The Bay is a chain of 90 department stores that operate across parts of Canada. It is the main brand of Hudson's Bay Company ("HBC"), North America's oldest company. It has its headquarters in the Simpson Tower in Toronto. In French, the chain is known as la Baie, short for "Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson". The chain uses both the English and French versions of the name in some parts of the country.
The stores are full-line department stores, with a focus on fashion apparel, accessories, and home goods. Most price points are mid- to upper-mid, with some high price points in the flagship store on Queen Street in Toronto; however, there is an assortment of everyday low-price merchandise. The Bay can be compared to U.S. retailers Macy's and Nordstrom. The average store is 135,000 square feet (12,500 m2).
Flagship downtown stores exist in Canada's largest cities, including Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton, and Winnipeg. These larger stores span many storeys high and carry a much broader range and selection of goods than The Bay stores in shopping malls. The largest of the flagship stores is the Toronto store on Queen Street, at about 1,000,000 square feet (93,000 m2). Toronto has another smaller flagship store on Bloor Street East.
In October 2012, HBC announced that it is rebranding the department store chain from "The Bay" to Hudson's Bay (la Baie d'Hudson in French).
Read more about The Bay: History, Flagship Store Remodelling
Famous quotes containing the word bay:
“Baltimore lay very near the immense protein factory of Chesapeake Bay, and out of the bay it ate divinely. I well recall the time when prime hard crabs of the channel species, blue in color, at least eight inches in length along the shell, and with snow-white meat almost as firm as soap, were hawked in Hollins Street of Summer mornings at ten cents a dozen.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)