Sounds like Saks is refocusing on its high end, and upscale strength. Makes sense to sell the middle of the road operations, and focus on the growing upper end of the “luxury” business.

I would have to say the most successful acquisition was Walgreens buyout of the Medi-Marts in the Northeast, and Ribordy’s in Northwest Indiana in 1986 would have to be a very unknown success story in my opinion. Walgreens quickly acquired the stores and integrated them into power house stores and retained their customer base and employees. They converted dowdy old stores into modern Walgreens stores. Now the leases on these stores are running out and Walgreens is relocating them to freestanding, thus becoming extremely profitable.

The most unsuccessful acquisition has to be Safeway’s buying of Dominick’s, Geraldi’s and Randall’s, especially Dominick’s; with which they have ruined everything from lighting, to store decor, to product selection.

On Tuesday we read and commented on Saks’ upscale vision for the future. Sounds like things may have changed over the past few days.

The constant churning of ownership of many department store chains no doubt contributes to the continued decline of the channel. I think in 5-10 years, we’ll look back at Federated’s acquisition of May Company as a failure, especially if they implement their plan to turn May’s regional chains, who are known for something, into Macy’s, which I see as a fading brand. Rumored conversion of Lord and Taylor stores into Bloomingdale’s makes no sense to me either. You’d think the department store channel would look over the fence at supermarkets and learn from Safeway’s missteps in this area.

I see the sale of the Saks regional department stores as a great step and long overdue. They need a new owner who is dedicated and has a vision. I noticed that Carson Pirie Scott under Saks was starting to deteriorate more than when Bergner’s purchased Carson Pirie Scott in the early 90s. Merchandising (visually) is poor, they are behind on fashion trends and some stores are not kept up well. Has anyone been into one of Saks regional stores? Merchandise is severely crammed, disorganized and it’s hard walking through aisles. Most importantly, Carson’s lacks integrity: how can you merchandise a $19.99 American Flyer luggage right next to a $550 piece from Tumi or have a $9.99 Consensus polo being sold next to a $79.50 Ralph Lauren piece? I’m confused, do you want to be in the same category as Kmart or Marshall Field’s? I’m so glad stores like Marshall Field’s (it’s longtime rival) doesn’t do things like that. I was raised on Carson’s, but as years went by, a lot of customers started to… Read more »