The approval from Ontario Superior Court Judge Peter Osborne allows the retailer, which dates back to 1670, to begin selling off inventory at most of its 80 Hudson’s Bay stores, three Saks Fifth Avenue locations and 13 Saks Off 5th shops in Canada.
“This is the art of the possible and we are where we are today. In my view, there is no other alternative,” Judge Osborne said.
The six stores being saved from the liquidation sale include the flagship on Yonge Street in Toronto, as well as a store in the city’s Yorkdale mall and another farther north in Hillcrest Mall in Richmond Hill, Ontario The remaining three span Montreal, the Carrefour Laval mall and Point-Claire, Quebec.
Mall traffic has been declining for decades. It’s not like I haven’t gone into one every few years to look around… The last time I purchased something there was dress cloths for work, and maybe some dress shoes.
NOTHING about those stores has kept up with the times or trends, they just kind of kept falling more and more into disrepair as time went on…
It isn’t even US competitors, a lot of what they sell I would go elsewhere to Canadian options for anyway.
I am more likely to purchase furniture and appliances from The Brick or Trail Appliances.
The Bay or HBC was decades over due for a complete overhaul of its assortment and its retails space.
Malls came out as a solution to the lack of community a planner/developer saw in the relatively new suburban experiment. He hoped malls would blend shopping, community, and socializing all into one place, similar to how the mixed use, mid rise neighbourhoods would feel. Unfortunately the mall fell prey to captialism and as automobiles kept becoming more popular, the mall was less about community and more about a convenient shopping experience.
The developer who made the mall regrets it, it didn’t turn out to be a beacon of community like he had hoped and instead it further promoted isolation, suburbia, and car dependancy in our cities.
Every time I went into the Bay in Dorval it would be depressing. To think that this store has not been changed since my father was a child. Management never spent money to renovate and the maintenance on their infrastructure has always been shit.
They’re like the Canadian Tire of clothing. The regular price seemed not to matter because there was always a 20-60% off code or promotion. The quality of clothing has also dropped hard. Besides Levi’s jeans, and I guess Docker… the rest of it is fast fashion, drop ship-esque companies.