Could Hudson’s Bay Co. Be The Next Canadian Retail Tragedy?

The Toronto Star is reporting that The Hudson’s Bay Company could be the next major Canadian retailer to succumb to defeat.
Could Hudson's Bay Co. Be The Next Canadian Retail Tragedy?
The Toronto Star is reporting that The Hudson's Bay Company could be the next major Canadian retailer to succumb to defeat.

It has not been a good few years for major retailers in Canada. It seems ever since Target shuttered across Canada, the traditional retail climate has been cooling off, to say the least. The Toronto Star is reporting that The Hudson’s Bay Company could be the next major Canadian retailer to succumb to defeat as the retailers “appear to be in the kind of trouble from which most enterprises don’t recover”.

According to The Star, HBC shares have dropped about 60 percent since 2015 and the retailer has posted losses close to a billion dollars in the past six quarters.

HBC isn’t anywhere close to dead yet and still has an opportunity to right the ship. Industry insiders are pointing that in order for HBC to survive they will have to have an agile retail-focused business plan that caters to an upper-middle-class clientele.

To recapture this clientele HBC will have to follow the route of retailers like Holt Renfrew who focus more on experiences, creating event-like atmospheres for high-end brands. Customers have to be lured to stores with the expectation of receiving something they can’t get behind their computer screen.

We would love to hear from you. Do you shop at The Bay? What do you think The Bay can do to keep afloat?

Source: The Toronto Star