TORONTO — When Olivia Glauberzon pulled up to the loading docks at two Hudson's Bay stores last Wednesday, she had suitcases in tow and a plan to fill them with remaining product from After9, her company selling athleisurewear for moms.
As she got out of the car at the flagship downtown Toronto and Oakville, Ont., stores, she noticed she had plenty of company.
"The loading dock was full of small cars like mine, so that's how I had a feeling there were a lot of vendors in the Bay that day doing what I was doing," said Glauberzon.
She wanted to take back her apparel because she can make more by selling it herself rather than leaving it to be caught up in the Hudson's Bay clear-out.
The rush to rescue merchandise came ahead of liquidation sales that began Monday at all but six of the department stores run by Canada's oldest company, which filed for creditor protection earlier in the month.
The sales are expected to gut most of the retailer's inventory by June 15 by offering discounts on everything from apparel to home goods and cosmetics.
Hudson's Bay did not immediately respond to a request for comment on brands that took back merchandise from its 80 Hudson's Bay, 13 Saks Off Fifth and three Saks Fifth Avenue stores, which are almost all being liquidated.
However, lawyers for the retailer said last week in court that some brands were due to participate in the liquidation but others were fleeing.
The selloff will see participating companies, who are about to have one less place to sell their wares, take a hit on how much they make on merchandise sold through Hudson's Bay. Seeing heavily discounted products may even cheapen the consumer perception of their brand.
These factors are why Elisha Ballantyne, a Toronto-based retail consultant who has worked for Target, Walmart and Zellers, figured brands scrambled to take back their merchandise.
"If your agreement (with the Bay) was always that can't go further than this discount or you can't off-price my product, then you don't want to see that happen at any time," she said.
For brands that can stand to take the reputational risk of seeing high-end merchandise slashed in price, she said there is also a question of whether they will get paid for sales of their products.
Hudson's Bay's court filings show it has a 26-page list of creditors, including a who's who of the fashion and houseware industries. Brands ranging from Ralph Lauren, Columbia Sportswear and Smeg are collectively owed millions.
Hugo Boss Canada is listed as being owed more than $3.1 million.
Over the weekend, The Canadian Press spotted naked mannequins and empty racks in a portion of the Fairview Mall store in Toronto dedicated to the luxury menswear brand.
Last week, the scene was much the same at the Toronto flagship at Yonge Street and Queen Street West, which is not part of the liquidation.
"We are of course monitoring the situation very closely and are also in close contact with Hudson’s Bay," Hugo Boss spokesperson Carolin Westermann said in an email, when asked about the brand's apparent disappearance from Hudson's Bay.
"But we ask for your understanding that we cannot provide any further details here at the moment."
The Estée Lauder Cos. are also due to pull back from Hudson's Bay stores, but its retreat appears to mostly be confined to its workforce.
A spokesperson for the beauty conglomerate said staff will no longer preside over its Mac counters come May 31.
The company said the decision was timed to Hudson's Bay recent filing for creditor protection but was meant to help it focus on "consumer-preferred, high-growth channels."
"We remain deeply committed to our consumers and employees in Canada and will carry out this transition with the utmost respect and care for our teams," the statement read.
Estée Lauder Cos. is listed in court documents as an unsecured Hudson's Bay creditor owed more than $9.3 million. The same filing shows its Tom Ford beauty brand is owed about $368,900, while its Kilian, Le Labo and Editions du Parfum subsidiaries are owed roughly $40,000, $32,800 and $17,400, respectively.
For brands, especially ones with a luxury pedigree, liquidation discounts don't only devalue their worth but can also put a dent in a company's sales and relationships with other retailers that stock products from the business at full price, Ballantyne said.
"If you're off pricing and clearing out Kitchen Aid, when that's available at Walmart, at Best Buy, at Canadian Tire, it's going to really hurt those other retailers," she said.
In addition to Hudson's Bay, Glauberzon's brand After9 sold her items online and through other boutiques
She thought it didn't make sense to leave her leggings, sports bras and tank tops sold off at Hudson's Bay because not only can she make a higher profit clearing out the merchandise herself, but she would also be "losing control over how much they could get discounted or marked down."
"The cost per unit because they're made in Canada is $50... so I can barely handle a 50 per cent sell-off scenario, let alone like 60, 70, 80 per cent," she said.
That Hudson's Bay has wound up in a liquidation situation is no surprise to Glauberzon, who started selling her apparel in Hudson's Bay in 2022, when the retailer approached her with the opportunity.
"It was so exciting. I drafted a whole business plan where really a lot of our revenue was like banking on that Bay relationship working out," she said.
"I spent all my time in Queen Street. I was there four or five times a week, pumping the section anytime I could."
Some of the Toronto-based company's best sales days came when it hosted events at the Bay, where moms got a glam session and then posed for photos with their kids.
But things took a turn when she noticed store traffic dwindling and the Hudson's Bay employee at head office who had been her liaison over the years left and Glauberzon wasn't given a replacement.
When her contract was nearing expiry, she tried to contact head office many times but hasn't had a response since February 2024 — more than a year ago.
She left her products at the Bay, using a commission-based model where the retailer would pay After9 a percentage of what was sold, but stopped visiting the sales floor so often and redistributed her attention to other sales channels.
"It's not really the revenue that makes this sad for us," she said.
"It's more that we're losing an in-person shopping experience for moms."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 24, 2025.
Tara Deschamps, The Canadian Press
