The Hudson’s Bay Company  is a name that many of you may not be too familiar with, despite its interesting history. For those of you who are not familiar with the company here is a look at how they have chosen to describe themselves, “Hudson’s Bay Company, founded in 1670, is North America’s longest continually operating company. The company comprises The Bay, a major department store, Zellers, a mass merchandise format, and Home Outfitters, a kitchen, bed and bath specialty store. With nearly 500 retail outlets and approximately 50,000 associates in Canada, Hudson’s Bay Company banners provide Canadians with stylish, quality merchandise at great value and with a dedicated focus on exceeding customer expectations. The Hudson’s Bay Company’s US banner operations include Lord & Taylor, an upscale specialty retailer with 48 stores across nine states, with two new stores opened in Spring 2012.  The company also operates 3 outlet stores, Lordandtaylor.com, and two Lord & Taylor Home stores.”

Sadly the company is getting ready to cut back on about 210 workers in order to trim back on its expenses. The company’s most recent release was about the cuts to retail locations, “With the final Zellers store closures in sight, Zellers is making one thing very clear: EVERYTHING MUST GO!  And that means one of Canada’s most beloved mascots is looking for some new digs.  Zeddy, the lovable Zellers Bear that has made numerous appearances at charity, community and shopping events since 1986, is up for adoption in Zellers most recent facebook campaign and the company is determined to find Zeddy a worthy charitable cause to join. The adoption campaign kicks off with an online video that features the familiar ‘Executive Managing Director’ from the company’s past facebook programs setting Zeddy free in the woods, and a second shows Zeddy living in the great outdoors.  Facebook fans are encouraged to submit the adoption requests online, with the ‘adopting family’ also receiving a $5,000 donation for the charity of their choice from Zellers.  With Zeddy’s impressive mascot resume of supporting community and charity organizations, the hope is Zeddy will find a home with an organization that can continue his tradition of supporting the community and giving back.”

This is, of course not the only retailer in Canada to make job cuts. For those of you who missed our coverage on Canadian Tire Corporation Limited here is a look at those cuts, “Well it looks like the company is hoping to continue to be a brand their customers trust while they are pulling the rug out from under a fair number of their locations. The company has decided to close a significant number of its stores as part of a major rebranding effort. The company is getting ready to move into a period of growth for one of those brands, FGL Sports’ under the Sport Chek name, as well as focusing on the Atmosphere brand as well. This expansion means that the company will be closing other stores that are being run under different brands the corporation owns. All in all the company will be closing about 115 stores which run under a variety of names. As you can imagine the closure of 115 retail locations is nothing to scoff at I terms of job losses. For the time being the company has not said how many workers are slated to be impacted by the store closures at the current moment.”