The Bay's last days: Iconic Canadian retailer closes Sunday

Montreal Gazette

2 days ago

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At the Hudson's Bay flagship store in downtown Montreal on Saturday, shoppers picked through the remnants of a once-iconic retailer, including heavily discounted mannequins.
'I saw them and I thought, well, this might come in useful. Don't know how,' said customer Keith Schmidt. Minutes earlier, he had dropped the mannequin on the floor, snapping off three fingers, but still paid $35 to take it home.
Shelves, clothing racks and hangers were also up for grabs during the final weekend of The Bay's bankruptcy liquidation sale, as the 355-year-old retail chain prepares to close its doors for good on June 1.
Hudson's Bay, founded in 1670, filed for bankruptcy in March and faces $1.1 billion in debt.
The downtown Montreal location was barely recognizable as a high-end department store the day before its closing, with leaky makeup bottles strewn across countertops and shattered Christmas decorations marked up to 90 per cent off their original retail value.
Near the messy countertops read a sign: 'All sales are final. No exchange or return will be accepted.'
One customer was taken aback by the state of the store.
'I was very surprised to see the total emptiness,' said shopper Fanny Obadia in an interview. 'Actually, you get to see the building. I'm an architect, so I haven't seen this level of flooring at The Bay ever.'
Despite the mostly empty racks and displays, hundreds of shoppers passed by the store one last time on Saturday.
'It doesn't even feel right really. It's just sad,' said lifelong Bay regular Marge Kavanagh, adding she came for the nostalgia rather than the deals.
Another customer walking through a sea of mannequins, Marina B., shared the sentiment.
'I didn't come to buy anything today. I came to say goodbye to a beautiful building,' she said in an interview. 'It's a sad day.'
One amateur photographer was taken by the mannequins, saying he'd come by the closing store several days in a row to photograph them.
Other customers came for the deals, including Ivy Lou.
'It's amazing that they're selling everything,' Lou said after she bought a shelf for $10. 'It's my first time in my life seeing stuff like this happen.'
By the end of the day Sunday, more than 8,300 Hudson's Bay employees will be out of a job. Several staff members told The Gazette they weren't comfortable speaking on the record, but said the closing has been hard. Some had worked there for decades.
Geneviève Dostaler, who runs a hat company bearing her name and operates a retail concession inside The Bay, said she is grieving the department store's demise.
'I think that the saddest thing is that we are very quiet since, maybe since the pandemic,' she explained in an interview, as dozens of shoppers surrounded her, trying on linen hats and scarves. 'We were really, really not busy for years. And now, seeing the people coming just like that. Oh, my God, you're almost dying.'