1 week Ago By Monica Zurowski, Calgary Herald
Founded in 1670, the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) was the oldest company in Canada. While it started as an enterprise to facilitate the fur trade, it grew into an iconic department store that will soon be dismantled . Looking back at the company’s newspaper ads from decades past provides a glimpse into the trends of the day and how The Bay grew up right alongside Canada.
When the Hudson’s Bay Company started in the 1600s, these were also the years when more newspapers began popping up; the printed products became increasingly popular in the 1700s. One of the earliest newspaper mentions of the Hudson’s Bay appeared in the paper called The British Spy or Derby Post-man on Sept. 25, 1729, when an article talked about what the company had sent to England, including 27,793 beaver pelts, 127 bear and 50 elk.
1700s: A search of the many papers available on newspapers.com found the following notice to be one of the early ads from the Hudson’s Bay Company, in the London newspaper The Times on Jun 23, 1792. While the company and its importing/exporting activities had been written about in British newspapers dozens of times by 1792, this is one of HBC’s very early ads.
Similar-looking ads appeared for many months. 1800s: By the early 1800s, the Hudson’s Bay Company was making the news in the United States, too. This article in the North-Carolina Journal discussed the findings from the famous Lewis and Clark expedition as they travelled northward, noting that First Nations people they encountered were friendly and engaged in trade with HBC and the North West Company.
As more Europeans settled in what would eventually become Canada, the newspaper industry in this country began. The Montreal Gazette published this front page article about HBC on May 19, 1808. This is one of the earliest Canadian news stories about the company to appear in a large circulation newspaper.
Ads also began appearing in newspapers more frequently. (The first formal ad in Canada was an ad for butter in the Halifax Gazette in 1752, says The Canadian Encyclopedia .) One early newspaper ad involving the Hudson’s Bay Company in Canada appeared in the Montreal Gazette.
This one is from Nov. 10, 1832, right between ads for apples and coal stoves. Early ads were basic pieces of information at the time, usually appearing as a notice with just a few lines of text.
As trade extended further and further west, Hudson’s Bay began selling and exporting a growing number of buffalo robes. New towns were springing up across the country and so were Hudson’s Bay trading posts and stores. In Calgary, the Herald started publishing in 1883 and one of its first advertisers within a week was Hudson’s Bay.
This was the first HBC ad in the Calgary Herald, on Sept. 7, 1883. Advertisements had begun sporting a fresher, cleaner approach than the early-style notice ads.
1900: The turn of the century in 1900 saw Hudson’s Bay begin to advertise clothing — which ultimately became a large focus for the store. With prairie communities such as Calgary growing in size every month, businesses such as Hudson’s Bay worked to turn new residents into customers via these ads. The month of January in 1900 shows almost daily Hudson’s Bay ads in the Calgary Herald and regular ads in the Albertan newspaper, as well.
Shoppers always love a bargain and the same held true more than a century ago. These are two of the first Hudson’s Bay ads in the Calgary Herald that advertised sales, along with another ad showcasing some household items — in this case the items were carpets. 1910s: As the early 1900s progressed, the simplicity of early ads was replaced with complexity and Hudson’s Bay followed suit.
Ads were often text heavy, with detailed illustrations, as seen in these 1910 examples. 1920s: Detailed advertising was a trend that continued into the 1920s, with businesses focusing on “eye-catching advertisements to entice their customers,” according to Auburn Advertising. Ads for companies such as Hudson’s Bay reflected the styles of the Roaring Twenties, with silk fabrics, bobbed hairstyles and shin-showing dresses.
It was an age of celebration, as many countries experienced an economic boom following the end of the First World War (1914-1918.) 1930s: The Roaring Twenties ended with a crash — the stock market crash of October 1929 — which led to a global economic downturn. The 1930s became the era of the Great Depression, known for skyrocketing unemployment rates, agricultural hardships and severe drought that left prairie regions with the nickname of the Dust Bowl.
The buoyancy often seen in ads of the 1920s was replaced with a pragmatism, as companies focused on selling the essentials needed for a no-frills life, as these Hudson’s Bay ads reflect. 1940s: The Second World War (1939-1945) dominated the first half of the 1940s, with rationing and a focus on the war effort impacting businesses small and large. Many companies such as Hudson’s Bay used ads to offer hope in uncertain times.
1950s: With the Second World War in the rear view mirror, the world’s population boomed and so did many countries’ economic growth. Cultural and technological advancements abounded as society embraced all things modern. People began to travel more for leisure and The Bay was in tune with the trend.
1960s: The 1960s brought with it a myriad of changes in how North Americans lived. Men’s hair got longer, women’s skirts got shorter and stereos got bigger — as big as a couch! The Hudson’s Bay Company began using the brand “The Bay.” Here are some local Bay ads from the decade.
1970s: This was the decade that saw the birth of video games, an environmental movement, disco, punk music and Star Wars. Advertising played to people’s emotions, as opposed to being a direct pitch, but newspaper ads were still seen as the dominant vehicle for relaying detailed information to consumers. This was also the decade when sales of colour TVs took off and within the first few years of the 1970s, colour TVs were outselling black and white models.
1980s: By the time the 1980s hit, advertising had dramatically changed. Big hair ruled. Everyone watched MTV.
Michael Jackson moonwalked and the Internet was born. Ads were seductive, almost naughty. Consumerism was surging during this decade of “excess, exuberance and experimentation,” says the global consumer brand New Netro Net.
“The focus was on creating memorable experiences that would stick in the minds of consumers.” 1990s: Enter grunge, cargo pants, cycling shorts and hair scrunchies. Shopping trends and habits were changing fast, and things weren’t looking rosy for department stores.
Simpsons department store closed in 1991; Woodward’s closed in 1993; and, Eaton’s shut down in 1999. The Bay, however, retained a loyal customer base for decades, with one favourite shopping/sales promotion for many being Bay Days. Sales in every department on almost everything kept customers coming back again and again.
2000s: The Bay worked to grow its customer base, selling everything from all-inclusive trips in travel departments to duct cleaning and carpet cleaning services. While the mass of offerings in a one-stop department store appealed to older consumers, young shoppers often looked for boutique-style experiences. The Bay also worked to remind people of the elegance it brought to the department store experience, often through its heritage buildings.
The downtown Calgary Bay, for example, opened in 1913. Changes in shopping preferences and the explosion of online shopping, however, ultimately led to the end of this 355-year-old company. 2025: Hudson’s Bay Co.
— Canada’s oldest company — announced it would be closing earlier this year. At first, The Bay said it would keep six stories open in Ontario and Montreal (as the below articles notes.) But since then, The Bay has decided to shutter all its stores.
When will The Bay close? A liquidation sale is ongoing and expected to end by the middle of April. *****.
