Hudsons/The Bay sounds familiar, but not recently at all... I remember a time at a party when Amazon first started, w/ books. I loved it but a guy I was talking to thought it was an awful idea. I wish I would have bought stock!! Now I use Amazon weekly, & love I can order & have items delivered to family/friends all over the country w/out shipping costs. I hope Amazon lasts a long time.
Meanwhile, if Mamdani, a true socialist, actually wins, I wonder if there will be more & more of those who are financially able to move will move away - then who will pay for the promises?
And LA keeps suffering from an assortment of issues... many hotel owners saying they want to leave, or will not be able to afford rennovations, etc... & of course, the prices for hotel guests will go up. Living wages, yes, however, cost-of-living due to CA taxation (California has the highest individual income tax rates in the country), zoning regulations, California's unique gasoline blend and high taxes contribute to significantly higher gas prices compared to the national average, groceries and healthcare services, transportation are also more expensive, etc., etc.... I pay attention to CA because one son, his family & 3 grandkids live there (not in LA). I could go on & on, but won't. Many people leave CA --- Atlas Shrugged...
“Meanwhile, if Mamdani, a true socialist, actually wins, I wonder if there will be more & more of those who are financially able to move will move away - then who will pay for the promises?”
What is a “democratic socialist” and how do they differ from “socialists?”
I suspect many people will move to NY to replace anyone that happens to leave, assuming anyone would leave.
The Bay has had issues for many years but, if you ask me, the real downward spin began when it was sold to a US company about 12 yrs ago? They extracted as much value out of the company as they could and never made the significant improvements required to take it into the next generation. Yet another reason for us to.....
Would love to have a little more about what ultimately caused it to fail. Seems to me like many of these are failing not because they are no longer relevant but more because they are bought by PE firms or other aggregators who saddle the business with unrealistic revenue growth, especially for a 300 year old business. The firms take all the profit for themselves and starve the companies to feed themselves. And ultimately the companies fail because they have been strangled and starved. Did that happen here, or did management just miss the boat on changing market conditions and not adjust.
We are watching in real time, Southwest, when investors put their own demands ahead of culture and the companies best interest and a company that once seemed far ahead now seems destined for the PSA, Northwest was once a player history.
A hedge fund buys a business for $XX. It expects a specific ROI and doesn’t care if it comes from the business bottom line. If there isn’t enough from the bottom line they sell off assets to make up the difference. It doesn’t matter if the value of the business declines as long as ROI covers the initial cost of the investment plus planned returns over a set period of time.
Admittedly their scope is fairly narrow. But in my experience, observation and recommendations, their products are generally very reliable and yet financially friendly to own.
They have been among if not the first in delivery of consumer grade robotic lawn equipment. Pretty cool.
I liked Bills story about survivor companies. I like that notion n general and Husqvarna is a survivor by apparently a tradition of good products and service.
A final thought. I just received personal attention from the companies technical support in the repair of a piece of equipment that is 31 years old. And I will get it running again.
I think maybe that’s part of the story of survival. Over expanding isn’t just too many stores, it’s pushing the envelope of how many markets you can saturate. That’s what will get Amazon in the end. Expanding beyond books is one thing. Trying to sell anything you’ve ever heard of requires a different kind of expertise. They’ve been smart enough to become a third party vendor for “do one thing well”companies like Husquevana, but it really hasn’t taken long for most companies to offer free shipping, so it remains to be seen if being a clearinghouse will sustain them. Online streaming is also a touch and go business. I, for one, am curious about the cost of those giant warehouses filled with dents, returns and overstocks. How does that impact the bottom line over time? I’ve got popcorn and time…
I have many, many happy memories of The Bay and Sears and Eatons and Woodward and a bunch of other places that no longer exist. My BFF and I spent hours in our local Bay store, six floors of wonder and a couple of great restaurants.
I think its downfall is that it no longer catered to younger shoppers. Not cheap enough to attract former Zellers customers (another store that was bought by - or maybe attempted to be replaced by - Target and then failed dramatically), not hip enough for millennials or Gen Z. The final nail in The coffin for me was trying to order towels when it first announced it was closing. I ordered 8, three days later, I was down to only one being available. We went to the local store a couple of days later and I pulled the other seven towels off the shelf. And that 90% off is misleading, as most products were only 10-15% off for more than a month of the liquidation process.
