The Last Days of Hudson Bay: A Canadian Institution's Quiet Farewell

It's always sad when a business shuts its door, even sadder when it's one that has been around since 1670 - that is a 355 year old business not being able to survive in this economy - tells you all you need to know about the current economic climate.

Anyway, I wanted to share my thoughts on the closure of the Bay stores. Following the announcement of the Bay shutting down, Canada wide, what you could hear was the collective sigh of relief of all the commercial real estate property managers who had to manage centers that hosted these stores.

Let me explain. The Bay stores are what commercial building managers would refer to as anchor tenants. Usually the biggest and all the other stores who are leased space in the mall would either be complimentary or at least the tenant mix will be done based on the existence of the anchor store- setting up the synergy for an active mall/center.

Since I had my thoughts about what I thought commercial building managers will be doing at the news -weeping and gnashing of teeth at the loss of their anchor tenants; scrambling to poach new anchor tenants into the existing space or split up the space to renovate and lease to various other tenants-, I reached out to my Commercial Property Manager lecturer and probably the most knowledgeable person I know about such matters, Nizam Dossa, to share my thoughts and ask his opinion. 

And he said- they were probably relieved that the stores have officially closed down. Because they had probably not been pulling their weight and messing up the center synergy. He went on to say these stores had become what we might call 'anchor tenants in name only.' They occupied prime square footage without generating the foot traffic that justifies their central position in a retail ecosystem.

It makes sense when you think about it because the Bay is literally my favorite store to walk into in any mall when I want to just walk around and probably call my sister and settle in for a long chat. It's always quiet with not many other shoppers around and ever so often I find a gem like a rack of Japanese steel knives for 95% off and I still opt for the anko brand knife set.

All of this is to say, The Bay probably had no shoppers.

Hudson Bay's decline reflects broader shifts in North American retail. The company joins a growing necrology of department stores that includes Nordstrom, which retreated from Canada in 2023; Target, whose ambitious Canadian expansion ended in bankruptcy after just two years; and Sears, once a fixture in suburban communities. Each closure prompts the same questions: Is this merely creative destruction—the natural cycle of business evolution—or does it indicate something more troubling about the Canadian economy?

As Hudson Bay's locations gradually empty of merchandise, commercial property managers are already envisioning new possibilities for these spaces. Some may be subdivided for multiple tenants; others might be repurposed for mixed-use developments or finding replacement tenants. A few may remain vacant for extended periods, monuments to a retail era that has passed.

Either way I look forward to seeing what commercial property managers do with the Bay spaces around the city.