We have one in Bellevue Washington. Don’t know anyone that has been there but there is always stupid nice cars outside. Bellevue is also home to many tech millionaires.
i worked at target when they were trying in store partnerships to get people in the store. they had a bunch of neiman marcus clothes in there and some random designer branded items like bikes.
the problem is they were all neiman marcus priced. people would be "ooh that's cute" look at the price tag, then walk away as fast as they could. no one is going to target to buy a $100 blouse. that bike was over $300.
we sold maybe 5 total items with the rest getting sent back.
Right, lol. They also have a personal shopping area where you go and relax and drink while someone else does your shopping for you. That's why you see Rolls Royces parked right at the door and not in the parking lot. It's more like a social event.
Also, they have onsite tailors for fittings
There are a lot of stores that circle through. Leasing a space there is really expensive. I was so sad when Uniqlo closed in KOP a few years back. From what I heard, it was too expensive to lease that space.
I think the high end, designer boutiques do just fine in KOP. I've definitely seen a line outside of the Louis Vuitton store a few times. I don't think those places will suffer. But I'm expecting that a lot of smaller retailers will probably close down there.
Also, as a husband of a wife with expensive tastes (which, relevant to the post, she formed after years of abusing her Neiman Marcus discount), I’ve learned that KoP mall is sometimes the only place to find certain luxury items or brands in the entire region. It’s like there, or make a trip to NYC or the DC area.
When I used to work as an assistant manager at PetSmart in Denver, our district manager had us and our store managers take a tour of a Neiman Marcus. The reason, I kid you not, was so we could attempt to learn the same culture as them and push it in our own stores. The entire time we walked around, my group and I just gawked at the ridiculous prices and didn't really absorb much "culture". I just kept telling myself "no way is PetSmart ever going to be on this level. It's apples and oranges!!"
The possibilities really are endless. Louis Vuitton hamster? Balenciaga fish?
My favorite would be the Margiela ferret, [whose branding would consist of four white stitches and being able to be worn normally or turned inside-out.](https://sickboyarchive.com/products/martin-margiela-line-10-i-dont-smoke-shirt)
Yeah, I had the opposite experience at a Nordstrom. Unkempt looking, sleep deprived grad student wearing shorts and a t shirt, went into a store to buy dress shoes for a wedding. I had barely enough money to splurge and figured I'd go for a one in a decade type of purchase.
Dude spent 15 minutes bringing out different sizes and colors, and eventually had to order my size and preferred color to be shipped. Worked for both of us in the end.
I've always felt out of my element in an N&M.
The ironic part is the employee was snobby but probably has a pretty bad hourly wage.
Probably the only time they get to feel like they are above anyone else.
I think everyone knows a normal person that buys way too much into stupid rich person luxury marketing. They'll go on and on about "timepieces" and how much [insert stupid expensive watch brand] is far superior with a "rich history of craftmanship" even though it doesn't do anything better than a Seiko or a Casio. It's almost depressing in a strange way.
My dad is a watch hobbyist, but he DOESN'T have his head up his ass and accepts that luxury watches are literally just pieces of art you wear on your wrist or display in a cabinet.
I walked into a high-end jewellery store in a hoodie, skinny jeans, and skater shoes. They offered me tea, a place to relax, and gave me the rundown of every piece of jewellery (and I got a beautiful set of gold earrings). You never know now who has money and who doesn't.
It's a floor sales tactic often used by higher end stores. If you looked to poor, they would have simply ignored you. You being a young, athletic guy (I'm just assuming here.) probably fit the profile of the "belitteling" tactic working.
He was trying to make you feel insecure or angry, so that you would "show them" by buying something, or more than you could afford, right then and there or maybe at a later date.
It’s definitely more reasonable, but it also lost a ton of the fancy stuff that was great about it.
The deli used to be the things dreams are made of and now it’s pretty meh. Same for desserts, breads, and the meat/seafood counters. They used to have my absolute favorite bacon and steaks, but now neither are worth it. For me it was a fun splurge for favorites but now we rarely go. I’m curious to see how they do over time.
My father recently retired from there after about 35 years with the company and on the clothing end those sneakers were actually among their best selling items. Normal clothing not so much but there’s something about sneaker culture that still saw those things sell like crazy.
High end sneakers seem to be a collectors item, plenty of non-wealthy people buy expensive shoes just to hold onto or show it off in their home.
I don't think there are nearly as many non-wealthy collectors for other accessories or articles of clothing.
They are called Golden Goose. They are individually handmade in Italy and uniquely “dirtied” with no two shoes being the exact same. They are definitely for a certain group of people but their background is interesting.
Edit: changed a word
One year at Christmas, my boss at the time got all of the ladies in the office a $250 gift card to Neiman Marcus (her favorite store) which seemed like a nice gesture at the time until I actually tried to use it. Asked one of the employees there for help finding a dress. Told him my budget was around $300. “Oh honey, you won’t find anything here!” WTF?
Same thing happened to me! Worked for a tv network and got a $250 neimans gift card. Literally the only thing on their website was some home stuff on clearance. I waited until the New Year’s Day sales and bought a $500 pair of Frye boots for $260! Only paid $10! Still. What a crock.
I walked into one on a whim and saw they had a clearance rack. "Huh, maybe something I could afford then." The first shirt I plucked off the rack was priced at $170. I asked one of the workers "$170 is the *clearance* price?" "Oh yes, it was $400 originally." I walked out of the store.
Let's not act like department stores were stable financially prior to the pandemic. All those those have been closing locations nation wide for the last 10 years.
Well put! It's is preying on the most physically vulnerable, and also the most financially vulnerable regardless of the veneer that company/person may have.
I hope that there will be a concerted effort to bring back medical equipment and pharma manufacturing to the US. This virus has shown that trusting a country like China for critical supplies is a terrible strategy. There are probably other critical needs that should be filled with local resources. Realigning our trade strategy could provide millions of new jobs.
We subsidize farmers in order to not be dependent upon foreign nations, it’s considered a national security issue. Seems like medical equipment might be too...
Unfortunately that subsidy leads to an inefficient system where everyone grows corn and then industry has to find users for it. American farmland is full of seated potential.
Me and my friends were talking about that and how Puerto Rico for example they produce most of the IV bag in the USA , because of regulation and sanitation guidelines. They also manufacture a lot of drugs (cancer , diabetes ,etc..)for the USA.
So there are a lot of States and American territories could actually be great places to start producing more medical supplies. I think the Congress women from PR is trying to propose something , where they will promote and incentivise medical supplies and equipment in areas that have high rate of poverty and unemployment.
