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Hudson's Bay Co., the oldest company in Canada, has agreed to be acquired by South Carolina billionaire businessman Jerry Zucker in a deal worth $1.06 billion.

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"We are committed to enhancing our customers' shopping experience through a substantially greater focus on service and revitalizing the spirit of the organization," Zucker said in a statement.

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Translation: Layoffs, store closures, disappeared pensions, selloff in pieces, and big fat bonuses for the executive class. Huzzah.

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Originally posted by Jingles:
Translation: Layoffs, store closures, disappeared pensions, selloff in pieces, and big fat bonuses for the executive class. Huzzah.

My wife works for the Bay. I hope she gets a decent buyout, at least.

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The article mentions efficiency of customer service, which I'm worried is code for "self check-out machines," which eliminates many entry-level jobs for people starting out. That will make it difficult for people to find work.

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While I have some sympathy for any worker who may suffer, I have no nostalgia for the Hudson's Bay company, who became wealthy on exploiting, mistreating and starving the many thousands of FN people who had the misfortune to reside in their badly neglected and woefully mismanaged, 200-year old 'warehouse' of all of western Canada, otherwise snidely known as 'Rupert's Land'.

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Yep.

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Originally posted by Aristotleded24:

The article mentions efficiency of customer service, which I'm worried is code for "self check-out machines," which eliminates many entry-level jobs for people starting out. That will make it difficult for people to find work.

I hope things work out for your wife, and that she can keep her job.

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If we can give a man's job to a machine, that man no longer needs to work; he may remove his shackles and live a life of luxury in our advanced socialist welfare system.

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exploiting, mistreating and starving the many thousands of FN people

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Good. The Hudson Bay Company did more to destroy the natives of Canada than any institution, including the churches. I wouldn't spill a tear over the end of slavery or all-male voting and I won't spill a tear over the demise of the Hudson Bay Company.

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I refer, of course, to the Hudson's Bay Company itself, which is, in the infinite wisdom of our legal system, a "person" like you or me. A "person" which will be 336 years old in May.

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Originally posted by beluga2:
This of course raises the question of how that "person" can be sold off to a foreigner like a piece of furniture, given our laws against slavery. But that's a little contradiction our legal system has never seen fit to address.

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So far as I know, Canadian law has never yet accepted the idea that a corporate "person" has the same rights as a human one.