6 ms·

I think UK and US department stores are actually very very different. UK department stores generally only stock super high end designer gear, and sales / coupon

I think UK and US department stores are actually very very different. UK department stores generally only stock super high end designer gear, and sales / coupons are very very rare.

echelon_musk 2y ago
Agreed. These negative comments seem way off base to me. I wonder if they have ever been to John Lewis or Debenhams? I really miss department stores and I'm sad that they're disappearing. I have positive experiences using them.
- Fluorescence 2y ago
  The flag ship stores, the Harrods, the Harvey Nichols might fit the high-end description but the ones that have gone, the Debenhams, C&A, BHS etc. did not. A lot of the "branded" goods were more like the first OP said - just a print or a label with some credibility like Levis, Diesel, Calvin Klein, Armani but on indifferent quality stuff you would never see in a high-end store from the same brand - likely from the same factories filling up super-market own brands but at 1/5 the price. The sales were also a very big thing, especially the big dates like Boxing Day, New Years or Easter - it was a common habit to only buy clothes once a year. All those sales got gamed though, they would ship-in special tat to put on rails at 70% off for Dec 26th rather than actually discount their products and then they started before Christmas, and then from "Black Friday" and then from before "Black Friday"... Yet I still miss them too. I hate fashion/shopping but clothes are sensual, they rest against the skin for years and the difference between good and bad is materials, craftsmanship and fit whereas an online jpg of a black t-shirt and a review of "my husband says it's ok" really tells me nothing at all. I find online browsing, deliveries and returns more time-consuming and stressful than a rare shopping trip.
  - naming_the_user 2y ago
    I think that what you're describing is more like the "failure mode" of these stores - nowadays they are basically selling crap with labels, but in the 80s and 90s I don't think that was the case. It'd never be the same quality as a top end boutique of course, but it wasn't tat either. Or maybe that's just nostalgia!
  - HeatrayEnjoyer 2y ago
    Tat? Tattoo?
deleted 2y ago
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pjc50 2y ago
Does Primark count as a "department store"? TK Maxx? Or, since the closure of Debenhams and BHS, are we down to John Lewis (true archetype of the department store that sells everything), M&S, and the occasional Harvey Nicks?
- spiffotron 2y ago
  I'd class Primark etc as fast fashion stores really - in my mind department stores are Harvey Nicks and Harrods etc
  - pjc50 2y ago
    Harrods is kind of an exception as it's a single store that's always positioned itself at the very highest end of retail. It will probably outlast most other retailers so long as it retains that cachet.
nkrisc 2y ago
When I think of heyday US department stores I think of Macy’s, Sears, Carson Pirie Scott, Montgomery Ward, Nordstrom, and I’m sure offers I’m forgetting. Of course those are all either shells of their former selves or gone entirely. Macy’s might have been the last high end department store in the US (that I’m aware of), but even 10 years ago going into their flagship Chicago location felt like walking into a K-Mart. I don’t know if I’d consider stores like Saks to truly be department stores.
- booleandilemma 2y ago
  The Macy's at 34th street in NYC is the flagship and it's still going strong. I went last week, lots of nice stuff.
  - nkrisc 2y ago
    That’s good to hear. The impression I get is that Macy’s outside of NYC is basically gone, in spirit if not physically. It’s a shame because they took over the Marshall Field building in Chicago (another department store I forgot to mention) which is a gorgeous historic building, so it was kind of nice when Macy’s moved in and fixed it up. Last time I was there it felt like a last-mile warehouse for their online delivery business. Same thing happened to the State St. Sears store just a block away.
- AmVess 2y ago
  These are gone from many markets due to the race to the bottom. They cut the quality out of clothes so they could make more per item without paying attention to the simple fact that quality is what brought people into the store. At the end, they all sold the same junk sourced from the same places, but with different labels sewn into them. Consumers saw no value in paying a lot extra for something they could get for a lot less somewhere else. Thus, department stores outside of big cities vanished. The same thing happened to malls. They used to be full of locally owned businesses that offered a variety of goods. Now, they are all the same handful of stores selling the same things you can get for a lot less online. Even worse, nearly all of them offer a low rent experience because there are only a handful of stores left operating in each one. Seeing a building full of dark and closed stores screams economic decay. Who wants that experience?
arethuza 2y ago
"only stock super high end designer gear" I don't think that applied to BHS or Debenhams - both long gone though....
deleted 2y ago
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colechristensen 2y ago
In major US cities, there is sometimes one department store that meets this qualification, like San Francisco, Chicago, or New York, but even those are in decline. >super high end designer gear In theory this is what they're trying to project, but what it actually is around here is designers who were high end decades ago who have since dumped their quality and started selling to K-Mart. First you start selling to the rich, then you start selling to teenagers, then you put your label on anything hoping the symbol has some small value left.