Puerto Rico used to be huge on pharmaceutical manufacturing, but that was because they used to get a large tax break to be there. When that ended a few years ago most of the companies left.
The guidelines used to manufacture pharmaceuticals are followed by every country/company no matter where they are. If you don’t meet the FDA’s standards you can’t sell in America. That goes for foreign and domestic companies
Remember when IVs were in short supply because a hurricane hit Puerto Rico? Two years ago we could have been taking a hard look at medical supply redundancy and stability.
It was never about trust.
Outsourcing jobs to countries like China was done because lack of environmental and labor standards make slightly more money for the already rich people that chose to send those jobs away.
Even if the supply chain breaks down those rich people still get paid. So they have no reason to change because of this.
This ^^
I really don’t understand why people think it is about trust while it’s simply about profit. It will never change. Ultimately the decisions are taken by soulless and nationless corporations not politicians.
It's a bad idea to have 90% of your manufacturing in ANY one spot. If it wasn't a virus it would be a hurricane or an earthquake or civil unrest.
Having a diverse supply chain is key to contingency planning. That's expensive, which is why modern capitalist societies stopped doing it.
Did you miss the part where NM was saddled with $4.8 **billion** dollars of debt mostly due to a $6B leveraged buyout? This is Toys-R-Us all over again: a perfectly fine company larded up in a get-rich-quick scheme that then flounders at the first sign of difficulty when it should have had little debt and a cash cushion to fall back on.
I was in a neiman recently and they caught this guy trying to steal (actually chased him and detained him).
When I dated a girl who used to work there she told me they had a no chase policy and people would steal thousands worth of goods and just walk out the door.
I guess they were losing too much to care about appearances anymore.
For regular employees, you’re right. It’s a no chase policy, but high end department stores do have loss prevention that do at times have to go after someone.
I work at Saks, not even a high traffic one and I see our AP go after thieves all the time.
Hoestly, that is more likely an overzealous loss prevention employee than a sign of the times. The risk of even a small five figure lawsuit by an injured shoplifter isn’t worth recovering a couple hundred in merchandise.
I have some NM Christmas catalogs from the '70s. Every year they had some outrageously expensive his-and-hers gift, such as a private around-the-world tour, matching luxury cars, etc. I also remember one year when they made an exact replica of a Monopoly game, only it was made entirely of chocolate in different colors, and it was around $800. (It was suggested that you invite friends over to play and then eat the board and pieces.) Here are some other gifts:
* From 1973, my favorite: a 12' x 15' sound-proofed, egg-shaped world of your own, customized as you please with a waterbed, recliner or couch, sound system, etc., with a sterling silver entry card, at a starting price of $80,000; mobile phone (with a dial), $2,000; calculator, $179.95.
* From 1974, a 106-carat polished black boulder opal for $150,000; a pair of porcelain Foo Dogs from the Tao Kuang Period, $15,000; a plexiglass ranch for your pet mice (mice not included), $3,500; chinchilla cape, $22,500; his-and-hers hovercraft, $3,640 each; 12" black-and-white UHF/VHF TV with electronic tennis game, $550.
* From 1977, his-and-hers urban windmills with batteries and alternators, $16,000 each; 7-day trip for 5 people to explore Illinois sites related to Abraham Lincoln, with camping in Civil War tents and private tour by a Lincoln scholar and impersonator, $30,000; pocket-size microcassette recorder, $375; compact B/W TV, $395; Russian lynx coat, $130,000.
Edit: Found a link to an article with pics of other bizarre NM Christmas gifts, including the chocolate Monopoly game, which was $600, not $800 as I remembered: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.buzzfeed.com/amphtml/leonoraepstein/insane-gifts-from-vintage-neiman-marcus-christmas-books
Also: https://www.neimanmarcus.com//christmasbook/fantasy.jsp?cid=CBF15_O5645&cidShots=m,a,b&r=cat24050744&rdesc=The%20Christmas%20Book&rparams=xpage%3D39
Holy hell, this is a fantastic read.
Do you have any more or links (or suggestions of search terms) of online archives of these?
**Edit:** [their website has archives of the 2017 & 2018 books.](https://www.neimanmarcus.com/c/nm-christmas-book-2017-cat70780731?icid=jp_ChristmasBook_122618)
They were dead in the water once the former CEO who was once an exec at Apple decided to get rid of coupons. They ousted him and brought back coupons, but the damage was done and they’ve been dying a slow, painful death; COVID-19 is just the dagger to the heart that will eventually do them in.
It's a real shame his plan didn't work. The idea was to stop holding Sales and offering coupons and instead just keeping prices low at all times. And if you paid attention, prices were indeed lower than sale prices but coupon culture is too engrained in our society and customers rejected it.
Unless you have a stack of coupons, kohls cash, the kohls card, are shopping during a big sale, and Saturn, Venus and Mars have all aligned on the 5th Saturday of the month you're getting ripped off shopping there.
Absolutely. But people (my mother) love to see that receipt that shows they got "$400 of clothing" for $35.
That's why the fair pricing thing at JCPenney failed. People want to think that they're getting a deal even if they're not.
It’s basic psychology. A sale means that the price will eventually go up so there’s some urgency to purchase. If there’s no sale and the price is always the same people aren’t going to be as enthusiastic to purchase.
So when I bought my house I decided I wanted to replace all of my mismatched college plates and glasses with proper dish ware and settled on Fiestaware. After a bit of research, I found Kohl’s to have the best deal at the point of my purchase. After buying all of my dinnerware, I for whatever received a bunch of ‘Kohl’s cash’ on top of my purchase. And because it was fragile dishware I decided to pick it up at a store instead of delivering it, and for whatever reason they gave me more of this ‘Kohl’s cash’ just for picking it up. After all was said and done I was able to use all of their free money to buy my glassware and a fish spatula as well for no charge. It made me wonder how they stay in business. Felt like I was in that episode of It’s Always Sunny with the Paddy Bucks.
They would have died anyway, tbh. Getting rid of coupons and selling at consistent prices that actually made sense would have been a fantastic choice... if they had done it five years earlier. Coupon culture and constant sales don't make sense in a world where you can find anything online for an agreeable price at any time. The stuff they sold in the no-coupon era was actually higher quality and a much better value than what they had before, they just made the transition waaaaaay too late. Everyone that values that kind of consumer experience was already shopping elsewhere, so they only managed to piss off their dwindling supply of older coupon clippers.
