As an Indigenous person from northern Ontario … GOOD!
My family traded with the Hudson Bay Company for generations in furs from the north. I remember my dad trading furs just before the whole industry collapsed in the 70s. My parents barely made a living from the furs yet they had to negotiate and fight and argue with every shipment they gave. Those store managers were just as terrible as the ones you read in history books.
Not to mention they were the only store operating in many native communities in the north … so with the monopoly in a community, they had the freedom to set the price for anything and everything and make way more profit than they should have.
I celebrate the demise of the HBC … it’s historically a terrible company for native people.
That’s fair. It’s pretty ironic that HBC initially sucked all the value from native communities, then after it was sold to American shareholders they used it to suck any remaining value from Canadian consumers and now it’s completely worthless.
Those gift card purchases are going to be a real death knell.
