On Wednesday, July 16, 2008, NRDC, owners of Lord & Taylor purchased the remaining 80% of The Hudson Bay Company, the oldest incorporated company in North America. Reports have been confusing what exactly is going to happen. Reports have indicated that higher end Bay stores could be turned into Lord & Taylor stores. Others have said that stand-alone Lord & Taylor stores would open up (but where? Can’t think of any locations for this!) NDRC chief executive Richard Baker has even suggested that it isn’t impossible for several stores to share the same space. For example, Toronto’s Queen Street Bay store, which is 900,000 square feet, could have a Zellers in the concourse, taking up 200,000 square feet, and the remaining 700,000 square feet could be divided into a Bay store on one side, a Lord and Taylor store on the other, with a Fortunoff (home furnishings) on top.

Zellers sharing space with Lord & Taylor? Well, only after it reorganizes into a store that is more like, say, Winners (TJ Maxx in the US). And if they’re indeed opening a Fortunoff on the top floor, would it be the top-top floor, or the seventh floor, where the current home furnishings are? Personally, I would not want to see the restaurants, especially the Arcadian Court, shut down. The Arcadian Court is a very popular event venue.  I had my prom there. The Arcadian Court has been part of the store for 80 years. It was there when the store was Simpsons. It was there when Simpsons became The Bay. it was there when we started having Sunday shopping. I recall a math teacher/prom chaperone telling me that her mother and aunt used to take her to the Arcadian Court for post-shopping lunches when she was a little girl. We can’t lose a piece of history like this. Of course, we’re too early in the game to even truly speculate what would happen.

I do feel that bringing in Lord & Taylor may be a good thing. I agree with reports that have said that Canada really does need a store that is higher end than most Bay stores, but still a few notches below Holt Renfrew (though Holt Renfrew really isn’t as high as say, Bergdorf Goodman). There are also those who believe that Lord & Taylor won’t do well in Canada, simply because no one’s ever heard of it. Macy’s or Bloomingdale’s (owned by the same people) would probably be more successful, because of name recognition. But one never knows. We just have to wait and see.