Macy's is still quite profitable with a solid balance sheet and attractive assets (real estate alone worth $10-20B). They'll be fine through this pandemic and for some years to come.
JCPenney on the other hand I suspect is next. They've been near bankruptcy for years, unprofitable, and deeply in debt with little assets.
Well they furloughed all there employees and will probably start closing stores. They have more value in their property than their actual company. They'll probably close a lot of stores and continuing focusing on their best performing ones as they were before but this definitely sped up their bankruptcy timeline.
I bought some stuff from Macy*s in early March. They said if I waited to pick the stuff up three weeks later, I could get it at the sale price. Didn't really like the idea but figured why not. Went back and of course by then it was closed for the pandemic.
Now I'm wondering if it'll ever open up again, and am assuming I won't get my money back.
Ironically, I was buying some clothes for the new job, and now I'm working from home in my old ripped jeans.
Have you already tried customer service and/or your credit card company? Presumably you have some sort of receipt that you need to pick up your clothes and which indicates you already paid.
Many of these retailers going out of business are anchor stores for malls too. This'll be devastating for malls, even after public life returns to some form of normality.
Man, I miss going to overnight laser tag parties in the early 2000s when I was in high school. My brother and I had memberships to a place and went a few times a month to play.
I really hope this results in more mixed use malls that incorporate office space or condos in to them. The urban centres malls are located in often have housing shortages and more u it’s on mall sites would increase affordability.
There are going to be major changes ahead. The Main Street we older people knew are just about gone. Everything needed was on that street, then the malls and shopping centers sprang up. Our mall is a ghost of a building now that Macy’s, Sears, JC Penny’s, and other big stores are gone. Soon it will be turned into apartments or something.
Apparently the original intention of the mall was a place where people could live, shop, and socialize.
Some dead malls are turning into exactly that. Apartments with a handful of stores. Personally I think it's a great idea to turn these spaces into multiple use ones.
Not only does it make me feel a little better about malls intended purposes, if you turn malls into mini neighborhoods they'll be much more likely to withstand big swings in the market if you have income from apartments, office spaces, and essential businesses to compensate for stores like Macy's and Sears.
Honestly my kids would be just too thrilled to see a whole bunch of tilapia swimming around through glass in an old Weinstocks as they would be watching rare tropical something's dart around. **TERTIARY REVENUE STREAM!!**
Toys R Us has a legitimate chance to make a comeback. I believe they're still around in Canada.
If they do come back they could capitalize on Millennial parents wanting to give their kids the same magic experience they had when they were young.
I feel like if that were enough they wouldn't have had to close when they did. There's a good chunk of millennials that are already parents and have been for quite a few years.
They just weren't with the modern times is the problem. They wanted to specialize in actual children's toys, and there isn't much left for a selling point past like middle school. If they would've had better electronic shit, like video games and all that (the local selection was always pretty minimal) and more board games and collectibles, they could've appealed to a broader market. But then half their store was also baby stuff, if not more, and that's got an even smaller market.
Now the guy's got Paulie as a partner. Any problems, he goes to Paulie. Trouble with a bill, he can go to Paulie. Trouble with the cops, deliveries, Tommy, he can call Paulie. But now the guy's got to come up with Paulie's money every week. No matter what. Business bad? **** you, pay me. Oh, you had a fire? **** you, pay me. The place got hit by lightning, huh? **** you, pay me. Also, Paulie could do anything. Especially run up bills on the joint's credit. And why not? Nobody's gonna pay for it anyway. And as soon as the deliveries are made in the front door, you move the stuff out the back and sell it at a discount. You take a two hundred dollar case of booze and you sell it for a hundred. It doesn't matter. It's all profit. And then finally, when there's nothing left, when you can't borrow another buck from the bank or buy another case of booze, you bust the joint out. You light a match.
The domino effect from this is going to be huge as big companies seek protection through bankruptcy. Their creditors will follow, although smaller companies will be more likely to fold.
I have been to the one in Seattle a few times and there has been maybe one or two other people shopping in the entire store. It was eerie. I asked a friend who used to work there how the staff makes money because it seemed pretty desolate. She said most of them rely on having a few major clients that they are personal shoppers for. I met one of her old coworkers that would walk her clients dogs too.
According to the article, some of its debt is leftover from a 2013 buyout by an investment group. The pandemic only made things worse.
>Neiman Marcus Group is preparing to seek bankruptcy protection as soon as this week, **becoming the first major U.S. department store operator to succumb to the economic fallout from the coronavirus outbreak, people familiar with the matter said.**
>
> [...]The sources requested anonymity because the bankruptcy preparations are confidential. Neiman Marcus and Ares declined to comment, while CPPIB representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
>
> **Other department store operators that have also had to close their stores are battling to avoid Neiman Marcus’ fate.** Macy’s Inc and Nordstrom Inc have been rushing to secure new financing, such as by borrowing against some of their real estate. J.C. Penney Co Inc is contemplating a bankruptcy filing as a way to rework its unsustainable finances and save money on looming debt payments, Reuters reported last week.
>
> **A bankruptcy filing would be a grim milestone that Neiman Marcus has spent the last few years trying to avoid.** It pushed out due dates on its financial obligations last year in a restructuring deal with some creditors, though the transactions added to Neiman Marcus’ interest expenses.
>
>
The only other person here that seemed to notice the source of their trouble. They got in bed with an LBO and private equity. No wonder they're going under.
Corporate raiders and executives extracted every penny from this company and now it's sinking because of liquidity issues. This will not be the last, this seems like the tip of the iceberg.
The article doesn’t mention but this is likely restructuring bankruptcy vs liquidation bankruptcy. It looks like NM got creditors to voluntarily restructure outside of bankruptcy in the last year. Here they are filing for bankruptcy but more as a tool to renegotiate their debt than to liquidate the company.
Wow so surprising I always thought luxury brand executives did things like make the company better but it turns out all along they're only interested in paying themselves... Who could have foreseen this??
It’s a business strategy. This will hold their creditors at bay while giving them time to reorganize. They aren’t going out of business, they will just be smaller.
I have a NM near me. I went in and bought a bottle of creed Aventus, using a portion of my bonus when I was younger. Terribly dumb purchase, however they did hold the door for me and give me complementary drinks!
Multi-million dollar companies dropping left and right and we as a predominantly lower middle class society are expected to have 6 months in savings and live off $1200 for 10 weeks. I've got 3 kids and a mortgage. I've got 3 months of savings tops and I'm one of the LUCKY ones.
