How many cities still have downtown department stores?

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by McBane

Don't take it personally. Department stores are not exactly a booming industry. While the OP question is interesting, I'm curious if any new department stores are still being built these days. Downtown ones seem to be closing and it's not like anyone is building malls either.

Neiman Marcus opened a new department store in 2019 in Manhattan's Hudson Yards, but it closed in 2020 because of the pandemic.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by pdxtex

I was just a kid when Hudsons closed. I grew up in Ann Arbor and then Lansing. Both cities had a Jacobson's. The East Lansing location was a relic but it was still really fancy. Giant jewelry department, dual wrap around staircase, copper accents above the doorways. The lady in the men's department was from Denmark. Way old school.

I'm sure that Macy's still has a tight grip on the Hudson's intellectual property, but it would be cool if someone could acquire that and open a Hudson's branded department store in the new Hudson's site tower.

[homebucket]

Originally Posted by McBane

Don't take it personally. Department stores are not exactly a booming industry. While the OP question is interesting, I'm curious if any new department stores are still being built these days. Downtown ones seem to be closing and it's not like anyone is building malls either.

Yeah, I think even prior to the pandemic, brick and mortar retail was on the decline due to online shopping. Barney's and Forever 21 (formerly a Virgin Megastore) closed in SF and that was prior to the pandemic.

A&F, Gap, Marshalls, H&M, Uniqlo and DSW have all closed in the last 2 years as well.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by homebucket

Barney's and Forever 21 (formerly a Virgin Megastore) closed in SF and that was prior to the pandemic.

didn't Barney's go through a bankruptcy?

their downtown chicago store closed just before the pandemic too.

i think they had to sell off a bunch of assets to get clear.

[sopas ej]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

didn't Barney's go through a bankruptcy?

their downtown chicago store closed just before the pandemic too.

i think they had to sell off a bunch of assets to get clear.

Yeah, the Beverly Hills Barney's closed in 2020. To be honest, I'm surprised it stayed in business as long as it did; their clothes looked like effeminate old man golf clothes, something you'd see Japanese tourists wear.

[Crawford]

Barneys is one of the saddest cases.

They would probably be around, but they leased their flagship space, and had a rent arbitration hearing that they lost in 2019. The new rent was so outrageous they couldn't make it work. The flagship space provided something like 60% of their revenues, so without the flagship there was no value. To make matters worse, Barneys still exists, and remains profitable, but as a brand, not a store. You can now buy Barneys products in other luxury department stores.

And this all happened weeks before the pandemic so the arbitration "winners" (property owner) have a giant nine-floor retail space that has sat empty for a couple years.

Barneys was profitable, and different from its competitors. They intentionally sought small-scale designers and nontraditional concepts.

[Innsertnamehere]

Toronto has a Nordstrom, Hudson's Bay, which is the largest in Canada, and Sak's. The Hudson Bay and Sak's are basically one combined store though, it's sort of weird. There is also a Holt Renfrew at Yonge and Bloor, which I believe qualifies as a department store.

There were two Hudson Bays until last year when the Yonge & Bloor location closed. Now it's just the Bay in the Eaton Centre.

Nordstrom came to Canada maybe 5 years ago? It never existed here before that. Took over the old Sears space in the Eaton Centre after Sears went under. Sak's came north around the same time.

there are of course a ton more department stores around the GTA as well in all the shopping malls.

[dave8721]

Miami's old Macy's building closed in 2018 but there is a Sak's in Brickell CityCentre.

Macy's left behind a nice bleak street in its wake: https://www.google.com/maps/@25.7738...7i16384!8i8192
A Ross now occupies part of the building where Macys once stood.

[hipster duck]

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

Toronto has a Nordstrom, Hudson's Bay, which is the largest in Canada, and Sak's. The Hudson Bay and Sak's are basically one combined store though, it's sort of weird. There is also a Holt Renfrew at Yonge and Bloor, which I believe qualifies as a department store.

Holt’s is definitely a department store. Clothes, cosmetics, shoes and accessories is basically all that department stores sell these days. Maybe housewares.

I don’t think there are any mid-market department stores left in Canada except some of the old Bay stores that haven’t been renoed, and Simon’s, which is more affordable trendy with high end stuff mixed in. It’s all upscale nowadays.

