Talk:Hudson's Bay Company
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 | Hudson's Bay Company was a good article, but it was removed from the list as it no longer met the good article criteria at the time. There are suggestions below for improving the article. If you can improve it, please do; it may then be renominated. Review: March 6, 2006. |
 | A fact from this article was featured on Wikipedia's Main Page in the On this day section on May 2, 2004, May 2, 2005, May 2, 2006, May 2, 2007, May 2, 2008, May 2, 2016, May 2, 2022, and May 2, 2023. |
Weak section: 1820-1840 period West of the Rockies
1 - Currently describes only nowadays US locations: Fort George (Astoria), Fort Vancouver, Fort Boise, Fort Hall, Yerba Buena trading post, Hawaii store and Northern California Siskiyou Trail 2 - Misses on other important nowadays US locations: Fort Nez Perce, Fort Colville, Fort Umpqua, Fort Nisqually, Cowlitz Prairie (farm) and other PSAC locations 3 - Entirely missed nowadays Canada/southern BC (Fort Langley and Fort Yale), northern coast up to Alaska, fur rich New Caledonia and central BC (Fort Alexandria hub). Also missed on cross-border brigades to York Factory, on the important Russia-America Company (RAC) agreement, on the SS Beaver first steamship to roam through the Pacific Northwest coastline and on the Red River colony Sinclair expedition to settle southern Washington. LeCanardQuoi (talk) 17:57, 25 September 2023 (UTC)
LeCanardQuoi (talk) Completed today a major revision of the 19th century section covering the Pacific Northwest as per planned change notice. Mackie is the main reference for the revision along with countless existing Wikipedia articles expanding on the HBC presence.
Still in business?
The lead sentence says "is" vs. "was", probably correct for the moment, but is this the end of the company? https://www.thebay.com/ suggests so. When do we switch to "was"? A momentous day historically. — GreenC 21:52, 1 June 2025 (UTC)
The company may be closing it's stores, but it will remain in business, @GreenC. Hope that helps. MarcoMarxBrother (talk) 22:41, 1 June 2025 (UTC)—
Blocked sockpuppet of Oatsandcream, see investigation.
- Do you have more information? There are editors saying the company is defunct and I've seen news reports along those lines. Not saying you are wrong, but clearly, there is confusion that needs clarification ie. a sentence in the lead section saying the company is remaining in businesses with a good source and explanation. — GreenC 23:53, 1 June 2025 (UTC)
- The last store closes tonight at 7 pm Pacific Time. The department store chain is closing today but the Company may remain open, at least temporarily, until the court declares the company dissolved. Wellington Bay (talk) 00:01, 2 June 2025 (UTC)
- Confirm, for most retail employees today is their last day, a skeleton crew remains until June 15 to wind down retail operations. HBC also owns HBC Properties and Investments with extensive real estate holdings, the court process is ongoing to manage/monetize these assets for creditors. -- GreenC 00:22, 2 June 2025 (UTC)
Splitting proposal
The article is too large to comfortably navigate, which is not unexpected for a company with 355 years of history. My recommendation would be to split the history into a second article, so that this article can focus more on the business operations (perhaps since the beginning of the department store), or whichever point it may be decided that the company took its present-day form. WikiRedactor (talk) 01:13, 26 July 2025 (UTC)
- I agree. I always found it odd that in the section about corporate governance, it discusses the structures used in the first 200 years when it controlled territory but next to nothing on its structure in the 20th and 21st century. Remikipedia (talk) 02:41, 26 July 2025 (UTC)
- It seems that most of the article is history. What sections would remain after splitting out history? Perhaps this should remain a history article with "business operations" being moved to Hudson's Bay (department store)? TheTrolleyPole (talk) 17:57, 28 July 2025 (UTC)
- I think historical content before the department stores would be better suited for a separate history article because that content is considerably farther removed from the company of present-day. A summary of that split content should remain here (and proposed article linked), and this article should focus on department stores/1800s–2025. This page restructuring should also involve a business units and subsidiaries section like the articles for many holding companies have, which should avoid the page reading exclusively as history. WikiRedactor (talk) 21:35, 28 July 2025 (UTC)
