I come by my love of department stores honestly.
Growing up, my mom and I would stop at Barney’s after doctor’s appointments and peruse through Bloomingdale’s on the way to the 6 train in its basement. I tried on prom dresses at Neiman Marcus and wedding dresses at Bergdorf Goodman.
Saks Fifth Avenue, which my own mother called the mothership, was the most magnetic of them all.
For over a century, Saks Fifth Avenue has epitomized the quintessential luxury American department store. Christmas displays, a bustling main floor, and a shoe department so large it literally had its own ZIP code (10022-SHOE).
Late Tuesday night, Saks Global — the parent company of Saks Fifth Avenue, Bergdorf Goodman, and Neiman Marcus — filed for bankruptcy in Texas. The news came after more than a year of missing payments to vendors and piling on precarious debt. Saks owes hundreds of millions of dollars to creditors, and debt analysts and fashion insiders that Business Insider has spoken with have said to expect store closures and layoffs.
The Saks that I visited earlier that Tuesday was decidedly not the mothership of my childhood, and whatever energy that allowed it to outlast so many other greats, from Bendel’s to Barney’s, was missing.
The store’s blacked-out window displays, which were being changed out after the holiday season, were foreboding.
“Creative installation in progress,” a sign said.
Indeed, my visit showed me Saks could use a creative refresh.
Saks declined to comment on this story.
An uninviting welcome
Saks’ main floor lost some of its charm in 2019, when its warm, dramatic design was replaced with a characterless one, marked by the cold white modernism and LED screens of an upscale shopping mall.
On Tuesday afternoon, during my hour at the store, that openness felt sterile. It would have been nearly empty if not for the few dozen salespeople milling about, looking bored and checking their cellphones. As I walked around the vast floor, I saw two women seriously considering purses — one eyed a Balenciaga, the other a Saint Laurent. Another made a purchase.
The redesign relocated accessible beauty products from the main floor and replaced them with handbags — most of which cost four figures and are a luxury house’s crown jewel, financially. The shift is indicative of a larger shift for the retailer. It’s increasingly a place for only the wealthiest consumers, with the top 3% of customers, those who spend more than $10,000 a year at Saks Global, generating about 40% of the company’s gross merchandise value, according to bankruptcy documents.
A flagship without foot traffic
Making my way up the store’s 10 floors was more of the same, with salespeople outnumbering customers and very few people actually swiping credit cards.
I was approached once during my hour at the store to ask if I needed any help.
In the beauty department, where brand representatives used to hawk products and entice you with spritzes of perfume, a salesperson was trying on shades of lipstick; most customers were barely browsing and instead taking advantage of the free Aesop hand cream.
The designer boutiques that line the walls of the highest-end clothing floors — Prada, Louis Vuitton, and the like — had few shoppers, despite Saks, in its bankruptcy filing, saying that sales from these shop-in-shops have “remained comparatively robust.”
The most crowded area on the main floor was the Chanel boutique. (Saks owes Chanel more than $135 million, per its bankruptcy petition.)
The sale racks, boasting markdowns of up to 75%, attracted a handful of bargain hunters, who picked through last season’s leftovers.
While January is typically a slow month for retailers, foot traffic across Saks locations declined nearly every month in 2025 compared to 2024, according to estimates from Placer.ai. Last month, the most recent for which data is available, it fell 4% from 2024. Its competitor, Bloomingdale’s, saw a decline of less than 1%, year-over-year, that same month.
“Would opening a Starbucks help?” I overheard one sales associate say, chatting to her coworkers about how empty the floor was. It could improve foot traffic, but hurt Sak’s luxury appeal, another said.
I asked them about the lack of customers. It had been this empty, they said.
A slow start to spring
Part of the problem, according to Saks, is a lack of inventory. For over a year, Saks has struggled to pay vendors. Some have withheld inventory, leading to a decline in Saks’ sales and creating a cyclical pattern.
Despite the time of year, there appeared to be very few items that screamed spring other than a display of Dolce & Gabbana sandals and some Zimmerman dresses. Instead, I noticed items from the months-old fall and winter collections of brands like Dôen and Cinq à Sept displayed prominently.
A salesperson told me spring inventory was coming in, though very slowly. In another corner of the store, merchandisers tried to work around inventory issues, ensuring there were enough of any particular SKU in stock before displaying it prominently.
The only place I saw a line was the café on the store’s fifth floor, a utilitarian chain named Honeybrains that lacks the vintage charm of Bloomingdale’s’ Forty Carrots, with its famous froyo, or the chicness of Barney’s Freds. However, Saks’ fancier dining option, L’Avenue, also remains a draw.
Still, as I sat down with my muffin to take some notes, I noticed a few fellow patrons with shopping bags. Maybe I was finishing my visit on a high note.
Now that the bankruptcy is filed, better days may soon be on the horizon for the once-great retailer.
“Some brands will start shipping very soon,” Gary Wassner, the CEO of Hilldun Corp, a sort of guarantor for more than 140 of Saks’ vendors, told me after the bankruptcy was filed. He was up all night talking to brands and lawyers, in hopes that he could start okaying inventory shipments. “I would expect, within two to four weeks, the shelves will look very different.”
I, for one, will be returning to the mothership — and I hope it is soon a little bit more like the Saks I remember.
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