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This week Sears Canada announced it had failed to find a buyer for the troubled retail chain and will seek court approval to liquidate its remaining assets. It’s an ignoble end to the company’s 65-year run.
As Sears Canada prepares to wind down, we went through the Maclean’s archives and found ads from the late 1970s when the chain’s fortunes were bright. Building on its successful catalogue business, the company opened its first Canadian store under the Sears banner in 1973, and had close to 60 stores across the country within three years.
RELATED: Sears Canada: The timeline of its slow-motion collapse
Where ads include prices, we’ve noted below what that amount would be in today’s dollars after adjusting for inflation.
 
October 1975

(2017 dollars: $664 to $774)
October 1975

November 1975

(2017 dollars: $221)
March 1976

(2017 dollars: $243)
April 1976

(2017 dollars: $354)
May 1976

March 1977

 
March 1977

(2017 dollars: $458)
August 1977

 
February 1978

(2017 dollars:$386)
March 1978

 
May 1978

(2017 dollars: $175 to $245)
April 1978

 
April 1978

 
April 1978

 
May 1978

 
August 1979

 
September 1979

The post Here are 18 ads from when Sears Canada was booming in the 1970s appeared first on Macleans…

OTTAWA _ The pace of housing starts in Canada slowed in September compared with August, but stayed over 200,000 for the fourth month in a row.
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. said Tuesday the seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts slipped to 217,118 units in September, down from 225,918 units in August.
The pace of multi-unit urban starts _ condos, apartment buildings and the like _ dropped 10.7 per cent to 131,388. That more than offset an increase in single-detached urban starts, which climbed 8.2 per cent, to 67,522. Overall annualized urban starts fell 5.1 per cent in September to 198,910.
Bank of Montreal senior economist Robert Kavcic said investment in residential construction seems grown again in the third quarter, after declining modestly in the second quarter.
“Canadian homebuilding activity remains robust, with the best population growth in 25 years proving fundamental support,” Kavcic wrote in a report.
CMHC’s trend measure, the six-month moving average of the overall monthly seasonally adjusted annual rates of housing starts, slipped to 214,821 in September compared with 220,573 in August…

CBC.caSears Canada wants court's permission to liquidate all remaining storesCBC.caSears Canada said Tuesday it plans to seek court approval to begin liquidation of all of its remaining stores and assets, a move that would see about 130 outlets close and put about 12,000 employees out of work. "Sears Canada, with the recommendation …Sears Canada throws in towel, seeks to close all stores, lay off 12000Financial PostSears Canada to apply to liquidate all remaining stores, affecting 12000 jobsGlobalnews.caSears Canada going out of business, laying off 12000Toronto StarTimes Colonist -BNN -Macleans.ca -The Kingston Whig-Standardall 86 news articles »

President Donald Trump prepares to speak at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., Thursday, April 6, 2017, after the U.S. fired a barrage of cruise missiles into Syria Thursday night in retaliation for this week’s gruesome chemical weapons attack against civilians. (Alex Brandon/AP/CP)
Susan Ariel Aaronson is a senior fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation, a research professor, and a cross-disciplinary fellow at George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs, in Washington, DC.
In a recent report on foreign investment trends, the U.S. Department of Commerce acknowledged that expenditures by foreign direct investors to acquire, establish, or expand American businesses declined by $66.1 billion, or 15 per cent, from $439.6 billion in 2015. That’s a mighty big plunge for the centre of global capitalism. Nonetheless, Commerce department officials had a ready explanation: investors were less enthusiastic about mergers and acquisitions…

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz
Come Christmas Day, it’s possible Canadians will no longer be able to shop at Sears. This week the company will go before a judge and ask for approval to liquidate all its remaining assets, with its final 130 locations expected to close over a 10 to 14-week period starting later this month. “Following exhaustive efforts, no viable transaction for the company to continue as a going concern was received,” the retailer said in a statement. “The Company deeply regrets this pending outcome and the resulting loss of jobs and store closures.”
But if the company does go out of business, what happens to the more than $9 million in retention bonuses announced in July that were meant to incentivize senior executives to stick around and help restructure the company?
Maclean’s spoke with Anita Anand, a law professor and chair in corporate governance at the University of Toronto, about what happens next with those bonuses, and more broadly, the final steps for Sears Canada
READ: Sears Canada: The timeline of its slow-motion collapse
Q: There is a lot to figure out in court this week regarding Sears Canada’s request to liquidate its remaining stores…