HBC failed to adapt in the 70s to customers moving away from catalogue orders, it failed to adapt to malls in the 80s, and it failed to decommission its expensive white elephant department stores in the 90s.
By the time it was being passed around like an old car, it was already dead and gutted of its value.
I'm all for reminiscing on things lost, but this is just a funeral 45 years late. HBC died a long time ago.
... Green snake in a sugar cane field.