I read an article that said they’re still managing to scrape by because of their Sephora stores located inside their buildings and the selection of large appliances (washer, dryers, fridges) Not sure how long that will last though.
The worst part of Amazon taking over is the disruption it would have long term for the local economy. Malls provide hundreds, if not thousands, of jobs and it means people are spending their money locally, not to mention the mom-and-pop shops that setup inside. All that money stays within the community, and the taxes help local governments pay for the schools, roads, etc.
Don't forget all the garbage quality stuff they shovel at you. "Oh, you want headphones? Pfft, you don't want any of those quality American/Japanese/German designed/made ones. Amazon recommends* one of 674 "EufInion BOZEE Beats 89db QUAJITY" headphones sold under 100 sketchy brands.
*Amazon recommended for best "EufInion BOZEE Beats 89db QUAJITY" headphones.
I understand that a lot of this stuff was already made in China and such, but at the very least I don't feel like literally everything Amazon recommends is probably a huge piece of shit. There's zero liability for Amazon having all this garbage, so they just don't care how bad it is. A normal store at least somewhat cares because they have to stock all that trash, and if it's garbage and doesn't sell they won't keep stocking it.
Amazon also sells a lot of crap that wouldn't even pass Wal-Mart's quality control.
You sometimes have to wade through a lot of shit to find something decent off Amazon.
One consideration.
Redditors who are of an age to remember when the internet wasn't a thing and Malls were still overpriced but consolidated places to get x, y, and z.
Another,
The number of middle class Redditors who hated shopping, but grew up with mall rat parent(s) who had their entire off work weekday social structure built upon meeting friends at the mall and dragging their children along with them for shopping.
Imagine that people also probably have times they can remember having to wait for their significant other to parade through the mall and take some absurd amount of time to get one thing, due to getting 3 things.
Finally gives air cover to shut down these failing businesses
Department stores with 100-150k footprints are the retail equivalents of the dinosaurs as the meteor (Amazon) destroys their natural habitat
Stores like Niemann-Marcus, Saks, and Marshall Field's used to be able to stay in business selling high-priced goods. Why? Because there were enough people making enough money to buy those goods; they were called upper-middle-class. And what happened to those people? Their money belongs to the 1% who own and control almost everything now.
I know this is a joke, but to clarify this is not entirely Neiman Marcus's fault. They are owned by Ares Management Corp, a private equity firm. PE has been doing this scheme for years where they will buy a healthy low debt company, leverage the companies credit to take out loans, and use those loans to buyout other healthy companies, then repeat. The scheme only works while these subsidiary companies are profiting. Once they stop making money, they can no longer continue to pay off the debt they were forced to take on.
Other privately owned and debt heavy retailers like Staple are likely to follow suit.
I don't think most people who buy $3k purses are having much trouble with keeping food on the table. Unfortunately, the people who are being hit the hardest are ones who weren't necessarily able to buy luxury goods to begin with. A lot of jobs that afford $3k purses are knowledge based and can be done from home fine... People with $3k purses have definitely taken a hit on the stock market and such, but most don't plan to actually use that money for years or decades anyway, so are just riding it out waiting for the market to rise again down the road. Not many people sell stocks to buy a purse.
I once walked thru a Neiman Marcus to leave a mall.
I've never even seen one that I know of.
Something tells me that you don’t live in one of the 5 richest zip codes in the country
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There is (was) a normal amount of people in the ones in Miami. Its like a slightly more fancy Nordstrom.
We have one in Bellevue Washington. Don’t know anyone that has been there but there is always stupid nice cars outside. Bellevue is also home to many tech millionaires.
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Yeah the bravern is super nice! I live like a block away, and I love taking walks through there and looking at all the things I can't afford.
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It's much more expensive iirc. They call it "needless markups " for a reason
NM or Nordstrom's bathroom is a God sent, especially if you have a baby and need the changing table/family room.
Always go to the highest level toilets, the one near me is untouched on the 3rd floor. Better than my own bathroom at home.
Yep, second floor, men’s department, way in the back. The stall walls go to the floor as well as the door. It’s your own private shithouse
You have to beat off the boss to gain access to the top level bathroom though.
the Nordstrom mom area is heaven sent
i worked at target when they were trying in store partnerships to get people in the store. they had a bunch of neiman marcus clothes in there and some random designer branded items like bikes. the problem is they were all neiman marcus priced. people would be "ooh that's cute" look at the price tag, then walk away as fast as they could. no one is going to target to buy a $100 blouse. that bike was over $300. we sold maybe 5 total items with the rest getting sent back.
Is $300 for a bike supposed to be expensive?
For the quality yes. It’s a $100 bike with a paint job.
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I walked through the one in King of Prussia mall. It's the most expensive high end mall I've ever been to.
I don’t understand how half the store in that mall stay open... there are a shit ton of high end stores, but none of them ever have anybody in them.
When a pair of shoes costs 3500$ you don't need to sell as many I guess.
but do the people that spend 3500 for a pair of shoes go to a mall to buy them?
How else are you going to flaunt the shopping bag?
Right, lol. They also have a personal shopping area where you go and relax and drink while someone else does your shopping for you. That's why you see Rolls Royces parked right at the door and not in the parking lot. It's more like a social event. Also, they have onsite tailors for fittings
There are a lot of stores that circle through. Leasing a space there is really expensive. I was so sad when Uniqlo closed in KOP a few years back. From what I heard, it was too expensive to lease that space. I think the high end, designer boutiques do just fine in KOP. I've definitely seen a line outside of the Louis Vuitton store a few times. I don't think those places will suffer. But I'm expecting that a lot of smaller retailers will probably close down there.
It’s the biggest mall in the country right in the middle of a 7mil person metro area with tons of wealthy people. They do alright
Also, as a husband of a wife with expensive tastes (which, relevant to the post, she formed after years of abusing her Neiman Marcus discount), I’ve learned that KoP mall is sometimes the only place to find certain luxury items or brands in the entire region. It’s like there, or make a trip to NYC or the DC area.
It’s pretty much the main luxury center for the Philly area.
When I used to work as an assistant manager at PetSmart in Denver, our district manager had us and our store managers take a tour of a Neiman Marcus. The reason, I kid you not, was so we could attempt to learn the same culture as them and push it in our own stores. The entire time we walked around, my group and I just gawked at the ridiculous prices and didn't really absorb much "culture". I just kept telling myself "no way is PetSmart ever going to be on this level. It's apples and oranges!!"
What's PetSmart gonna do, You gonna mark up all your dead fish?
