I am deeply saddened by the closing of The Hudson’s Bay Company. I have so many memories of the Bay, from going there with my mom when I was young, to shopping there myself and always finding that perfect accessory, to it being my sober job, as my sponsor at the time called it; I had quit my bartending job, and became a brand ambassador for Ralph Lauren, a position that I loved and excelled in.
Then I moved on to Saks, where I had to navigate commission sales and felt very unprepared, but where my manager took me under her wing and patiently waited for me to learn the true art of sales. I researched and had a spiritual experience with a certain book which spoke to the part of me that was closed off and afraid of people. I again excelled and was on management track, but to my regret I let my boyfriend at the time whisper words of not good enough to me, so I sought out a 9-5 job, and was recruited into a sales position in a business to business company managing a portfolio of accounts, where I was bullied so badly I just walked away from my desk one day.
That started a very painful period for about a year and a half trying to find meaningful and reliable work. The pandemic also happened around this time, which interestingly provided opportunity to go back to school and change my career into wellness. But I never stopped romanticizing the Bay and Saks. In fact, I wonder if I’ve ever really gone a full week without missing those times.
I was reading a news article1 about businesses recruiting employees from Hudson’s Bay and Saks, and the way they are speaking about the staff is well overdue. Words like “professional”, “complex”, and “amazing” are all hitting home to me. It’s the first time I am receiving what I tried to put out all of those years, that innate beauty of that kind of work. I highly valued my work as a sales specialist, and the connections that I got to make with my colleagues and clients, so reading this article even going so far as to celebrate people who have client books as “hidden gems”, is validating to me.
Perhaps in some ways I was a bit naive in that I truly wanted to transform the shopping experience back to a golden era like Selfridges2, because a decade later, it’s all about to be but a memory. But there is a remnant, and I have hopes for Holt Renfrew that it will continue to provide a sophisticated and curated shopping experience, and that someday I’ll be able to shop there when I’m not just picking up something somewhat affordable at the beauty counter for a special occasion.
That boyfriend at the time also influenced me to see certain things from a socialist angle - the work of the retail worker is so utterly disrespected; it is devastating to me, because that is the work that I loved the most, but was rewarded the least in. The inherent problem with retail work is that the employees are collectively seen as disposable, but that is the furthest from the truth. Retail staff put blood sweat and tears into their work for minimum wage. That wage causes a high turnover that prevents the solidarity that could make being at work 35+ hours a week feel more comfortable.
When I was at Saks, my manager ensured everyone had one weekend a month that we had off that we could rely on. While I personally was okay going to work on the weekend, not having a steady schedule, other than certain times that can be negotiated with management, is something that could be mandated to protect jobs and the mental health of the people in those positions moving forward.
All work is important work, and sadly we have left businesses and the people working in them behind, while automation and even cheaper labour has uprooted our communities, causing a wave of upset and confusion in its wake as the rich get richer, and the middle class continues to further erode.
The Bay was so much more than a place to buy things to decorate the body and spruce up the home, it was a piece of our national history and identity. I was there in the early days when the company rebranded to Hudson’s Bay, and when more specialized roles began shifting into general maintenance work. That is also when it really became too expensive for the average Canadian to shop there. Even two months after news of the closure, I still couldn’t comfortably buy anything, and I wasn’t the only one, with full inventory in many areas such as clothing and shoes. HBC just imploded on itself, and while we will continue to see some of its legacy though the acquisition of its intellectual property by Canadian Tire, it ultimately could not survive the 21st century, and it feels self-inflicted.
So many of the problems in retail are preventable, with inflated and artificial setbacks that don’t need to be, but that we’ve been told are necessary, all the while furthering to corrode the shopping experience, which ought to be so much better, because we are saying with our money that spending it somewhere is worthy of our hard earned paycheque, and yet the shopping experience too often falls short.
There are still some great places to work in retail, and while I see and experience terrible customer service most of the time, it doesn’t need to stay that way. Companies need to start valuing their employees which will have a trickle down effect to the customers, who need to start being viewed as valuable as well.
So much of our connection to the world and each other, is when we are out and about, just going on with our day, picking up something here and there, or making a more mindful effort in an intentional shopping experience. All of these moments are occasions to impact one another, to inspire or be inspired, and to give our resources to places that are worthy of our patronage.
A part of progress is having to adjust to the times; perhaps the Bay didn’t adjust, or didn’t want to adjust, but at the core of it all is to just have great customer service, and to remain relatable. Something must have changed with that in and after the pandemic. I kept up with the reviews of Saks after all this time, and I did notice a decline in ratings over the past little while, whereas when I worked there we had morning meetings and we proactively assessed service and how to improve.
There is dignity in retail, and all retail workers deserve to have morale while their customers deserve to be treated well. The pandemic is over, and it’s time to move on. It’s time to stop using the pandemic as an excuse for the subpar shopping experience that we have seemingly passively accepted. There is deep value in all work, and this work that directly involves the human experience needs a revival before more companies have to suffer the same fate as the HBC. Because at the end of the day, the consumer will vote with their wallet, and the retail workers have a lot more power than they are led to believe.
