No dignity: Inside the final week of Hudson's Bay Vancouver's existence | Daily Hive

Condition of Hudson's Bay's downtown Vancouver store in its final days, as seen on May 24, 2025. (Kenneth Chan)

As Hudson’s Bay’s flagship store in downtown Vancouver opened on Monday morning for one of its final days of business, signs at the main-level entrances greeted customers with the message “LAST 7 DAYS!”

These closure countdown signs are updated daily as the company approaches the end of its liquidation process and the permanent closure of all its remaining store locations.

This is a countdown to Sunday, June 1, 2025, the scheduled date for closure, based on the court-appointed monitor’s filing earlier this month. Then by mid-June, Hudson’s Bay will fully vacate its properties across Canada.

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Over the weekend, store staff told Daily Hive Urbanized that the exact final day for the downtown Vancouver location has not yet been confirmed, but it could fall just before or shortly after the projected date.

Condition of Hudson’s Bay’s downtown Vancouver store in its final days, as seen on May 26, 2025. (Kenneth Chan)

Condition of Hudson’s Bay’s downtown Vancouver store in its final days, as seen on May 24, 2025. (Kenneth Chan)

The liquidation process began just over two months ago, and several weeks into the process, some repairs and maintenance were carried out on the store’s elevators and escalators. For many months prior, the downtown Vancouver location had no functioning elevators or escalators, forcing all customers and staff to navigate the store’s seven levels using a single emergency stairwell located on the Seymour Street side of the building, next to the elevator bank. Even the escalators were blocked off and could not be safely used as makeshift stationary staircases as they had not undergone regular inspection and/or required repairs.

The inspections and repairs were finally made after it became highly apparent that the zero working elevators and escalators were having an impact on the pace of liquidation sales.

This sole reliance on a single emergency staircase also raised clear safety and accessibility concerns. Early in the liquidation process, Daily Hive Urbanized witnessed a senior become visibly distressed upon discovering the entire bank of elevators out of service. Standing in front of the closed doors, he cried out to an employee, “Why are you doing this to us?!” — horrified at the prospect of having to climb several flights of stairs to reach the men’s department on the sixth floor.

This past weekend, most of the escalators were operational, and some that had been blocked off for years — even since before the pandemic — were reopened for use as stationary staircases. One elevator was also in service, down from two the previous week.

Condition of Hudson’s Bay’s downtown Vancouver store in its final days, as seen on May 24, 2025. (Kenneth Chan)

Although the vast majority of the store has since been cleared as of this weekend, the store has likely not been busier in years. The pace of sales has been brisk in more recent weeks, including the liquidation of merchandise that had been moved from Hudson’s Bay’s distribution centre in Richmond — one of the retailer’s four warehouses in Canada — to Western Canada stores.

To help with clearance efforts and ease the strain caused by ongoing accessibility issues, merchandise has been reorganized throughout different parts of the store.

For example, areas on the main level that once showcased luxury purses and accessories are now filled with homewares and kitchen items — though nearly all of the displays on that level, including the large cosmetics and jewellery areas, are already empty.

Previously located on the fifth level, the remaining bedding products have been moved to the more accessible main basement level, now occupying the former Topman space — which was most recently used briefly as a Levi’s section. The Zellers home goods section on the same level has also been largely cleared out.

The scale architectural model that once proudly showcased Hudson’s Bay’s previously proposed high-density, mixed-use redevelopment of its downtown Vancouver store — offering a fleeting glimpse of hope for the retailer’s future in this community — has also vanished from its podium stand. It had been relocated from the second level to the basement level’s CF Pacific Centre mall entrance prior to the start of liquidation, but is now nowhere to be found.

Condition of Hudson’s Bay’s downtown Vancouver store in its final days, as seen on May 24, 2025. (Kenneth Chan)

Across the various floors for men’s and women’s apparel and shoes, not much care is being given to presentation. Most of the clothing has already been cleared out, but what remains is in disarray — items left haphazardly on racks or strewn across the floors with little effort to maintain order. The overwhelming majority of the remaining clothes are of extra-large sizes.

As of this past weekend, all remaining merchandise was 70 per cent to 80 per cent off.

Perhaps the most jarring sight of all was on the fourth level, which was previously dedicated to women’s and children’s clothing and accessories.

The fourth level is now being used for a separate liquidation sale of the store’s fixtures, including furniture, displays, and equipment — all currently marked at 50 per cent off.

Cashiers on this particular level will not process purchases for regular store merchandise — they are exclusively handling transactions for the liquidation of the fixtures.

This floor is now filled with seasonal decorations like reusable Christmas trees and decorative gift boxes, along with an overwhelming number of clothing racks, merchandise shelves, stands, tables, and even what appear to be staff lockers.

Condition of Hudson’s Bay’s downtown Vancouver store in its final days, as seen on May 24, 2025. (Kenneth Chan)

But by far the most unsettling element is the sheer volume of mannequins — hundreds upon hundreds of them of all shapes and sizes, lined up in rows or their parts piled chaotically on the floor, creating a surreal and almost eerie atmosphere.

Many of the mannequins were priced at hundreds of dollars each.

Now in its final days, Hudson’s Bay is not just closing its stores — it is unravelling in full view of the public, with little care for dignity or legacy. The once-grand downtown Vancouver flagship store building, a cornerstone of the city centre since 1913 (replacing its first presence at the location since 1893), has been a spectacle of disorganization, decay, and desperation in its final months, weeks, and now days.

The scene playing out at 674 Granville St. feels less like the end of an era and more like a retail implosion — the blunt efficiency of liquidation and the silent dismantling of a brand that once shaped the shopping experience for generations of Canadians, and a centuries-old enterprise that played a pivotal role in this country’s founding.

Hudson’s Bay is not simply closing. It is fading out, one stripped mannequin and half-lit floor at a time.

For posterity’s sake.