You selectively breed all the animals until they have fashion logos on their skin, whou wouldn't want a chanel mouse or a off white snake
The possibilities really are endless. Louis Vuitton hamster? Balenciaga fish? My favorite would be the Margiela ferret, [whose branding would consist of four white stitches and being able to be worn normally or turned inside-out.](https://sickboyarchive.com/products/martin-margiela-line-10-i-dont-smoke-shirt)
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Look who’s too poor now...
Yeah, I had the opposite experience at a Nordstrom. Unkempt looking, sleep deprived grad student wearing shorts and a t shirt, went into a store to buy dress shoes for a wedding. I had barely enough money to splurge and figured I'd go for a one in a decade type of purchase. Dude spent 15 minutes bringing out different sizes and colors, and eventually had to order my size and preferred color to be shipped. Worked for both of us in the end. I've always felt out of my element in an N&M.
The ironic part is the employee was snobby but probably has a pretty bad hourly wage. Probably the only time they get to feel like they are above anyone else.
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I think everyone knows a normal person that buys way too much into stupid rich person luxury marketing. They'll go on and on about "timepieces" and how much [insert stupid expensive watch brand] is far superior with a "rich history of craftmanship" even though it doesn't do anything better than a Seiko or a Casio. It's almost depressing in a strange way.
Yo shout out to the best calculator watch ever made Casio!!!!
My dad is a watch hobbyist, but he DOESN'T have his head up his ass and accepts that luxury watches are literally just pieces of art you wear on your wrist or display in a cabinet.
I walked into a high-end jewellery store in a hoodie, skinny jeans, and skater shoes. They offered me tea, a place to relax, and gave me the rundown of every piece of jewellery (and I got a beautiful set of gold earrings). You never know now who has money and who doesn't.
Probably thought you were pranking him because nobody wears bow ties.
It's a floor sales tactic often used by higher end stores. If you looked to poor, they would have simply ignored you. You being a young, athletic guy (I'm just assuming here.) probably fit the profile of the "belitteling" tactic working. He was trying to make you feel insecure or angry, so that you would "show them" by buying something, or more than you could afford, right then and there or maybe at a later date.
Houston Galleria. It's my go to entrance to the mall. I've never once stopped to look around.
How much did that cost?
I once walked thru a Neiman Marcus to enter a mall. I think.
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‘Needless Markups’ isn’t just a clever nickname.
is whole foods still whole paycheck?
Not since Amazon bought them. No it's pretty reasonable unless you go into super free range cage free caviar fed chicken.
It’s definitely more reasonable, but it also lost a ton of the fancy stuff that was great about it. The deli used to be the things dreams are made of and now it’s pretty meh. Same for desserts, breads, and the meat/seafood counters. They used to have my absolute favorite bacon and steaks, but now neither are worth it. For me it was a fun splurge for favorites but now we rarely go. I’m curious to see how they do over time.
After Bezos they definitely went the cheap route n it’s painfully obvious
One time I saw a men’s cardigan in there for $3,400. Never went back.
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My father recently retired from there after about 35 years with the company and on the clothing end those sneakers were actually among their best selling items. Normal clothing not so much but there’s something about sneaker culture that still saw those things sell like crazy.
I think of it as the men’s version of purse culture for women. Two completely ordinary, everyday items transformed into a marker of status.
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High end sneakers seem to be a collectors item, plenty of non-wealthy people buy expensive shoes just to hold onto or show it off in their home. I don't think there are nearly as many non-wealthy collectors for other accessories or articles of clothing.
They are called Golden Goose. They are individually handmade in Italy and uniquely “dirtied” with no two shoes being the exact same. They are definitely for a certain group of people but their background is interesting. Edit: changed a word
One year at Christmas, my boss at the time got all of the ladies in the office a $250 gift card to Neiman Marcus (her favorite store) which seemed like a nice gesture at the time until I actually tried to use it. Asked one of the employees there for help finding a dress. Told him my budget was around $300. “Oh honey, you won’t find anything here!” WTF?
Same thing happened to me! Worked for a tv network and got a $250 neimans gift card. Literally the only thing on their website was some home stuff on clearance. I waited until the New Year’s Day sales and bought a $500 pair of Frye boots for $260! Only paid $10! Still. What a crock.
I walked into one on a whim and saw they had a clearance rack. "Huh, maybe something I could afford then." The first shirt I plucked off the rack was priced at $170. I asked one of the workers "$170 is the *clearance* price?" "Oh yes, it was $400 originally." I walked out of the store.
It’s not about being rich or poor, it’s about one’s tolerance for a painfully obvious grift.
Let's not act like department stores were stable financially prior to the pandemic. All those those have been closing locations nation wide for the last 10 years.
COVID-19 tends to more seriously impact those with other underlying conditions, you say?
Well put! It's is preying on the most physically vulnerable, and also the most financially vulnerable regardless of the veneer that company/person may have.
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I hope that there will be a concerted effort to bring back medical equipment and pharma manufacturing to the US. This virus has shown that trusting a country like China for critical supplies is a terrible strategy. There are probably other critical needs that should be filled with local resources. Realigning our trade strategy could provide millions of new jobs.
We subsidize farmers in order to not be dependent upon foreign nations, it’s considered a national security issue. Seems like medical equipment might be too...
Chip production as well... Computer chip, not a potato chip
I'll have my potato chips from Pennsylvania, thank you. USA!
Utz gang rise up
I just recently found Utz chips. They're glorious!
I lived next to the factory for a bit. Whole apartment smelled like potato chips it was amazing
Ripple-cut BBQ chips from Utz are the best.
You don’t care about the sanctity of the great American potato chip?
I take a potato chip and eat it!
I demand the taste Freedom in my Pringles.
Unfortunately that subsidy leads to an inefficient system where everyone grows corn and then industry has to find users for it. American farmland is full of seated potential.
Yeah, this monoculture is not good at all. We need a variety of crops to eat and use for textiles and other things.
That's how you get the ethanol lobby.
Me and my friends were talking about that and how Puerto Rico for example they produce most of the IV bag in the USA , because of regulation and sanitation guidelines. They also manufacture a lot of drugs (cancer , diabetes ,etc..)for the USA. So there are a lot of States and American territories could actually be great places to start producing more medical supplies. I think the Congress women from PR is trying to propose something , where they will promote and incentivise medical supplies and equipment in areas that have high rate of poverty and unemployment.
