Posted on 07/16/2018 8:22:22 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
I’m going to miss Lord & Taylor like mad when the Fifth Avenue flagship closes next year. It isn’t only because of the unlikely bargains I scored on its often-deserted men’s floors — a red vinyl Perry Ellis-label jacket, marked down from $79.95 to $39.95 that strangers hilariously mistake for Armani, and a wool winter coat as good as any for $49.99.
I won’t miss the once-charming but more recently cheap-looking holiday windows that weren’t worth waiting on line for. But Lord & Taylor, like every big department store, offered a welcoming civility that softened the city’s rough edges. New York will be slightly less human without it, however obsolete its business model. Never again will the public enjoy the store’s grand main floor with its noble vaulted ceiling, arched mirrors and stately columns.
The shutdown is one of up to 10 Lord & Taylor closures of a total 50 stores planned by chain owner Hudson’s Bay Company. It comes amid a nationwide department store apocalypse. Hudson’s Bay, which owns 488 stores including Saks Fifth Avenue, is battling high debt, declining sales and falling stock prices.
Another industry giant, Macy’s Inc., which also owns Bloomingdale’s, has closed 14 percent of its stores since 2014, while its same-store sales in 2017 fell 4.3 percent compared with 2016. J.C. Penney closed 138 locations, or 14 percent of its stores, last year.
Jeffrey Roseman, vice chairman of Newmark Knight Frank’s retail brokerage division, told The Post, “The need for an eight-story, multi-hundred-thousand-square-foot department store in major cities is limited at best.”(continued)
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Where are the upper middle class people shopping these days if not Lord and Taylor or Macy’s? Don’t tell me Amazon has them too? I hate the fact my JCPenney closed last year. I dislike going inside the mall, don’t care for Walmart clothing (what little they have), Target is just a place I never think of going it’s just boring although they are surprisingly lower priced on many health and beauty items online. Tried Old Navy, they’re okay I guess but feels like mostly for the younger crowd.
Not always a hassle to return especially if you live close by to a brick and mortar. I recently purchased quite a few items during Macy’s black Friday sale (Christmas in July thing I guess?)only two items actually fit well so I went in and dumped the rest off at the store, no questions asked and quick service. Then again, the store is conveniently on my way to work.
My Walmart is okay. Had to stop in one this past weekend on the way to my uncles. He lives in a now predominantly minority (majority? See I’m confused about that now) area and the store was crowded to the max with jockeying for room up and down the aisles, darting around the little ones some of which are allowed to wander aimlessly. Not a nice experience, see I am used to doing my shopping at night. I like to avoid crowds. It’s faster and easier.
Hikes in the minimum wage are a huge contibutor to this...
There are also a lot more specialty stores, especially those that sell better women’s clothes. I buy no clothing from department stores today except hosiery, and lingerie.
The days of going to a large department store for all of your shopping are over.
Well, I get my clothing from catalogues. I’m tall and the two brands I shop don’t sell their tall sizes in bricks and mortar stores. It’s a pity. I’d buy more if they did.
“For political reasons, Hudson Bay Company just dumped Ivanka’s women’s clothing line. “
A lot of the damage to department stores, like Penny’s, and other retailers, as well as newspapers, is due to the embrace of socialism. Or, at least, social justice. I wonder what the final impact of Starbuck’s idiocy will be on the company. I won’t even buy their products when they’re on sale at Costco. But beyond annoying conservatives, when a company takes its eye off the ball to embrace some social justice utopianism, they are losing money. And, yes, snowflakes, business is about making money. The product it produces IS its contribution to the betterment of society.
I was in Saks on Saturday, June 30. Very few customers. Saks and the entire Hudson’s Bay empire will go the way of Sears and Eaton’s (The former iconic Canadian department store that closed years ago).
I buy most of my clothes from catalogs as well (same issue).
But I like to look in stores at standard sizes to see and feel fabric.
bump
I used to showroom. But my neck of the woods in Upstate NY has turned into a retail desert. It’s a one to 2 hour drive now just to showroom. I would occasionally buy clothes for fun. Now it’s such an almighty PITA, I buy only for necessity.
I was just thinking last week that, though this used to be a big deal to me a year ago, I have not been even thinking about the impact Amazon, et-al are having on brick and mortar. But in the background, the closings really are continuing and accelerating. I think it will, pretty soon, be clear that it is a hyperbolic curve and will practically fall off a cliff.
We moved from Seattle (My home of 46 years) to rural south-central Kentucky. One of the things that makes it an easy move is Amazon Prime. There is even a fulfilment center near our town. So it’s both making life almost as convenient, shopping wise, as living in a city, it is killing local business.
But I figured cities were safe. Then I found out my daughters in Seattle use it to get stuff in less than an hour, and it is huge for them because it keeps them out of the nightmarish traffic situation there.
The brick and mortar, as a staple for goods, is going the way of the buggy whip. Times change. It’s inevitable. And yes, they still make buggy whips. Just not as many per capita...
Don’t bather, Wal Mart is garbage.
Smaller specialty stores with much higher quality products and superior customer service. Yes, they are still around - you just have to to look a little harder to find them since most of the owners aren't dumb enough to pay big mall rents. :)
I do the same thing. Only order clothing from places that have a nearby store where I can return stuff. Super easy.
In Camarillo Ca there is a huge outlet mall that I shop at too. Have the stores I visit dialed in and only go to them. That’s my only physical shopping for clothing.
I get some really great buys that way. Recently bought Tommy Hilfiger bath towels from Macy’s online for $2.50 each. Before that bought Tommy Bahama bath towels from one f the majors online for the same price. Recently redid my bathroom and got rid of all my old towels so needed some bargains.
bttt
Actually, I scored on the first paragraph of this article by reading this sentence. I had hilariously mistaken the author for a journalist, since his name was listed as an author. This sentence proved otherwise, and I had to waste no more time reading further in the article. Actually, I wouldn't waste my time marveling at an Armani jacket even if it had the Armani label printed with 5 inch fluorescent red letters.
The NYC department store named “B. Altman’s” was THE best NYC department store (in my book). It was as high end as many 5th Avenue stores, but in the 1970s was located further south than most of them, at the corner of 5th Avenue and 34th Street. The builidng ran a block long on 34th street. Part of the B. Altman store building is now a Science, Business and Industry Library, and part is part of City University.
In the 1970s, you could shop at B. Altman and if they were out of an item that you were looking for a sales person would take your name and phone number and call you when the item came in. They’d even put a rush on an item for you. And all at no extra charge - just there style of service. And yes they would not lose the reminder and they would call you. They would even ask if the number was your work number or your home number, and either call you during the day at work, or in the evening at home.
With B. Altman’s you didn’t have to go way up on 5th Aveue to the 50s, and you didn’t have to put up with the mass crowds looking for bargains and lousy sales people at Macy’s and Gimbles.
B. Altman was quality, without being over the top like a Neiman Marcus.
After the founder’s death, the store was owned by a foundation Benjamin Altman set up. Part of the proceeds of the store(s) went into a charitable fund that made grants to things foundation thought were worthy and in keeping with Benjamin’s Altman’s instructions in his will. The foundation still exists and so far has given away about $250 million.
http://www.thedepartmentstoremuseum.org/2010/05/b-altman-co-new-york-city.html
Wow. You people really do live in another country.
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