Dutch adventure from Hudson’s Bay ends with discounts of 90 percent

With a bag full of purchases, Henk Struijs gets back into the cold outside air of Haarlem. A jacket, a sweater, a skirt, sportswear – he did well this Sunday afternoon. Of course, there was not much choice anymore. The most common products and sizes are long gone. “But I bought all this for someone with a small size,” he grins.

Struijs did not come especially for the high discounts, he says. Even before the Hudson’s Bay department store chain started its sale, it regularly came to the Haarlem branch. “They had a lot of nice things and the store was very fresh and spacious,” says Struijs. Now, on the last day, he has taken a big hit once more. He holds up the harvest: “A bag full, for 20 euros!”

Behind his back, in the store, visitors are coming and going. Even before the department store opened its doors around noon, the first interested people gathered in front of the entrance. Inside there were still ten racks full of clothing, sometimes with handwritten discount cards. All other floors and the restaurant of La Place on the top floor are no longer accessible.

For some visitors that is a disappointment. “Is this all?” Three women wonder aloud in the doorway. “Then we will be ready quickly.” Others cannot resist the temptation of a 90 percent discount. Four teenage girls each walk with the same yellow and white striped shirt (now for 1.99 euros) towards the last two fitting rooms. “I would never have bought it if it wasn’t that cheap,” one of them shouts to the rest.

Also read this story about the first year of Hudson’s Bay in the Netherlands

Sell ​​empty

It is a matter of empty selling, says store manager Marc van der Veur. “As soon as everything is finished, we will close.” Initially Hudson’s Bay wanted to keep its fifteen Dutch stores open until New Year’s Eve, but there was a great deal of interest in the sale at the branches. Some branches already had their last day on Saturday, there was sufficient stock in Haarlem to also be open on Sunday.

The store manager looks with mixed feelings at how customers are crowding around his latest products. It hurts to see the store he has run since opening as empty. “Haarlem was a successful branch. So I think it’s a shame that we haven’t had more time to put ourselves on the map. “

At the same time, Van der Veur and his staff have been selling out for three months now. “So I’m glad it’s done soon,” he says. “It has really been mega pressure in recent weeks. You see some people walk in almost every day, in the hope that the discounts will be further tightened. ”Van der Veur does not blame them, he says. “I’m not afraid of a nice discount either.”

Sad face

Many visitors also find the virtually empty department store a sad sight. Especially for Haarlem they find it regrettable that Hudson’s Bay is already leaving again. The chain is located in a colossal building in the middle of the center, which was built especially for department store chain V&D in the 1930s. If that building will soon be vacant, it will also do the rest of the center no good, they fear.

After the bankruptcy of V&D at the end of 2015, the building was also vacant for months. When it became clear in the summer of 2016 that Hudson’s Bay was coming to Haarlem, the city was hopeful. The Canadian department store had previously announced that it wanted to open twenty stores in the Netherlands. The first ten of them opened in September 2017.

The store in Haarlem only followed a few months later, in April 2018, as a thirteenth store. It was already clear then that the new department store in the Netherlands was not such a resounding success as was hoped in advance. Although customers came to the stores, they did not buy enough. It was therefore decided to adjust the ambitions. There were more cheap brands in stores, and fewer branches than planned. After Haarlem, only Utrecht and Amstelveen followed.

It turned out to be a heavy loss-making adventure, it turned out recently. In the first full year – 2018 – the chain in the Netherlands suffered a loss of 90 million euros. Because those results also did not improve in 2019, the Canadian parent company decided at the end of September, after months of rumors, to close all Dutch stores. Redundancies were requested for the more than 1,400 remaining employees.

Also read this story: The four lessons after the fall of Hudson’s Bay

The range was often referred to as an explanation for the problems. That was too expensive and not special enough. Jessye and Edward, too, who do not want their surname to be in the newspaper, they never came to Hudson’s Bay for that reason, they say. They preferred to go to De Bijenkorf, a really exclusive store. This Sunday they are actually here for the first time, confesses Jessye. The harvest: a bag full of free clothes hangers.

At the same time, there are also visitors who will miss Hudson’s Bay, such as Charlotte Meijer. “We were happy to come here, so we would often go out to eat at La Place.” This Sunday Meijer and her daughter Liliène are in the store one last time. They have bought a bag full of clothes. “It has not been our fault, has it?”

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Haarlem