Light dims for department store icons
For more than a century, department stores have been all the rage. Now, the likes of Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s and Saks Fifth Avenue are facing an unprecedented assault from online shopping
Walking through the Bloomingdale’s cosmetics department on 59th Street in New York, you wouldn’t guess that department stores around the world are having a rough time. Even in SA, 159-year-old department store Stuttafords is winding up. But Bloomingdale’s is buzzing. Women stop to look at cosmetics. Some are having makeovers. There are women looking at handbags in adjacent departments and shoppers trying on pieces in the jewellery section. It’s much the same at Macy’s flagship department store on 34th Street, and at Barneys and Saks Fifth Avenue.But there is something that nags at you: many of those women are particularly well-groomed and not particularly young. And though many are browsing, they aren’t lining up at the tills or leaving with many bags. And that’s the thing. Younger shoppers have different habits. Millennials want more interaction. Stand-alone beauty brands in the US like Ulta Beauty are taking market share from cosmetics counters in big department stores. There, sho...
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