Hudson’s Bay closed its doors for the last time in St. Albert on Sunday, but not before it opened up one last treasure from the past.
St. Albert’s Hudson’s Bay outlet — along with every Hudson’s Bay in Canada — closed its doors for good on June 1.
Hudson’s Bay Company ULC filed for creditor protection on March 7. Nationwide liquidation sales began March 24.
These last few months have been tough for the store’s staff, said Ken Jenkins, outgoing manager of the St. Albert Centre Hudson’s Bay. The support from customers has been great, though, with many bringing them cookies and coffee.
“When we first announced we were closing, the first thing people did was they came in and bought all the [items with] stripes, our Bay stripes,” Jenkins said. Sales trickled off for a few weeks, but picked up again as discounts reached 90 per cent off.
As of Sunday, the store was nearly bereft of merchandise, its tables, racks, and display cases empty, some bearing “sold” stickers.
Jenkins said store staff would spend the next few weeks cleaning up the place and preparing it for handover to St. Albert Centre staff by June 17. While some store workers had found new jobs, others were soon to be unemployed.
Jenkins said the store’s crew was a tight-knit bunch who made him feel loved in the short 1.5 years he was here.
“It’s sad we’re closing and we’re not going to see each other every day,” he said, but the group plans to keep in touch.
Time capsule
To mark the store’s final day, about 60 current and past employees gathered there after hours for cake and conversation. They also cracked open the store’s time capsule.
1995 was the 325th anniversary of Hudson’s Bay, and every store created a time capsule to celebrate, explained Inez MacDonald, who worked at the St. Albert outlet from 1987 to 2002. The St. Albert capsule was installed in the wall by the store’s St. Albert Trail exit behind a plaque on May 2, 1995, and was scheduled to be opened 50 years later.
The crowd cheered as Jenkins unscrewed the plaque from the wall, revealing a hidden cubbyhole. Within it sat a coffee-brown metal cash box with a key sticking out of the top.
“Oh! It’s heavy!” he declared, as he pulled the box out.
The guests gathered around as Jeanie Epp, who has worked at the St. Albert Hudson’s Bay since 1998, opened the box to examine its contents.
The St. Albert Hudson’s Bay was a very different place back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, MacDonald said. They had an in-store restaurant, for example, and a counter that sold classic candies in bulk. There was even a pet department with live animals — some of the birds got loose in the store in 1987, she recalled.
“This whole department where we’re standing was all records and CDs,” she said, referring to the area next to the St. Albert Trail exit, and she could hear all the latest hits playing from her office next to it.
The first three items pulled from the time capsule likely came from that music department: a CD of Hell Freezes Over by The Eagles (priced at $17.99), a Tragically Hip cassette, and The Lion King soundtrack on cassette. A handwritten note explained these items represented albums on the Top 20 list in 1995.
The capsule contained photographs of the store’s staff in 1995 and the elaborate displays they created for the 325th anniversary. There was also an employee list, work schedule, and profit-and-loss sheet, as well as the business card of regional manager M.E. Kruzel.
Also in the box were a newsletter, booklet, and comic book about Hudson’s Bay history; a few employee-only pins (including a golden “B” pin for exceptional customer service), a 1995 Peacekeeper loonie; and a silver coin struck by the Canadian Mint to mark the 325th anniversary of the Hudson’s Bay.
Jenkins said staff would donate the capsule and its contents to the Musée Héritage Museum. He planned to patch the cubbyhole with some drywall.
MacDonald said she is saddened to see Hudson’s Bay close.
“I had 31 years with the company, and the company was really good to me.”