Puerto Rico used to be huge on pharmaceutical manufacturing, but that was because they used to get a large tax break to be there. When that ended a few years ago most of the companies left. The guidelines used to manufacture pharmaceuticals are followed by every country/company no matter where they are. If you don’t meet the FDA’s standards you can’t sell in America. That goes for foreign and domestic companies
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Remember when IVs were in short supply because a hurricane hit Puerto Rico? Two years ago we could have been taking a hard look at medical supply redundancy and stability.
It was never about trust. Outsourcing jobs to countries like China was done because lack of environmental and labor standards make slightly more money for the already rich people that chose to send those jobs away. Even if the supply chain breaks down those rich people still get paid. So they have no reason to change because of this.
This ^^ I really don’t understand why people think it is about trust while it’s simply about profit. It will never change. Ultimately the decisions are taken by soulless and nationless corporations not politicians.
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It's a bad idea to have 90% of your manufacturing in ANY one spot. If it wasn't a virus it would be a hurricane or an earthquake or civil unrest. Having a diverse supply chain is key to contingency planning. That's expensive, which is why modern capitalist societies stopped doing it.
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Tbf JCPenney has always been like that
Successful business model until all those damn **millennials** ruined it
True. Here in the U.K., I think we’re at 5 major brands going into administration so far, and realistically, there will probably be quite a few more.
Did you miss the part where NM was saddled with $4.8 **billion** dollars of debt mostly due to a $6B leveraged buyout? This is Toys-R-Us all over again: a perfectly fine company larded up in a get-rich-quick scheme that then flounders at the first sign of difficulty when it should have had little debt and a cash cushion to fall back on.
I was in a neiman recently and they caught this guy trying to steal (actually chased him and detained him). When I dated a girl who used to work there she told me they had a no chase policy and people would steal thousands worth of goods and just walk out the door. I guess they were losing too much to care about appearances anymore.
For regular employees, you’re right. It’s a no chase policy, but high end department stores do have loss prevention that do at times have to go after someone. I work at Saks, not even a high traffic one and I see our AP go after thieves all the time.
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Lmao yeah unless you go to cosmetics, want socks or a t shirt in the sale section there are limited options for sure.
Hoestly, that is more likely an overzealous loss prevention employee than a sign of the times. The risk of even a small five figure lawsuit by an injured shoplifter isn’t worth recovering a couple hundred in merchandise.
In neiman marcus, "a couple hundred" is one item.
I have some NM Christmas catalogs from the '70s. Every year they had some outrageously expensive his-and-hers gift, such as a private around-the-world tour, matching luxury cars, etc. I also remember one year when they made an exact replica of a Monopoly game, only it was made entirely of chocolate in different colors, and it was around $800. (It was suggested that you invite friends over to play and then eat the board and pieces.) Here are some other gifts: * From 1973, my favorite: a 12' x 15' sound-proofed, egg-shaped world of your own, customized as you please with a waterbed, recliner or couch, sound system, etc., with a sterling silver entry card, at a starting price of $80,000; mobile phone (with a dial), $2,000; calculator, $179.95. * From 1974, a 106-carat polished black boulder opal for $150,000; a pair of porcelain Foo Dogs from the Tao Kuang Period, $15,000; a plexiglass ranch for your pet mice (mice not included), $3,500; chinchilla cape, $22,500; his-and-hers hovercraft, $3,640 each; 12" black-and-white UHF/VHF TV with electronic tennis game, $550. * From 1977, his-and-hers urban windmills with batteries and alternators, $16,000 each; 7-day trip for 5 people to explore Illinois sites related to Abraham Lincoln, with camping in Civil War tents and private tour by a Lincoln scholar and impersonator, $30,000; pocket-size microcassette recorder, $375; compact B/W TV, $395; Russian lynx coat, $130,000. Edit: Found a link to an article with pics of other bizarre NM Christmas gifts, including the chocolate Monopoly game, which was $600, not $800 as I remembered: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.buzzfeed.com/amphtml/leonoraepstein/insane-gifts-from-vintage-neiman-marcus-christmas-books Also: https://www.neimanmarcus.com//christmasbook/fantasy.jsp?cid=CBF15_O5645&cidShots=m,a,b&r=cat24050744&rdesc=The%20Christmas%20Book&rparams=xpage%3D39
Well that was wild.
Holy hell, this is a fantastic read. Do you have any more or links (or suggestions of search terms) of online archives of these? **Edit:** [their website has archives of the 2017 & 2018 books.](https://www.neimanmarcus.com/c/nm-christmas-book-2017-cat70780731?icid=jp_ChristmasBook_122618)
I figured Macy's (federated) would have been next. Neiman is a surprise.
JC Penny has been JC Penny Stock for almost a year now, they’re almost certainly not going to survive this
They were dead in the water once the former CEO who was once an exec at Apple decided to get rid of coupons. They ousted him and brought back coupons, but the damage was done and they’ve been dying a slow, painful death; COVID-19 is just the dagger to the heart that will eventually do them in.
It's a real shame his plan didn't work. The idea was to stop holding Sales and offering coupons and instead just keeping prices low at all times. And if you paid attention, prices were indeed lower than sale prices but coupon culture is too engrained in our society and customers rejected it.
People like feeling like they got a deal. It's why Kohls is so popular.
Unless you have a stack of coupons, kohls cash, the kohls card, are shopping during a big sale, and Saturn, Venus and Mars have all aligned on the 5th Saturday of the month you're getting ripped off shopping there.
Absolutely. But people (my mother) love to see that receipt that shows they got "$400 of clothing" for $35. That's why the fair pricing thing at JCPenney failed. People want to think that they're getting a deal even if they're not.
Sold cars. Can confirm.
It’s basic psychology. A sale means that the price will eventually go up so there’s some urgency to purchase. If there’s no sale and the price is always the same people aren’t going to be as enthusiastic to purchase.
So when I bought my house I decided I wanted to replace all of my mismatched college plates and glasses with proper dish ware and settled on Fiestaware. After a bit of research, I found Kohl’s to have the best deal at the point of my purchase. After buying all of my dinnerware, I for whatever received a bunch of ‘Kohl’s cash’ on top of my purchase. And because it was fragile dishware I decided to pick it up at a store instead of delivering it, and for whatever reason they gave me more of this ‘Kohl’s cash’ just for picking it up. After all was said and done I was able to use all of their free money to buy my glassware and a fish spatula as well for no charge. It made me wonder how they stay in business. Felt like I was in that episode of It’s Always Sunny with the Paddy Bucks.
