she didn't really need anything, saying, "It's like a funeral." Monica Grzelack, 40, grabbed a pair of sandals that had been marked down from $50 to $10, before admitting, "To be honest, this is not my kind of store."
This is the problem for the company, which filed for protection from its creditors in March, drowning in debts of more than 950 million Canadian dollars (about 605 million euros), Radio Canada reported in March . “The Bay in particular… has really struggled to adapt to changes in consumer buying habits, preferences and demand for goods,” Jamie Hyodo, an assistant professor of consumer behavior at Western University in Ontario, told CTV News . David Soberman, who teaches marketing at the University of Toronto, told London, Ontario radio station CIXX-FM that the company has been unable to make the transition to
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