I think UK and US department stores are actually very very different. UK department stores generally only stock super high end designer gear, and sales / coupons are very very rare.

echelon_musk 2y ago

Agreed. These negative comments seem way off base to me. I wonder if they have ever been to John Lewis or Debenhams? I really miss department stores and I'm sad that they're disappearing. I have positive experiences using them.

Fluorescence 2y ago
The flag ship stores, the Harrods, the Harvey Nichols might fit the high-end description but the ones that have gone, the Debenhams, C&A, BHS etc. did not. A lot of the "branded" goods were more like the first OP said - just a print or a label with some credibility like Levis, Diesel, Calvin Klein, Armani but on indifferent quality stuff you would never see in a high-end store from the same brand - likely from the same factories filling up super-market own brands but at 1/5 the price. The sales were also a very big thing, especially the big dates like Boxing Day, New Years or Easter - it was a common habit to only buy clothes once a year. All those sales got gamed though, they would ship-in special tat to put on rails at 70% off for Dec 26th rather than actually discount their products and then they started before Christmas, and then from "Black Friday" and then from before "Black Friday"... Yet I still miss them too. I hate fashion/shopping but clothes are sensual, they rest against the skin for years and the difference between good and bad is materials, craftsmanship and fit whereas an online jpg of a black t-shirt and a review of "my husband says it's ok" really tells me nothing at all. I find online browsing, deliveries and returns more time-consuming and stressful than a rare shopping trip.
- naming_the_user 2y ago
  I think that what you're describing is more like the "failure mode" of these stores - nowadays they are basically selling crap with labels, but in the 80s and 90s I don't think that was the case. It'd never be the same quality as a top end boutique of course, but it wasn't tat either. Or maybe that's just nostalgia!
- HeatrayEnjoyer 2y ago
  Tat? Tattoo?

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

pjc50 2y ago

Does Primark count as a "department store"? TK Maxx? Or, since the closure of Debenhams and BHS, are we down to John Lewis (true archetype of the department store that sells everything), M&S, and the occasional Harvey Nicks?

spiffotron 2y ago
I'd class Primark etc as fast fashion stores really - in my mind department stores are Harvey Nicks and Harrods etc
- pjc50 2y ago
  Harrods is kind of an exception as it's a single store that's always positioned itself at the very highest end of retail. It will probably outlast most other retailers so long as it retains that cachet.

nkrisc 2y ago

When I think of heyday US department stores I think of Macy’s, Sears, Carson Pirie Scott, Montgomery Ward, Nordstrom, and I’m sure offers I’m forgetting. Of course those are all either shells of their former selves or gone entirely. Macy’s might have been the last high end department store in the US (that I’m aware of), but even 10 years ago going into their flagship Chicago location felt like walking into a K-Mart. I don’t know if I’d consider stores like Saks to truly be department stores.

booleandilemma 2y ago
The Macy's at 34th street in NYC is the flagship and it's still going strong. I went last week, lots of nice stuff.
- nkrisc 2y ago
  That’s good to hear. The impression I get is that Macy’s outside of NYC is basically gone, in spirit if not physically. It’s a shame because they took over the Marshall Field building in Chicago (another department store I forgot to mention) which is a gorgeous historic building, so it was kind of nice when Macy’s moved in and fixed it up. Last time I was there it felt like a last-mile warehouse for their online delivery business. Same thing happened to the State St. Sears store just a block away.
AmVess 2y ago
These are gone from many markets due to the race to the bottom. They cut the quality out of clothes so they could make more per item without paying attention to the simple fact that quality is what brought people into the store. At the end, they all sold the same junk sourced from the same places, but with different labels sewn into them. Consumers saw no value in paying a lot extra for something they could get for a lot less somewhere else. Thus, department stores outside of big cities vanished. The same thing happened to malls. They used to be full of locally owned businesses that offered a variety of goods. Now, they are all the same handful of stores selling the same things you can get for a lot less online. Even worse, nearly all of them offer a low rent experience because there are only a handful of stores left operating in each one. Seeing a building full of dark and closed stores screams economic decay. Who wants that experience?

arethuza 2y ago

"only stock super high end designer gear" I don't think that applied to BHS or Debenhams - both long gone though....

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

colechristensen 2y ago

In major US cities, there is sometimes one department store that meets this qualification, like San Francisco, Chicago, or New York, but even those are in decline. >super high end designer gear In theory this is what they're trying to project, but what it actually is around here is designers who were high end decades ago who have since dumped their quality and started selling to K-Mart. First you start selling to the rich, then you start selling to teenagers, then you put your label on anything hoping the symbol has some small value left.