In a thoughtful and exhaustive consideration of the luxury department store concept as a whole -- brought into start relief by the looming and troubled bankruptcy of legacy player Saks Global -- Forbes contributor Kate Hardcastle made several distinctive claims.
The first was, what (and more pertinently, who) is the department store of today actually for? Outlining that the luxury department store used to reduce customer risk (by serving as a pre-approval stamp of what is en vogue); create identity at speed (letting customers "assemble who you are, across brands, in one afternoon"); and made service part of the product (via "the fitting room, the alterations desk, the sales associate who remembers your taste, the subtle choreography of being looked after"); Hardcastle contrasted this ideal which the negative experience she'd endured most recently in a similarly designated space.
"On January 14th, 2025, I headed to Saks on Fifth Avenue for a Helmut Lang skirt, and I watched the department store problem play out in miniature," she began.
"A simple purchase should have been quick. Instead, it became a slow drift of waiting, scanning, hoping someone would notice. Nearly 40 minutes passed before help for a size (that technology has already pricked my appetite for) arrived. When the sale finally happened, it landed without warmth. No sense of being known. No sense of being welcomed. The product was fine. The experience was so very flat. For me, this is the moment that service breaks, when as a customer, I begin to ask a dangerous question: 'If I’m doing the work, why am I here?'" she added.
Luxury Retail Was Always About the Experience -- But the Theme Has Changed
Hardcastle pivoted to note that luxury had moved away, at least temporarily, from the traditional department store to occupy places such as hotels playing at being art galleries, restaurants that put ambiance on equal footing with the food, and airport venues which curated their clientele as carefully as the fashions and accessories they were aiming to sell.
"The consumer has discovered that pleasure can be purchased without a till in sight. Brands have noticed. They are building experiences before they build stores: exhibitions, residencies, collaborations with chefs and architects, temporary worlds that feel closer to travel than to retail. The goal is not simply to sell an object but to occupy memory," the Forbes contributor wrote.
She underscored strong and proven examples such as Bag Harbour Shops in Miami and Highland Park Village in Dallas as emblematic of this sea-change in luxury retail, alongside Market Street (The Woodlands, Texas). The latter district boasts over 90% occupancy, pulls in more than $300 million in yearly tenant sales, and plays host to such big names as Gucii, Yves Saint Laurent, LoveShackFancy, and Vuori -- and shoppers are "treated as guests, rather than footfall."
Do We Need Luxury Department Stores in 2026 and Beyond?
Finally, Hardcastle suggested that the old and now-tired model of the traditional luxury department store was obsolete, and those that survive will become a "luxury operating system" where brand curation is paramount, the level of service provided invokes instant trust from shoppers, and not a second of customer time is considered wasted.
"Saks is the cautionary tale because it has become the loudest version of a quiet truth: luxury doesn’t collapse when consumers stop wanting beautiful things. Luxury collapses when consumers stop believing the experience is worth the effort," Hardcastle concluded.