As The Hudson’s Bay Company prepares to close the vast majority of its retail stores, including the anchor storefront on Rideau Street, owners of nearby clothing boutiques have shared mixed feelings about how the ByWard Market will be impacted.
“It leaves an immense void in the Canadian retail landscape and more importantly, marks the sad end of an era, as generations of Canadians have shopped at the Bay for so many personal and household items,” said Chantal Biro, owner of Schad boutique on Sussex Drive. “It feels like losing a piece of Canada’s heritage and identity.”
Hudson’s Bay was given court approval on Friday to begin liquidating all but six of its 80 department stores, 13 Saks Off Fifth locations and three Saks Fifth Avenue shops in Canada.
Lawyers for the struggling retailer known for being Canada’s oldest company said its plan was to start the selloff Monday.
Hudson’s Bay was given court approval on Friday to begin liquidating all but six of its 80 department stores, 13 Saks Off Fifth locations and three Saks Fifth Avenue shops in Canada.
The liquidation is the product of creditor protection proceedings the retailer began earlier this month, when it said lower consumer spending, reduced downtown traffic and trade tensions between Canada and the U.S. had it facing significant financial difficulties.
Hudson’s Bay originally thought it would need to shutter all of its stores but, when sales soared so much after it publicized its early liquidation plans, it made enough cash to spare six locations. The location on Rideau Street didn’t make the cut.
As the ByWard Market prepares to lose one of the anchor stores of the Rideau Centre, local small retailers are hopeful that people will continue to shop local and prioritize Canadian goods, even without Hudson’s Bay on the roster.
Around the corner from the Rideau storefront is Schad, a women’s clothing boutique on Sussex Drive, where owner Chantal Biro is having a “busy start” to the season.
“[Schad is] very much ahead of last year’s sales for this selling period, but it is hard to say whether I can attribute it to the ‘shop Canadian’ push or due to less competition with the various shops and stores that have closed,” she told Ottawa Compass.
She said she was “saddened” to hear of the closure of Hudson’s Bay, “like many Canadians”.
She also said it could push Canadians towards e-commerce; Schad’s online sales now make up 50 per cent of her overall sales. Interestingly, a third of those come from an American retail site.
“However, in the face of the new economic environment that we are in, and with the current national push to ‘buy Canadian’, it is my sense that consumers will increasingly support their local businesses and shops,” she said.
Pat Phythian, owner of Frou Frou by Pat on York Street, echoed Biro’s sadness — and her hope.
She said Hudson’s Bay has been a source of nostalgia and memory for her and her older customers, but that it lost touch with customers in recent years. That’s where she thinks small, local businesses in the Market have the advantage.
“The Bay lost its personality,” she told Ottawa Compass. “Many years ago.”
She said customers seem to be seeking the one-on-one experience that the Bay used to have, finding it instead with small and local businesses.
“It makes a difference with people… We went away from [the Bay] because it lost what it used to have,” Phythian explained. “You’d go at Christmas…things were moving in the windows, you had the malt shop, and you had people serving you and seeing if you needed anything. You didn’t get that after a while. It wasn’t the same.
“I think it’s a good thing because people are going to come and shop the local places,” she continued. “But it’s going to be interesting. A lot of changes are coming.”
Barry Nabatian, an Ottawa-based retail analyst and director of market research at Shore Tanner and Associates, said there isn’t one reason that Hudson’s Bay struggled in downtown Ottawa. Rather, he says ongoing issues, from public safety and parking to emerging retail trends, are compounding in the downtown core.
In recent years, Hudson’s Bay has struggled with staffing its stores, he said, and has had difficulty attracting shoppers downtown due to vacant offices, expensive parking and concerns over public safety and mental illness in the core.
For those reasons, as downtown retail struggles, the suburban shopping centres have been thriving, said Nabatian.
“They are good downtown retail stores; we still, fortunately, have a few,” he said. “But if nothing is done, I think that we will see they are in jeopardy because they are suffering from what’s happening, too.”
The six surviving Hudson’s Bay stores include the flagship on Yonge Street in Toronto, as well as a location in the city’s Yorkdale mall and another farther north in Hillcrest Mall in Richmond Hill, Ont. The remaining three span downtown Montreal, the Carrefour Laval mall and Pointe-Claire, Que.
Lawyers have warned more stores could be saved from the list — or added to it, depending on how the company’s hunt for a solution to stabilize the business goes.
-with files from the Canadian Press
