Goodbye, old friend.
From my time as a student at the U of W in the early 90s and then decades living in or on the periphery of downtown, this is probably the single store where I’ve spent the most money.
A ton of groceries, my bed, still in my closet are couple of pairs of shoes, boots, hoodie, parka and even the pyjama bottoms I am wearing now. (I also snagged the Manitoba and Canada boardroom flags on oak poles with brass maple leaf tops when they did their first downsizing many years ago !)
It got tougher to shop there over the years as lines got dropped, but Christmas was always a time to get back there. Sorry there won’t be another one.
I’ve been lucky to have had the chance to get behind the scenes of the building on a couple of occasions doing heritage stuff and had a lot of fun researching numerous columns and blog posts about its past. I even worked there for a couple of weeks during a Christmas Disney promo back in the 1980s and still have the name tag.
It’s the end of an era with the last major retailer leaving the downtown.
Related:
My thoughts on the future of the Bay building
My Bay Downtown photo album, including behind the scenes and the final days
HBC officially closes downtown Winnipeg Location CBC News
Downtown Bay officially closes doors Winnipeg Free Press
My other HBC-related posts and columns:
My Bay Downtown photo album on Flickr
450 Portage Avenue Winnipeg Downtown Places
The Bay Parkade Winnipeg Downtown Places
The Paddlewheel Restaurant Winnipeg Downtown Places
Zellers' 79-year run in Winnipeg West End Dumplings
The Bay Downtown's missing elevator mural West End Dumplings
Winnipeg's missing murals in the Winnipeg Free Press
Bay's Food Market staying put West End Dumplings
The Bay Downtown's giant beacon West End Dumplings
Beacon shone from atop Bay Building in the Winnipeg Free Press
I’m sure the head management deliberately made up a date for February of 2021 to avoid a large crowd documenting its closure..I was one of them.
ReplyDeleteI agree. I was there today to have a photo taken for a Free Press story. When I looked inside the window I noticed that there were no Christmas decorations up at all. They must have known it wasn't going to make it that far for quite some time as those decorations would have gone up five or six weeks ago.
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