Makes me very sad to read this. Have been to the Bay a number of times while visiting our friends in Canada. Milam, my now late husband, worked at the T. Eaton Company, a competitor, during the off season when he was in Hamilton playing for the Tiger Cats of the CFL. I loved both stores.
It was The Bay that we could have walked out of with half the store in 1993 after Toronto won the World Series. We were spending a couple of days there before flying home and the Blue Jays parade was happening. Everyone in the city was either at the parade or watching it on the televisions in the stores. It was almost impossible to get waited on. The city was a crazy place as the team had never won the pennant before. It was my first trip to Canada and Milam had gotten an invitation for the CFL Hall of Fame installation for a couple of the guys he had played ball with and after the ceremony, they broadcast the final game on the huge screen TVs. Well, the Blue Jays were playing the Atlanta Braves and we were big Atlanta fans which meant that we were the only two Braves fans cheering in a ballroom full of Toronto fans. A jolly time was had by all.
Bill, you brought up some good but kind of sad memories with your article today; but you are good at that. It’s probably why I’m still here.
There is an interesting history attached to Vera Rubin who you might consider writing about Bill. According to a post on Bluesky, “Vera Rubin(1928-2016)was a pioneering US astronomer whose work provided convincing evidence for the existence of unseen “dark” matter in the Universe.”
OK. I’m finally through with my email for the day so am signing off until tomorrow.
Hudson’s Bay hasn’t been relevant for decades. They never did outdoors as well as REI or LLBean and could not keep up with fashion trends. I remember going to a great sale at one in Vancouver Bc in the late eighties and still buying only classic clothes.
Hudsons/The Bay sounds familiar, but not recently at all... I remember a time at a party when Amazon first started, w/ books. I loved it but a guy I was talking to thought it was an awful idea. I wish I would have bought stock!! Now I use Amazon weekly, & love I can order & have items delivered to family/friends all over the country w/out shipping costs. I hope Amazon lasts a long time.
Meanwhile, if Mamdani, a true socialist, actually wins, I wonder if there will be more & more of those who are financially able to move will move away - then who will pay for the promises?
And LA keeps suffering from an assortment of issues... many hotel owners saying they want to leave, or will not be able to afford rennovations, etc... & of course, the prices for hotel guests will go up. Living wages, yes, however, cost-of-living due to CA taxation (California has the highest individual income tax rates in the country), zoning regulations, California's unique gasoline blend and high taxes contribute to significantly higher gas prices compared to the national average, groceries and healthcare services, transportation are also more expensive, etc., etc.... I pay attention to CA because one son, his family & 3 grandkids live there (not in LA). I could go on & on, but won't. Many people leave CA --- Atlas Shrugged...
loved the link to Vera C. Rubin Observatory
“Meanwhile, if Mamdani, a true socialist, actually wins, I wonder if there will be more & more of those who are financially able to move will move away - then who will pay for the promises?”
What is a “democratic socialist” and how do they differ from “socialists?”
I suspect many people will move to NY to replace anyone that happens to leave, assuming anyone would leave.
One thing we can finally agree with Darrell on....there is no need to add "democratic" to "socialist". It is redundant.
I will say anyone moving to New York City will be the takers rather than the givers
🤷♂️
Looks like Atlas Shrugged
🤷♂️
Read the book, altho it’s looooong, perhaps more than you can handle
Obtuse
Snob
I hear you, I just don’t agree with you.
As Darrell goes off with the last word (again), singing, "If agreeing with you is wrong, then I don't want to be right."
I hear you, I still don’t agree with you.
I used to travel to Canada for business and loved going to Hudson Bay! It was a fabulous store. It's such a shame that it had to close.
The Bay has had issues for many years but, if you ask me, the real downward spin began when it was sold to a US company about 12 yrs ago? They extracted as much value out of the company as they could and never made the significant improvements required to take it into the next generation. Yet another reason for us to.....
Just like the newspaper industry: killed by hedge funds stripping away everything and then leaving the remains beside the road.
Would love to have a little more about what ultimately caused it to fail. Seems to me like many of these are failing not because they are no longer relevant but more because they are bought by PE firms or other aggregators who saddle the business with unrealistic revenue growth, especially for a 300 year old business. The firms take all the profit for themselves and starve the companies to feed themselves. And ultimately the companies fail because they have been strangled and starved. Did that happen here, or did management just miss the boat on changing market conditions and not adjust.
