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Hudson's Bay Company

Richard White said:
This is actually the modern workplace. Long gone are the days where you have cubicles and offices. Open concept is the norm.
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Yeah, I get that.....I was just wondering what the hell that second photo was. I wouldn't pay for that. It looks disjointed.
The first one is bad enough, having all those people around you distracting you with their voices, typing, or good looks.
Also, what am I living by in that second pic? Neon lighting? Get out of here with that mall-like space.

The sun? No, I haven't seen it....is it still a thing?
 
I've used some work sharing spaces ... the one on Spadina, for example. It can be awesome. It's also great for people who work at home and just need some human interaction once in a while.
 
My business partner and I considered this briefly in the past... Small offices are hard to find in the core, but nothing beats them. You have your own lease, you can actually get some work done in peace in your own space and you aren't held hostage by often flaky intermediaries such as WeWork.
 
PinkLucy said:
It's also great for people who work at home and just need some human interaction once in a while.
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I imagine I'd rather enjoy it for the collaboration potential, if you know what I mean.....but as I said, that might be distracting.

As it is, I'm stuck at work with a bunch of neolithic dudes and maybe the occasional lady architect but they're pretty well all married and I ain't playing that game ever again.
 
gabe said:
I wouldn't last either. I hate sitting. I'm not a chair person. I'm a stand up desk type of guy.

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Yeah, I much prefer standing, though I do my fair share of lying around as well.
If you ever see a dude lying on a scaffold, roof valley, or some sort of ledge....holla at your boy. ;)
 
There will definitely be Bay stores closing down. Have any of you visited the suburban GTA locations recently? Stock levels are extremely low, bare shelves, racks and empty floor spaces and this has been like this for a couple months. Either they're not paying their PO's and stock is being withhold by vendors or these locations are on the chopping block and will be going into liquidation mode very soon. These stores are in disarray due to no associates being scheduled to the sales floor. The store hours have changed to open an hour later and close an hour earlier. I know Hudson's Bay just let let go a bunch of Full time sales associates and in-store marketers, store management members from all locations and Head office employees. Also, the staffing levels are even worse than what we typically expect at a Hudson's Bay. We all know it was bad to begin with but now it's on a whole new level. Very tough times indeed and the board is supposed to vote for the going private deal at the end of the month.
 
toforumer said:
There will definitely be Bay stores closing down. Have any of you visited the suburban GTA locations recently? Stock levels are extremely low, bare shelves, racks and empty floor spaces and this has been like this for a couple months. Either they're not paying their PO's and stock is being withhold by vendors or these locations are on the chopping block and will be going into liquidation mode very soon. These stores are in disarray due to no associates being scheduled to the sales floor. The store hours have changed to open an hour later and close an hour earlier. I know Hudson's Bay just let let go a bunch of Full time sales associates and in-store marketers, store management members from all locations and Head office employees. Also, the staffing levels are even worse than what we typically expect at a Hudson's Bay. We all know it was bad to begin with but now it's on a whole new level. Very tough times indeed and the board is supposed to vote for the going private deal at the end of the month.
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I am not surprised. The Eglinton Square store is full of junk and one of the worst I've been too. They never have anything and it feels more like Zellers than the Bay. The location at 2 Bloor East (HBC Centre) is the same way. The store is crap.

Stores like the one at the Scarborough Town Centre are recently renovated, high quality and well staffed. I doubt this will close unless the company goes tits up.

What people really need to keep an eye out for is issues at the Bay Street location or Yorkdale. If these go under, the company is in peril.
 
Richard White said:
I am not surprised. The Eglinton Square store is full of junk and one of the worst I've been too. They never have anything and it feels more like Zellers than the Bay. The location at 2 Bloor East (HBC Centre) is the same way. The store is crap.

Stores like the one at the Scarborough Town Centre are recently renovated, high quality and well staffed. I doubt this will close unless the company goes tits up.

What people really need to keep an eye out for is issues at the Bay Street location or Yorkdale. If these go under, the company is in peril.
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I haven't been to that location but it sounds on par. Since you mentioned Yorkdale I'll share my most recent experience there.

