Sales at department stores were down 7.2 percent in November and December, according to the U.S. Commerce Department. The channel, which once represented the best of retailing, has stumbled for many years now as a wide variety of online and physical store competitors have done a better job meeting the needs of consumers. Some believe that department stores need to return to their roots to become a destination for shoppers once again. “Were major department stores to focus on what makes the store magical from the windows to the upper floors, they could get the business back,” Burt Flickinger, managing director of Strategic Resource Group, told The Wall Street Journal.