Department stores used to rule the retail world...but that was a long time ago. Today, collectively they represent perhaps 2 percent of overall retail sales, and some of the companies in the channel continue to struggle to find their place in the business.
Yet, over the past few weeks, two department store retailers -- one that’s been around for more than a century and one that has just opened its first store in America -- have been getting a lot of attention, proving that the format remains of interest to consumers.
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Here in Dallas, the drama surrounding the fate of the downtown Neiman Marcus flagship under its new Saks Global ownership has had many twists and turns but for now it seems the store has been given a short-term reprieve and will remain open through at least the end of the year. That’s good news for loyal shoppers who continue to treat their visits to the Main Street location almost as a pilgrimage or perhaps a rite of passage. The hope is that they will continue to not only visit, but shop and buy at the store -- in addition to lunch at the Zodiac Room.
More than 1,500 miles away, the long-time French department store Printemps has opened its first foray onto American soil on Manhattan’s Wall Street. It chose a historic former bank building with a glorious interior and has outfitted it with five restaurants and bars, a focus on women’s wear and fashion accessories as well as beauty and fragrances. Printemps has gone to great lengths to say this is not a department store, and while some compare it to the late, lamented Barney’s, it does have many of the hallmarks of the department store format. Whatever it’s called, shoppers have turned out over its first few weeks, though we hear there’s more gawkers than people actually making purchases.
For these two stores the department store remains alive and well even if its long-term viability is still a great unknown.