- I am a North American who doesn't live in Canada, so when I think of The Hudson Bay Co. I associate the name with the centuries-old fur trading company that later became a store chain. Since Hudson's Bay (department store) already has an article I believe it would be easier to have most of the department store information move to the already established article, and keep this one for the history before stores and other holdings. Karenthewriter (talk) 15:00, 28 August 2025 (UTC)
- I think that's a great idea. Let's make the thread of the Hudson's Bay Company as easy and logical to follow, with a "deviation" hint to the present HBC article, as you suggest. - My 2 cents - Greetings! Paco Cortegiano (talk) 08:40, 30 December 2025 (UTC)
- I am a North American who doesn't live in Canada, so when I think of The Hudson Bay Co. I associate the name with the centuries-old fur trading company that later became a store chain. Since Hudson's Bay (department store) already has an article I believe it would be easier to have most of the department store information move to the already established article, and keep this one for the history before stores and other holdings. Karenthewriter (talk) 15:00, 28 August 2025 (UTC)
- I think historical content before the department stores would be better suited for a separate history article because that content is considerably farther removed from the company of present-day. A summary of that split content should remain here (and proposed article linked), and this article should focus on department stores/1800s–2025. This page restructuring should also involve a business units and subsidiaries section like the articles for many holding companies have, which should avoid the page reading exclusively as history. WikiRedactor (talk) 21:35, 28 July 2025 (UTC)
- Support: Would like to see an article like this DYC TY (talk) 00:41, 16 February 2026 (UTC)
- Support way too long right now. 🚂ThatTrainGuy1945 Peep peep! 14:03, 10 March 2026 (UTC)
History of the Hudson's Bay Company and Rupert Legacy
Part of the sale of HBC's IP to Canadian Tire is that the holding company responsible for HBC's remaining assets change its name. Accordingly, HBC (or what's left of it) is now "Rupert Legacy" or rather a series of subsidiaries whose names include "Rupert Legacy". I don't think it would make any sense to rename this article since 90% of it has to do with the historical HBC rather than whatever is left so I suggest either having "Rupert Legacy" as a section of this article or having a new stubby article called Rupert Legacy. I also think that rather than creating a "History of Hudson's Bay Company" article, it makes more sense given the name change for the Hudson's Bay Company article to be the history article and that if there is enough material for an article on the current company, that should be created under Rupert Legacy. Wellington Bay (talk) 15:54, 12 August 2025 (UTC)
- I agree that this article should remain the history article. By splitting off history, I think that User:WikiRedactor would effectively make this article a second department store article. If so, I think it would be better to move most department store text (e.g. Zellers, Saks, foreign operations) to Hudson's Bay (department store). TheTrolleyPole (talk) 00:25, 15 August 2025 (UTC)
- I agree as well. If it was sold and converted into a subsidiary operating under a different identity, then essentially HBC was replaced and no longer exists except as part of history. Seems "history of" articles are often for those things that still exist when significant and otherwise tend to omit "history of". AHIOH [T]/[C]
22:29, 17 November 2025 (UTC)
Company name
I am trying to reconcile the use of the term Hudson's Bay Company with that of the Company of Adventurers of England, trading into Hudson's Bay. The charter granted by King Charles was to the Company of Adventurers of England, trading into Hudson's Bay NOT the Hudson's Bay Company. ~2026-14322-90 (talk) 02:26, 6 March 2026 (UTC)
Ridiculously bad article
Whoever started this article had no clue beyond the modern period. It conflates a trading name for commercial properties with a historic organisation that is the basis for the existence of Canada. It’s one of the worst articles I have ever seen. ~2026-20545-60 (talk) 07:41, 3 April 2026 (UTC)
- Elaborate? Remikipedia (talk) 23:23, 3 April 2026 (UTC)
- Agreed, I opened this page expecting to read about the historical HBC and it's importance as the de facto governance of early Canada, but ended up with a lot of information about it's modern department store business, which was not at all what I was looking for, so I ended up just closing the article. Enzic (talk) 21:22, 10 May 2026 (UTC)
- Look at the history section of the HBC article, the article is about the company which includes a lot from "de factory governance of early Canada" to its switch to department stores in the 1880s. ~~~ Remikipedia (talk) 03:18, 13 May 2026 (UTC)