'Piece of Canada' shutters after 355 years

A large debt sealed fate of Hudson's Bay

- IAN AUSTEN

Beye Escobar was both delighted and disappointed as she emerged from the sprawling Hudson's Bay Company store in downtown Ottawa with two new bikinis.

While she was pleased that her swimwear had been discounted by 70%, she was not happy about the reason. Yesterday, a month after it marked the 355th anniversary of its founding, the Bay, as it is commonly known, permanently closed its 80 department stores throughout Canada.

The company was much more than just a retailer and the last traditional, full-line department store chain in Canada. In 1670, Britain, which claimed part of present-day Canada, set up the company as a fur trader and granted it a vast stretch of territory equal to what is about a third of Canada, without asking the Indigenous people whose land it was.

"I honestly don’t know why it’s closing, but I think it’s very unfortunate because they had very good stuff,” Ms Escobar said while waiting for her husband to emerge late last month from the store, where once-stylish display windows were plastered with black, yellow and red “Entire Store On Sale!” signs.

“I don’t know where I'll go now,” she added.

The Bay’s fate was sealed by the large debt it had been carrying, and it recently declared bankruptcy.

Long before US President Donald Trump's trade war and his calls to make Canada the 51st state stoked anti-American sentiment in Canada, the purchase in 2008 of a cultural institution like the Bay by Richard A. Baker, a New Yorker whose family controlled an array of shopping malls, was widely viewed with suspicion among Canadians.

At first, Mr Baker made good on his promise that he had not bought the Bay for its real estate — although he did cash in on that later. His investments in the stores and his appointment of Bonnie Brooks, a respected Canadian retailer, as president and chief executive turned Hudson's Bay's sagging fortunes around.