The approval from Ontario Superior Court Judge Peter Osborne allows the retailer, which dates back to 1670, to begin selling off inventory at most of its 80 Hudson’s Bay stores, three Saks Fifth Avenue locations and 13 Saks Off 5th shops in Canada.
“This is the art of the possible and we are where we are today. In my view, there is no other alternative,” Judge Osborne said.
The six stores being saved from the liquidation sale include the flagship on Yonge Street in Toronto, as well as a store in the city’s Yorkdale mall and another farther north in Hillcrest Mall in Richmond Hill, Ontario The remaining three span Montreal, the Carrefour Laval mall and Point-Claire, Quebec.
Private equity are the scavengers of the economy. They go after declining companies whose value is overly concentrated in illiquid assets.
The Bay has been rotting for decades as a company. The only people who regularly shop there are the non-price-conscious, non-fashionable white upper middle class (Karens, basically). They haven’t been viable for middle class or working class shoppers for many years now.