[softee]

^ I wonder what will become of the space vacated by The Bay on Bloor St? The Bloor location just closed last May, not last year.

A downtown Simon's store in Toronto would be a nice addition to that area, I believe the only Simon's in the GTA now is in Mississauga's Square One Mall.

[pdxtex]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

I'm sure that Macy's still has a tight grip on the Hudson's intellectual property, but it would be cool if someone could acquire that and open a Hudson's branded department store in the new Hudson's site tower.

The downtown Gucci surprised me alot. Thats a bold move.

[Wigs]

Originally Posted by McBane

Don't take it personally. Department stores are not exactly a booming industry. While the OP question is interesting, I'm curious if any new department stores are still being built these days. Downtown ones seem to be closing and it's not like anyone is building malls either.

Nordstrom Eaton Centre - downtown Toronto, November 2016 is the last I'm aware of in Canada.
https://www.blogto.com/fashion/nords...entre-toronto/

[Wigs]

Originally Posted by softee

^ I wonder what will become of the space vacated by The Bay on Bloor St? The Bloor location just closed last May, not last year.

A downtown Simon's store in Toronto would be a nice addition to that area, I believe the only Simon's in the GTA now is in Mississauga's Square One Mall.

That's very strange. I love Simons! (when I can afford/justify clothes shopping)

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by pdxtex

The downtown Gucci surprised me alot. Thats a bold move.

I wasn't really that surprised. I would've been surprised by something more down-market like a Banana Republic lol.

[Northern Light]

Originally Posted by Wigs

Yes!
The largest one is probably (don't quote me) at the Eaton Centre in downtown Toronto. The men's department even had a working bar inside the middle of the department (pre-Covid). Generally too pricey for me but a nice addition to downtown Toronto.

The largest Nordstrom in Canada as measured by ft2 is the Vancouver flagship store in the Pacific Centre with 230,000ft2

The Eaton Centre location is Toronto's largest at 220,000ft2

****

Originally Posted by softee

^ I wonder what will become of the space vacated by The Bay on Bloor St?

This:





No department store is contemplated in the new space. Though there will be retail at grade and maybe one more floor before offices.

[montréaliste]

Originally Posted by Wigs

That must have been a sight to see. All that downtown retail!

I wonder why Nordstrom doesn't consider building a store in downtown Montreal. Surely the demographics of a 4.3M person Metro (1.8M city) are ripe enough for investment.

The thing with adding a new dept store is that there are also tons of shops integrated with the underground city. There are major
Shopping malls that fill the gaps between The Bay store, the Eaton Centre, Simons and Ogilvys. These malls are also interconnected with said dept stores. McGill Metro station is home to 3 malls and three department stores, I believe.

[mousquet]

There's still a little number of them out here in Paris.
The oldest survived anyhow, and widely specialize in high-end clothes and luxury grocery today.
Stuff like Dior, Gucci, Vuitton, Chanel and so on. Tourists love to spend their money in that kind of stuff.
These are the most historic.

Le Bon Marché, that was the earliest of all, exclusively meant for luxury goods nowadays.
Bazar de l'Hôtel de Ville, that one ain't so dedicated to luxury things. You've got pretty much anything in there, up to tools for handymen.
La Samaritaine that was renovated recently, same as Le Bon Marché.
Printemps Haussmann, kind of the same as Le Bon Marché and Samaritaine, although it's not so exclusively luxury.
Galeries Lafayette, same as Printemps Haussmann, but bigger cause the brand grew international, I believe.

Those are so old that they're like landmarks and institutions in the city. They would survive any turmoil or change.

[JManc]

Originally Posted by IluvATX

Anchorage has a somewhat large mall in the center of downtown. JCPenney is the only anchor now that Nordstrom’s closed during the pandemic.

That mall has been depressingly dead the few times I've been there.

[PhillyRising]

Originally Posted by pdxtex

Live organist?? Wow thats way old timey. Philly had a stand alone saks near downtown I found curious. Kind of neat.

It is on City Line Avenue..on the Montgomery County side.

[muertecaza]

Cool article on Phoenix's classic downtown department stores:

https://www.roguecolumnist.com/rogue...at-stores.html

Of these, the only remaining vestige is 'Hanny's.' The building was built in 1947, and survived after the department store closed to become a restaurant of the same name.