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Hudson's Bay Company

I personally think that Hudson's Bay is currently cash poor. It has too many accounts payable. It has made many recent changes that indicate extreme cost cutting.

Over the past month or so Hudson's Bay has made significant changes to how its website operates.

1. They are temporarily unable to ship to Post Office Boxes.

2. They are unable to offer express shipping from their warehouses shipped by Xpresspost or courier overnight.

3. They no longer accept returns by mail or courier. All online returns must be made in store.

4. Both their Hudson's Bay Rewards and main customer service call centres are now only open from 10am to 9pm Eastern Time. Previously the main 1-800-521-2364 number operated between 7am and 2am Eastern Time.

5. I'm a Hudson's Bay MasterCard cardholder and there is no longer a lower minimum for cardmembers to get free shipping anymore. They used to offer us cardmembers free shipping with a minimum spend of $39. Before and during COVID they used to offer no minimum free shopping at various points in history. Now everyone has to spend $69 to get free shipping.

These recent changes at Thebay.com are indicating to me that Hudson's Bay is at risk filing for bankruptcy reorganization? As such I've decided to no longer buying anymore Hudson's Bay gift cards even if they offer a bonus card.
 
cslusarc said:
I personally think that Hudson's Bay is currently cash poor. It has too many accounts payable. It has made many recent changes that indicate extreme cost cutting.

Over the past month or so Hudson's Bay has made significant changes to how its website operates.

1. They are temporarily unable to ship to Post Office Boxes.

2. They are unable to offer express shipping from their warehouses shipped by Xpresspost or courier overnight.

3. They no longer accept returns by mail or courier. All online returns must be made in store.

4. Both their Hudson's Bay Rewards and main customer service call centres are now only open from 10am to 9pm Eastern Time. Previously the main 1-800-521-2364 number operated between 7am and 2am Eastern Time.

5. I'm a Hudson's Bay MasterCard cardholder and there is no longer a lower minimum for cardmembers to get free shipping anymore. They used to offer us cardmembers free shipping with a minimum spend of $39. Before and during COVID they used to offer no minimum free shopping at various points in history. Now everyone has to spend $69 to get free shipping.

These recent changes at Thebay.com are indicating to me that Hudson's Bay is at risk filing for bankruptcy reorganization? As such I've decided to no longer buying anymore Hudson's Bay gift cards even if they offer a bonus card.
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Yes, I fear the Bay is going the way of Eaton. Rather sad as it has been, in one form or another, a fact of Canadian life since 1670. I think the fact that they have not fixed the escalator from the Bay store to Bay Adelaide Centre for many months is a harbinger.
 
The Queen Street store hours for the ground floor and upper levels are now open until 8pm. The basement is still open until 9pm. Pusateri's still closes early.

Regarding the escalators not being on, I read on another site that the rumour is HBC owes their escalator maintenance company a huge amount of money, so the company will not repair anything until the bills are paid.
 
I wouldn’t be too concerned about Hudson Bay as they are sitting on billions in real estate.
 
rdaner said:
I wouldn’t be too concerned about Hudson Bay as they are sitting on billions in real estate.
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No they aren't.

Richard Baker has sold much of it.

The Queen St. Store, for instance, was sold to Cadillac Fairview.

He's also sold off a bunch of other flagships as well.

***

Besides which, valuable real estate is not going to sustain the company, its break-up value.
 
That's private equity for you. PE firms especially target retailers that hold real estate, and then acquire the retailer, often transferring the PE's debt to the retailer and running the retailers into the ground as they extract value, almost like a leach, and then the remaining husk is sold off, with the property often going to a real estate wing of the same PE firm before being sold onto the market.
 
cslusarc said:
Retail-Insiders.com reportsthatHudson'sBay is closing its Regina store next year:
Hudson’s Bay To Exit Regina And Close Downtown Cornwall Centre Store In 2025
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That will leave HBC with just a single store in all of Saskatchewan, in Saskatoon.

Its sad to see this Canadian retail icon bled dry by its American real estate tycoon owner.

It was a bit on the stuffy side for at least a generation, but still a useful generalist retailer; one that then showed a brief spark of life under the management of Bonnie Brooks before she was ushered out to begin the process of bleeding the asset dry.
 
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