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foreign ownership is the death of a country. When a country does not own any of its companies anymore, then it is not a country, but is controlled by everyone else.

The USA understands this, but not Canada. Canada just lets everything get bought out.

And now our national retailer, which has more history in the development of Canada, then any other retail operation is no longer ours.

As for the BON-TON question. Most of the cities where in PA. I believe the old downtown store of a famous local company in Langcaster PA, is still vacant as Bon-Ton will not sell the building to anyone with fear it will make competition with their suburban mall stores. Atleast thats the last I read about the situation in that store. So the building sits empty.
 
Tim Hortons and Wendy's

miketoronto,

Two of the most successful "Canadian" chains or brands are actually owned my Americans.

Look at Tim Hortons (owned by Wendy's) and Roots (two American brothers).

The only truely Canadian retailer left is Canadian Tire. From what I understand the business it's all in one family still.

Louroz
 
Re: Tim Hortons and Wendy's

There's plenty of Canadian retailers still around. Chapters, Rona, Harveys etc. Even Roots. Those guys grew up in America but they now live here and head office is here. They are planning to spin off Tim Hortons so it will come back. Headquarters never left Burlington.
 
As someone aluded to above...to call Roots "owned by Americans" is a real stretch, as Budman and Green, despite birth south of the border, are about as Canadian as they come.
 
MaudeBarlowToronto
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Awesome Blixa! I love it!

As for HBC Y&B, I wouldn't be surprised to see it gone soon myself. In fact, the whole Hudson's Bay Centre will likely be renamed within five years (as they don't even have their corporate offices in there anymore).

For the record, the Y&B Bay has been a "discount / sell-off" store for many years now, they just don't advertise it as such (in order to avoid the wrath of the Bloor-Yorkville B.I.A.).
 
Does not matter with Americans. They will close it even if it makes Money.
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You have such interesting insight into the American business world. So are all the stores that are open in America the money loosing ones or is the decision to keep open or close a store purely random?

The USA understands this, but not Canada. Canada just lets everything get bought out.
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The USA prevents foreign ownership? That is surprising news. I thought that only businesses which were related to national security had foreign ownership restrictions. I guess RBC didn't buy Centura Banks, BMO didn't buy Harris Bank, Manulife didn't buy John Hancock... it was all a farce because USA understands that US companies should not be bought. The USA with the largest foreign trade deficit are the ones that know about protecting jobs then?

Tell me more interesting insight.
 
There is always talk, especially on Lou Dobbs, but the fact is that many companies are buying US companies or merging with them to form foreign Headquartered companies. Unless there was something anti-competitive or monopolistic about the deal or somehow it can be linked to national security then it would probably go through. If the US prevented foreign companies from buying companies in America then they would shoot themselves in the foot because American companies are buying all over the place. If the Chinese company pulls out of a deal due to political pressure then that is their business but they weren't prevented from buying Unocal. The Chinese government was probably just playing their cards so as not to disturb the good thing they have going. The US has a huge trade deficit with China right now. Right now the big issue in the US is a UAE firm running US ports. They can talk all they want but if they close their borders to international trade and takeovers many US companies will be the net losers.
 
As for the Yonge and Queen store, I suspect it will remain open. It wouldn't be a particularly desirable redevelopment site (even for adaptive re-use), given the presumably high cost of the land, the significant heritage constraints, and the City's likely resistance to any conversion to residential uses (even though the site is zoned and designated for mixed-uses). Moreover, being connected to one of the most successful malls in the country, the subway and the PATH does make it a site with a lot of retail potential.

I read recently (and I'll see if I can find the article) that the new HBC "braintrust" was considering leasing out parts of the large downtown stores to specialty boutiques with established brand names. In a way, similar to the approach taken by Ogilvy's in Montreal. That way they could reduce the GFA they need to fill with goods, yet at the same time introduce new retailers that would attract more traffic.

I don't know that there is much likelihood of some of the top floors being converted to office space, unless it is HBC office space (like when Eaton's in its dying days sold its interest in the Eaton Tower and moved its head office staff to the 9th floor of the Yonge/Dundas store). The money to be made in downtown office leasing is really with the large blocks of space, not leasing a couple of floors to a series of small users.

As for the Bloor Yonge store, it's survival may rest with the fact that the entire complex is one of the worst in Toronto, and The Bay store is poorly located and badly designed. Unless a new owner/new tenant is willing to spend lots of money basically starting from scratch on that store (and someone might), it might be hard to find new large tenant(s) for that space. The Bay might end up staying by default. Just my speculation.
 
^ Anyone think that the Bay maybe leaving Yonge & Bloor could possibly serve as a catalyst for demolition of that nightmare? It seems to be virtually universally hated. A better opportunity to rebuild there may never arise.
 
With all the speculating, people have overlooked one little detail: the lease. Unless HBC is going to go into bankruptcy protection, which won't happen, HBC is stuck. As mentioned above, because of the awkward configuration at Y&B, the landlord is unlikely to permit HBC to get out of its lease. If anythging, the Queen St. location is more adaptable, and hence, more easily re-leased.
 
here should be laws in Canada that do not allow people from other countries to take over our companies.
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Right. And all Canadian owned foreign companies should be returned to the respective countries as well.

That's real progressive.

Does not matter with Americans. They will close it even if it makes Money.
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Again you are bang on. Look at Walmart. Home Depot. Whole Foods. Not to mention the numerous others mentioned above.
 
I have read about this stuff. American companies will close downtown locations even if they make money.

Federated has just done this in Boston, closing the Filenes store.

The worst thing to happen to HBC, is if they downsize our downtown stores. Downtsizing and making them no larger then a suburban mall HBC, will be the death of the downtown stores. Thats why they died in the USA, because they where downsized so much.

Only the big ones are left like Marshall Fields, MACY'S NYC, etc, that did not downsize.
 
I'd assume locations like Centerpoint and Eglinton Square would also be near the top of the list for Toronto closures.
 
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