By Dan Laxer, Joel Goldenberg and Chelsey St-Pierre
The Suburban

The Suburban reached out to Montrealers before The Bay’s final closing to gauge their reactions and what the iconic chain meant to them. How people felt seemed to differ along generational lines. Derek Alleyne, responding to The Suburban via Messenger, says The Bay remained for many years as the sole survivor of the Big 3; Eaton’s and Simpson’s being the other two (note the apostrophes). “When I purchased gifts for people from The Bay I felt a sense of pride.” He says he’ll miss walking into the building on Ste. Catherine Street, getting Christmas gifts packed in The Bay boxes, and hearing jingles for The Bay on TV and radio. Whenever he walked past the downtown location he’d think “I’m happy this place is still around.”

Dylan Heisler remembers his first trip to The Bay in 2019. It was at the Rockland location, where he went to buy his first adult wristwatch for his high school graduation. That was also the last time he shopped there. “It’s the oldest store in Canada,” he says. “It’s kind of foundational, so it’s unfortunate.” His sister, Maya, was more matter-of-fact. “It’s sad, I guess,” she shrugged. “I mean sometimes they had good deals. My friends and I would browse there sometimes, but we didn’t spend a lot of money there.”

At the downtown flagship Bay, which has been a department store — first as Morgan’s — since 1891, The Suburban saw at least one employee with a sad, distressed expression. She did not want to be interviewed.

Other longtime Bay shoppers did offer their reactions. “It’s very sad, people are losing their jobs, that’s not so good, but there are reasons they are closing,” said Lise, who did not want to give her last name. “Their systems are archaic. We were waiting two and a half hours in line to place an order for a piece of furniture on the fourth floor.” “We remember Eaton’s and Simpson’s,” said Gilles. Lise added that they have been shopping at The Bay “forever. We’re wondering what will be the next institution with a long life expectancy. I’m sure there will be something else in this building.”

Robert Aubin and Diane Boutin also said they were longtime shoppers, also at the time Eaton’s and Simpson’s existed as department stores. “We shopped in the men’s and women’s departments, for beauty products, many things, and we bought clothes for our two young girls, who are now wives,” said Aubin. “We will remember La Baie, and we’re very sorry about it closing.””I feel the same,” said Boutin.

Rose Marie Perugino said she started shopping at what was then Morgan’s in 1965, when she was working for Bell Canada. “I feel bad that it’s closing, it’s a staple in our Canadian history,” she added. “They should keep the downtown store open, it’s a beautiful place, so well known and the Métro’s there. If the building is not occupied, it would be very sad.”

For some West Islanders however, the reaction to The Bay closures was quite different. When asked how the closure affected them, residents like Nancy Weir’s response to The Suburban was “Not at all. It was a very expensive store.”

Though in agreement regarding high price points, for Steven Zeitz, the closures also represent the loss of Canada’s last standing department store, but that was in a way already losing its charm. “We lost the only department store left in Canada. Once Bonnie Brooks left, The Bay lost sight of who their customer was. They were carrying higher end brands and the stores were old and worn. They lacked value and service. Customer service was almost non existent. They did not respect mall hours, often closing early. Escalators were broken. You can’t serve expensive wine in a paper cup. They did have a pretty good e-commerce business that was quite easy to use but since it was based on in-store inventory, it can not continue. Sad but online sales brands will fill the gap.”

Didier K., a prominent businessman in the West Island, told The Suburban “It’s unfortunate that after all this time, they are closing. It really is an institution. Unfortunately their entire way of doing business was to raise prices, only to put things on special. Their real estate footprint made it impossible for them to survive. And their inability to pivot made it so that they couldn’t sell what they needed in a timely fashion. Trying to find anyone (for service) was worse than trying to find anyone at Rona or Home Depot, and that’s saying something. RIP to the oldest retail store in Canada.” n