[CoryB]

Originally Posted by OTA in Winnipeg

I think there might be something else at play here. That grocery was always busy every time I was in there and it wasn't exactly cheap either.

Keep in mind groceries are one of the lowest margin sectors to be in. My guess is when Hudson Bay exited the grocery segment the numbers of what that department were making were shared with prospective companies and no one was willing to take on the level of risk (due mostly to theft) of running a grocery store at that location.

Originally Posted by trueviking

There is a downtown Bay in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton, Victoria, Regina and Saskatoon.

I don't think we can say the department store ship has sailed.

I completley disagree that we need to sit around and dream up megaprojects for the governemnt to pay for. ALL the discussion should be about how do we support the existing department store, in my opinion.

Most of those downtowns continue to have active retail well beyond a single location. The hard fact is retail in downtown Winnipeg died with the crash in the 80s and is never coming back. The ghost of the Hudsons Bay store will continue to haunt Portage and Vaughan until something meaningful takes over the space but it will never be a full, main line store in the chain again.

That said if you are serious about wanting to support it you need to tailor your life to shopping exclusively from that location unless it is something they do not sell (ie groceries). Even if it means you need to order it online and have it sent to the store for pickup. And not only do you need to do it but you need to talk non-stop about it to everyone you know to get them to do the same.

Originally Posted by morty

It's a shame The Bay won't invest at all in the store. [...] the downtown store stopped carrying a lot of brands I buy.

Winnipeg as a whole does not get a lot of the brands other cities get in Hudson Bay. The reason is the chain does not bring in brands that they cannot sell here.

Originally Posted by 1ajs

a grocery store in the bay building would be nice again. wonder why they didnt bother putting one back in?

Low margins, shrink (theft), no clear supply chain and no one willing to step in and take a chance on the space.