The Prince George Hudson's Bay location has had its fate sealed and will be among the stores closing across the country.
Shoppers at the store Monday, March 24 were not surprised by the recent closures and reacted with a mixture of sadness and frustration.
Former Prince George Minor Hockey Association coach Brian Toll was disappointed by the store's closure.
“To me, it’s a long-standing tradition,” said Toll. “My wife shopped here a lot, and I have as well. So for it to be closing, it’s kind of a tough time. It’s tough for people not to have this place to come to. The other thing is, it seems to be a sign of the times. That’s kind of a shame too, especially for someone older like we are, to see all the shopping going online and things like that now. The social aspect of it is disappearing, with a lot of social activities moving online.”
Toll also added that he is disappointed by the lack of support from locals for the store.
“My wife and I have spoken about a lot of different stores in town, about the lack of people actually shopping in them. It doesn’t come as a surprise because we never really saw many people shopping when we were here. We made the comment when we were coming in that it was hard to find a parking spot right now. Where were all these people before? Now it’s sale time, and everybody shows up. If people had shown up before, perhaps it wouldn’t be closing.”
The Hudson's Bay Company entered bankruptcy protection earlier this year, and a recent announcement on March 24 confirmed that all but six Hudson's Bay locations will be closing. The closure affects 74 stores and about 9,000 employees.
Last week, an Ontario court gave its approval for the liquidation of the stores' goods.
Like Toll, another shopper told The Citizen that online shopping is to blame for the closure of Hudson's Bay and other local stores.
“Pretty much everyone is buying a lot of their stuff online now,” said Randy Sabo. “With Amazon and other online retailers, it’s pushing out all of the local ones. It’s making it so that having a space this size is just basically unnecessary. It’s a waste of rent when you can have all this stock in a warehouse and ship it off ... All these department stores were the same. Sears closed here in town about a decade ago. Before that, there were Zellers and Target, which also left. A lot of these in-store retailers are just leaving. It’s just a way of life that’s dying.”
Another anonymous shopper told The Citizen that when they first came to Canada, Hudson's Bay was where they purchased their winter clothing, and the closure was saddening, especially since shoppers are now capitalizing on the sale.
“I don’t like the cheap stuff,” said Ashley (no last name given), who was upset that the closure would make finding quality clothing in the city even harder. “In some of the places in the mall, I find their quality isn’t quite there. That’s why I like to come here — they always carry good-quality stuff. Especially during Bay Days, you can get really good deals. It’s like an iconic thing. I like to feel things, I like to try things on, and we’re moving to a society where you purchase things online, and you don’t have that ability. Now you have to return it instead.”
Liquidation sales were set to begin Tuesday at the Prince George Hudson's Bay location.