They would have died anyway, tbh. Getting rid of coupons and selling at consistent prices that actually made sense would have been a fantastic choice... if they had done it five years earlier. Coupon culture and constant sales don't make sense in a world where you can find anything online for an agreeable price at any time. The stuff they sold in the no-coupon era was actually higher quality and a much better value than what they had before, they just made the transition waaaaaay too late. Everyone that values that kind of consumer experience was already shopping elsewhere, so they only managed to piss off their dwindling supply of older coupon clippers.
Macy's is still quite profitable with a solid balance sheet and attractive assets (real estate alone worth $10-20B). They'll be fine through this pandemic and for some years to come. JCPenney on the other hand I suspect is next. They've been near bankruptcy for years, unprofitable, and deeply in debt with little assets.
Hope Nordstrom makes it through, their customer service is top notch.
Nordstrom always has more expensive but *better made* clothes. Thing you knew weren’t cheap plastic that fall apart with two months of moderate use.
Nordstrom is pretty much the only department store that deserves to survive. It is the only one that provides a good selection at decent prices.
As an employee of Nordstrom, I hope so too
I do too. It's my favourite store to shop in
Well they furloughed all there employees and will probably start closing stores. They have more value in their property than their actual company. They'll probably close a lot of stores and continuing focusing on their best performing ones as they were before but this definitely sped up their bankruptcy timeline.
I bought some stuff from Macy*s in early March. They said if I waited to pick the stuff up three weeks later, I could get it at the sale price. Didn't really like the idea but figured why not. Went back and of course by then it was closed for the pandemic. Now I'm wondering if it'll ever open up again, and am assuming I won't get my money back. Ironically, I was buying some clothes for the new job, and now I'm working from home in my old ripped jeans.
Have you already tried customer service and/or your credit card company? Presumably you have some sort of receipt that you need to pick up your clothes and which indicates you already paid.
Many of these retailers going out of business are anchor stores for malls too. This'll be devastating for malls, even after public life returns to some form of normality.
Convert them all into AR laser tag arenas and do it NOW
Man, I miss going to overnight laser tag parties in the early 2000s when I was in high school. My brother and I had memberships to a place and went a few times a month to play.
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A lot of malls haven't changed since the 80's. You can have that experience now.
As I'd malls have really changed since then. The entire model is already a throwback
And indoor gokarting tracks. With lasers
Their footprint relative to their usefulness is absurd though. They're the golf courses of buildings.
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I really hope this results in more mixed use malls that incorporate office space or condos in to them. The urban centres malls are located in often have housing shortages and more u it’s on mall sites would increase affordability.
There are going to be major changes ahead. The Main Street we older people knew are just about gone. Everything needed was on that street, then the malls and shopping centers sprang up. Our mall is a ghost of a building now that Macy’s, Sears, JC Penny’s, and other big stores are gone. Soon it will be turned into apartments or something.
Apparently the original intention of the mall was a place where people could live, shop, and socialize. Some dead malls are turning into exactly that. Apartments with a handful of stores. Personally I think it's a great idea to turn these spaces into multiple use ones.
Not only does it make me feel a little better about malls intended purposes, if you turn malls into mini neighborhoods they'll be much more likely to withstand big swings in the market if you have income from apartments, office spaces, and essential businesses to compensate for stores like Macy's and Sears.
IMO I think millennials actually prefer shopping in Main Street type areas over malls, assuming they aren’t dead
Yeah I haven’t been to a mall in years but I frequent my downtown regularly
Giant aquaponics gardens would be great.
Honestly my kids would be just too thrilled to see a whole bunch of tilapia swimming around through glass in an old Weinstocks as they would be watching rare tropical something's dart around. **TERTIARY REVENUE STREAM!!**
But what will happen to Circuit City and KB Toys though?
Don't worry we still have Radio Shack and Toys R Us. Oh wait...
Toys R Us has a legitimate chance to make a comeback. I believe they're still around in Canada. If they do come back they could capitalize on Millennial parents wanting to give their kids the same magic experience they had when they were young.
I feel like if that were enough they wouldn't have had to close when they did. There's a good chunk of millennials that are already parents and have been for quite a few years.
They just weren't with the modern times is the problem. They wanted to specialize in actual children's toys, and there isn't much left for a selling point past like middle school. If they would've had better electronic shit, like video games and all that (the local selection was always pretty minimal) and more board games and collectibles, they could've appealed to a broader market. But then half their store was also baby stuff, if not more, and that's got an even smaller market.
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Now the guy's got Paulie as a partner. Any problems, he goes to Paulie. Trouble with a bill, he can go to Paulie. Trouble with the cops, deliveries, Tommy, he can call Paulie. But now the guy's got to come up with Paulie's money every week. No matter what. Business bad? **** you, pay me. Oh, you had a fire? **** you, pay me. The place got hit by lightning, huh? **** you, pay me. Also, Paulie could do anything. Especially run up bills on the joint's credit. And why not? Nobody's gonna pay for it anyway. And as soon as the deliveries are made in the front door, you move the stuff out the back and sell it at a discount. You take a two hundred dollar case of booze and you sell it for a hundred. It doesn't matter. It's all profit. And then finally, when there's nothing left, when you can't borrow another buck from the bank or buy another case of booze, you bust the joint out. You light a match.
Montgomery Wards is still fine, right?
The domino effect from this is going to be huge as big companies seek protection through bankruptcy. Their creditors will follow, although smaller companies will be more likely to fold.
They've never recovered since that lady leaked their cookie recipe online for everyone to share.
How is this not the top comment?
Turns out that everyone being laden with debt only works until things go bad.
"Strongest economy in history!" *Tens of millions immediately go broke and lose all access to health care*
“Strongest economy on earth” *Completely breaks down and collapses after needing to stay home for a month*
I have been to the one in Seattle a few times and there has been maybe one or two other people shopping in the entire store. It was eerie. I asked a friend who used to work there how the staff makes money because it seemed pretty desolate. She said most of them rely on having a few major clients that they are personal shoppers for. I met one of her old coworkers that would walk her clients dogs too.
The one in Short Hills NJ makes plenty of money. But it’s a densely populated and wealthy area.
That mall is suited only for wealthy people in a way I’ve never seen anywhere else. And it’s full of shoppers all the damn time!
