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Comment by Multicomp | Hacker News Reader

This may be off topic, not sure, but will go for it since not a lot of discussion yet.

I've never even heard of this company. Perhaps I'm just part of the unwashed masses? I know Dillard's, Neiman Marcus, Sachs Fifth Ave, ummm and that's about it from the perspective of my layman's understanding of department stores.

If this company has never managed to inform me of its name over the decades I have been alive and browsing online, perhaps this bankruptcy is not as huge as surprised as one might think poor marketing, poor awareness, poor sales...?

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It's a luxury store, with its most recent surviving locations in upscale downtown shopping avenues or tony suburbs, on the east coast & midwest. If you're not in those cities and target market, it's not surprising, but many would recognize them as a peer of Neiman Marcus (also in bankruptcy this year) & Saks Fifth Avenue (on brink of bankruptcy).

As you've misspelled 'Sachs' & didn't even mention the paragon of American department stores, Macy's, I'm guessing you're of a generation or region where they've been far less important. But before Amazon, & before the WalMarts & Targets, retailers like Macy's (brink of bankruptcy), Sears (bankrupt 2018), & JC Penney (bankrupt this year) were giants of retail through the mall era.

It's worth watching Are you being served? (it's a comedy from the 70s available on BritBox). American department stores are not socially the same as the fictional Grace Brothers, but the idea for the store is pretty much the same.

Maybe you passed right by it without knowing.

My wife once told me to meet her "in front of Lord and Taylor's". I had no idea these scribbles were words and got lost: https://www.ladyandtheblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/lo...

I think it's more like a JC Penney or Macy's (neither of which you listed)? Or maybe those are all the same thing but I'm not acquainted with the ones you listed.

I've seen them in shopping malls in the northeast but never gone in.

AFAICT, department stores never really carry anything that I would want to buy. If the number of people who feel as I do is increasing, then perhaps all the other dept store chains are close behind.

I think it was more Bonwit Teller / Altman's than mass appeal Macy's or working class JCP. Old school 5th Ave.

What kind of things do you buy? Department stores carried pretty much everything except Rx. Clothing, furniture, appliances, bedding, tools, etc. Maybe it was a style difference, but to say they carried anything that you'd want to buy seems hyperbolic.

Lord and Taylor is well-known to anyone from the DC area but not necessarily if you're from the South. At the same time, some people from the Mid-Atlantic aren't familiar with Dillard's.

Ah, that must be why. I was going to say, I spent many a bored hour in Lord & Taylor after being dragged there by my mom :)

In its prime it was high-end, and was probably about 75% women's items and 25% mens. I enjoyed shopping there, but you have to be the type of person who looks good and fits into higher-end clothing.

I'm wondering if the massive obesity problem in the United States has also contributed to this problem. People who don't really fit well in to clothes probably don't want to spend a lot of money on them because it's humiliating/degrading to shop for them.

Also, Lord and Taylor was great for office appropriate and business casual clothing. With people working from home, I'm sure a huge part of their demand cratered.

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