We are watching in real time, Southwest, when investors put their own demands ahead of culture and the companies best interest and a company that once seemed far ahead now seems destined for the PSA, Northwest was once a player history.
A hedge fund buys a business for $XX. It expects a specific ROI and doesn’t care if it comes from the business bottom line. If there isn’t enough from the bottom line they sell off assets to make up the difference. It doesn’t matter if the value of the business declines as long as ROI covers the initial cost of the investment plus planned returns over a set period of time.
Interesting story.
Anybody heard of Husqvarna? It's a Swedish company but it's over 300 years old. Still makes great products.
Do they make anything besides tools and heavy machinery? So niche
Admittedly their scope is fairly narrow. But in my experience, observation and recommendations, their products are generally very reliable and yet financially friendly to own.
They have been among if not the first in delivery of consumer grade robotic lawn equipment. Pretty cool.
I liked Bills story about survivor companies. I like that notion n general and Husqvarna is a survivor by apparently a tradition of good products and service.
A final thought. I just received personal attention from the companies technical support in the repair of a piece of equipment that is 31 years old. And I will get it running again.
Good products. Great support.
I think maybe that’s part of the story of survival. Over expanding isn’t just too many stores, it’s pushing the envelope of how many markets you can saturate. That’s what will get Amazon in the end. Expanding beyond books is one thing. Trying to sell anything you’ve ever heard of requires a different kind of expertise. They’ve been smart enough to become a third party vendor for “do one thing well”companies like Husquevana, but it really hasn’t taken long for most companies to offer free shipping, so it remains to be seen if being a clearinghouse will sustain them. Online streaming is also a touch and go business. I, for one, am curious about the cost of those giant warehouses filled with dents, returns and overstocks. How does that impact the bottom line over time? I’ve got popcorn and time…
I have many, many happy memories of The Bay and Sears and Eatons and Woodward and a bunch of other places that no longer exist. My BFF and I spent hours in our local Bay store, six floors of wonder and a couple of great restaurants.
I think its downfall is that it no longer catered to younger shoppers. Not cheap enough to attract former Zellers customers (another store that was bought by - or maybe attempted to be replaced by - Target and then failed dramatically), not hip enough for millennials or Gen Z. The final nail in The coffin for me was trying to order towels when it first announced it was closing. I ordered 8, three days later, I was down to only one being available. We went to the local store a couple of days later and I pulled the other seven towels off the shelf. And that 90% off is misleading, as most products were only 10-15% off for more than a month of the liquidation process.
Makes me very sad to read this. Have been to the Bay a number of times while visiting our friends in Canada. Milam, my now late husband, worked at the T. Eaton Company, a competitor, during the off season when he was in Hamilton playing for the Tiger Cats of the CFL. I loved both stores.
It was The Bay that we could have walked out of with half the store in 1993 after Toronto won the World Series. We were spending a couple of days there before flying home and the Blue Jays parade was happening. Everyone in the city was either at the parade or watching it on the televisions in the stores. It was almost impossible to get waited on. The city was a crazy place as the team had never won the pennant before. It was my first trip to Canada and Milam had gotten an invitation for the CFL Hall of Fame installation for a couple of the guys he had played ball with and after the ceremony, they broadcast the final game on the huge screen TVs. Well, the Blue Jays were playing the Atlanta Braves and we were big Atlanta fans which meant that we were the only two Braves fans cheering in a ballroom full of Toronto fans. A jolly time was had by all.
Bill, you brought up some good but kind of sad memories with your article today; but you are good at that. It’s probably why I’m still here.
There is an interesting history attached to Vera Rubin who you might consider writing about Bill. According to a post on Bluesky, “Vera Rubin(1928-2016)was a pioneering US astronomer whose work provided convincing evidence for the existence of unseen “dark” matter in the Universe.”
OK. I’m finally through with my email for the day so am signing off until tomorrow.
Hudson’s Bay hasn’t been relevant for decades. They never did outdoors as well as REI or LLBean and could not keep up with fashion trends. I remember going to a great sale at one in Vancouver Bc in the late eighties and still buying only classic clothes.