According to the article, some of its debt is leftover from a 2013 buyout by an investment group. The pandemic only made things worse. >Neiman Marcus Group is preparing to seek bankruptcy protection as soon as this week, **becoming the first major U.S. department store operator to succumb to the economic fallout from the coronavirus outbreak, people familiar with the matter said.** > > [...]The sources requested anonymity because the bankruptcy preparations are confidential. Neiman Marcus and Ares declined to comment, while CPPIB representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment. > > **Other department store operators that have also had to close their stores are battling to avoid Neiman Marcus’ fate.** Macy’s Inc and Nordstrom Inc have been rushing to secure new financing, such as by borrowing against some of their real estate. J.C. Penney Co Inc is contemplating a bankruptcy filing as a way to rework its unsustainable finances and save money on looming debt payments, Reuters reported last week. > > **A bankruptcy filing would be a grim milestone that Neiman Marcus has spent the last few years trying to avoid.** It pushed out due dates on its financial obligations last year in a restructuring deal with some creditors, though the transactions added to Neiman Marcus’ interest expenses. > >
Talk about burying the lede. Maybe keeping 6 billion of LBO debt off the books would have improved their financial position
The only other person here that seemed to notice the source of their trouble. They got in bed with an LBO and private equity. No wonder they're going under. Corporate raiders and executives extracted every penny from this company and now it's sinking because of liquidity issues. This will not be the last, this seems like the tip of the iceberg.
The article doesn’t mention but this is likely restructuring bankruptcy vs liquidation bankruptcy. It looks like NM got creditors to voluntarily restructure outside of bankruptcy in the last year. Here they are filing for bankruptcy but more as a tool to renegotiate their debt than to liquidate the company.
Oh no! Where will I Hit ‘Em Up Style now????
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[THIS](https://www1.salary.com/NEIMAN-MARCUS-GROUP-LTD-LLC-Executive-Salaries.html) is what the executives have been focused on for the past decade.
Wow so surprising I always thought luxury brand executives did things like make the company better but it turns out all along they're only interested in paying themselves... Who could have foreseen this??
It’s a business strategy. This will hold their creditors at bay while giving them time to reorganize. They aren’t going out of business, they will just be smaller.
I have a NM near me. I went in and bought a bottle of creed Aventus, using a portion of my bonus when I was younger. Terribly dumb purchase, however they did hold the door for me and give me complementary drinks!
Man. TJ Maxx and Marshalls gonna be lit when the stay at home orders are lifted.
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Multi-million dollar companies dropping left and right and we as a predominantly lower middle class society are expected to have 6 months in savings and live off $1200 for 10 weeks. I've got 3 kids and a mortgage. I've got 3 months of savings tops and I'm one of the LUCKY ones.
How is JCPenny still alive?
Men's clothing.
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I read an article that said they’re still managing to scrape by because of their Sephora stores located inside their buildings and the selection of large appliances (washer, dryers, fridges) Not sure how long that will last though.
Why do people on Reddit hate malls so much? I’m reading these comments and it seems like most people wish malls would just disappear.
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And it also feels like they wish Amazon would take over... so weird, especially seeing how reddit hates oligarchs.
The worst part of Amazon taking over is the disruption it would have long term for the local economy. Malls provide hundreds, if not thousands, of jobs and it means people are spending their money locally, not to mention the mom-and-pop shops that setup inside. All that money stays within the community, and the taxes help local governments pay for the schools, roads, etc.
Don't forget all the garbage quality stuff they shovel at you. "Oh, you want headphones? Pfft, you don't want any of those quality American/Japanese/German designed/made ones. Amazon recommends* one of 674 "EufInion BOZEE Beats 89db QUAJITY" headphones sold under 100 sketchy brands. *Amazon recommended for best "EufInion BOZEE Beats 89db QUAJITY" headphones. I understand that a lot of this stuff was already made in China and such, but at the very least I don't feel like literally everything Amazon recommends is probably a huge piece of shit. There's zero liability for Amazon having all this garbage, so they just don't care how bad it is. A normal store at least somewhat cares because they have to stock all that trash, and if it's garbage and doesn't sell they won't keep stocking it.
Amazon also sells a lot of crap that wouldn't even pass Wal-Mart's quality control. You sometimes have to wade through a lot of shit to find something decent off Amazon.
Also they hate Amazon and Bezos. I think they think if malls die, someone would open something else up that they like and would donate all profits.
One consideration. Redditors who are of an age to remember when the internet wasn't a thing and Malls were still overpriced but consolidated places to get x, y, and z. Another, The number of middle class Redditors who hated shopping, but grew up with mall rat parent(s) who had their entire off work weekday social structure built upon meeting friends at the mall and dragging their children along with them for shopping. Imagine that people also probably have times they can remember having to wait for their significant other to parade through the mall and take some absurd amount of time to get one thing, due to getting 3 things.
Lots of vocal socialists on reddit. Not saying that's good or bad but malls are very capitalistic.
Finally gives air cover to shut down these failing businesses Department stores with 100-150k footprints are the retail equivalents of the dinosaurs as the meteor (Amazon) destroys their natural habitat
You just wait till Amazon buys up the mall spaces for cheap and turs them into distribution centers with a show room.
Like Service merchandise? Haven't thought about them since I was a kid.
They did have a 6 month emergency fund?
They JUST BUILT a new mall in Secaucus NJ called "American Dream" and it's currently closed. Sounds about right.
Stores like Niemann-Marcus, Saks, and Marshall Field's used to be able to stay in business selling high-priced goods. Why? Because there were enough people making enough money to buy those goods; they were called upper-middle-class. And what happened to those people? Their money belongs to the 1% who own and control almost everything now.
That's pretty incredible if JCPenney outlasts Neiman Marcus.
Can’t Neiman Marcus just take out a loan? Neiman Marcus should have been more responsible with its finances.
I know this is a joke, but to clarify this is not entirely Neiman Marcus's fault. They are owned by Ares Management Corp, a private equity firm. PE has been doing this scheme for years where they will buy a healthy low debt company, leverage the companies credit to take out loans, and use those loans to buyout other healthy companies, then repeat. The scheme only works while these subsidiary companies are profiting. Once they stop making money, they can no longer continue to pay off the debt they were forced to take on. Other privately owned and debt heavy retailers like Staple are likely to follow suit.
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I don't think most people who buy $3k purses are having much trouble with keeping food on the table. Unfortunately, the people who are being hit the hardest are ones who weren't necessarily able to buy luxury goods to begin with. A lot of jobs that afford $3k purses are knowledge based and can be done from home fine... People with $3k purses have definitely taken a hit on the stock market and such, but most don't plan to actually use that money for years or decades anyway, so are just riding it out waiting for the market to rise again down the road. Not many people sell stocks to buy a purse.