I was at Hudsons Bay Yorkdale last weekend and I saw concerning things going on there as well. I've never had any problems with this location in the past but this last time was a complete disaster. The store just had an overall bad vibe and the looks on the associates faces said it all. The vibe was "OMG!!! We're in trouble vibe". I never seen major staffing issues at Yorkdale before. We couldn't find any associates on the sales floor whole 2nd level of Ladieswear. I only saw 2 associates at the only cash desk opened who were on a cash register with a massive lineup that wasn't moving fast enough. Every other cash desk was closed. Clothes were all over the floor, on top of racks. Mountains of clothes on the tables and mountains of clothes in all the fitting rooms. It looked like Bramalea Hudsons bay shoppers visited Yorkdale. And this was a Saturday. How can you run with 2 associates during a Saturday afternoon. The associates looked annoyed and understandably overworked. Stock levels were low here as well but not as bad as the other locations I've seen recently (Bramalea, Erin Mills, Woodbine, Markville) as mentioned in my last post.
 
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toforumer said:
There will definitely be Bay stores closing down. Have any of you visited the suburban GTA locations recently? Stock levels are extremely low, bare shelves, racks and empty floor spaces and this has been like this for a couple months. Either they're not paying their PO's and stock is being withhold by vendors or these locations are on the chopping block and will be going into liquidation mode very soon. These stores are in disarray due to no associates being scheduled to the sales floor. The store hours have changed to open an hour later and close an hour earlier. I know Hudson's Bay just let let go a bunch of Full time sales associates and in-store marketers, store management members from all locations and Head office employees. Also, the staffing levels are even worse than what we typically expect at a Hudson's Bay. We all know it was bad to begin with but now it's on a whole new level. Very tough times indeed and the board is supposed to vote for the going private deal at the end of the month.
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I'd love to see what daily life is like at the management level of the Bay store at the Woodbine Centre. Morale must be gut wrenchingly low. Imagine working at a place like that where it's obvious that there is no future at all.
 
HBC has a rich past but does the iconic Canadian retailer have a future?

SANDRO CONTENTA FEBRUARY 29, 2020

On Thursday, Hudson Bay Co. executive chairman Richard Baker won shareholder approval to take the retailer private, ending a battle with a Toronto-based minority shareholder group that dragged on for months.

The $2 billion transaction is expected to be finalized next week. It leaves Baker and his allies in the buyout to freely reshape a company, which in the second quarter of 2019 lost close to $1 billion.

The fear among loyal Bay watchers and shoppers is that Baker, who co-owns one of the largest real estate development companies in the U.S., is now free to sell HBC’s valuable real estate, which includes 90 Bay stores in Canada, most of them in prime locations.
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www.thestar.com

HBC has a rich past but does the iconic Canadian retailer have a future?

American CEO Richard Baker won shareholder approval to take Hudson’s Bay Co. private leaving him free to sell off the valuable real estate, which incl...
www.thestar.com www.thestar.com
 
AlbertC said:
HBC has a rich past but does the iconic Canadian retailer have a future?

SANDRO CONTENTA FEBRUARY 29, 2020



www.thestar.com

HBC has a rich past but does the iconic Canadian retailer have a future?

American CEO Richard Baker won shareholder approval to take Hudson’s Bay Co. private leaving him free to sell off the valuable real estate, which incl...
www.thestar.com www.thestar.com
Click to expand...

They've already sold Queen St. to Cadillac-Fairview. they also sold their Vancouver flagship; while the Winnipeg store is likely unsellable at the moment.

Not sure mass sell-offs are all that likely.

What I do expect, sadly is mass closures.

No inside info here, but based on read of the lay of the land, I'd be surprised if 30 Bay stores (low) didn't close in the next 18 months. I could see it being 45.

Sak's is also likely going to get a 'hair cut', though not as deeply.

I should add, many of the mall stores are actually O&O by HBC; but I don't seem them as high-value real estate in most cases.

In B or C malls, the loss of the Bay may cause full failure, then the store might be a useful part of a land assembly, but in many cases that's years out and there won't be a logical buyer for a store-only footprint.

In A malls, where the mall could survive the loss of The Bay, the value is almost entirely to the mall owner, which limits re-sale value.
 
It does but it needs to be paired down a lot. The GTA has 20 stores right now. 5 of them are easy targets, another 5 probably do a bit better but could probably be cut as well..

Easy closures should be:
Burlington Mall
Eglinton Square
Woodbine Mall
Yonge/Bloor
Centrepoint Mall

Others that I imagine don't perform super well that could close:
Pickering Town Centre
Oakville Place
Bramalea City Centre
Fairview Mall
Erin Mills Centre
Maybe Hillcrest, though they just spent a ton of money renovating this store.

If you were to ask me I would say to close those 10-11 stores and sink some money into the remaining stores. The remaining locations should be relatively solid, but need some money to bring it up to the quality we see at Yorkdale and the Eaton Centre.
 
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