Four past and present American department store chains are considered "luxury" or "specialty" retailers. Three of these chains hailed from New York City, with a fourth originally based in the Lone Star State. Some of these retailers endured hostile take-overs, corporate buy-outs and rebranding blitzes that put many a lesser chain completely out of business. 

LORD & TAYLOR

In the upper echelon of national department stores were four "specialty retailers." The first of these, Lord & Taylor, traced its origins to Samuel Lord and George Washington Taylor, who opened their first Manhattan mercantile in 1826.

Lord & Taylor was famous for several innovations. It was the first department store to locate to Fifth Avenue (1914) and the first to open a branch (Manhasset, Long Island, in 1941). In 1916, the chain became a founding member of the American (later Associated) Dry Goods Company. It was acquired by May Department Stores in 1986 and Federated Stores in 2005.

New York City-based NRDC Equity Partners acquired Lord & Taylor Holdings in June 2006 and Toronto's Hudson's Bay Company in July 2008. Lord & Taylor and Hudson's Bay Company were placed under the operation of Hudson's Bay Company in January 2012. Lord & Taylor was sold to San Francisco-based Le Tote in November 2019. They liquidated the chain, which went defunct on February 27, 2021.

LORD & TAYLOR SHOPPING MALL STORES:

  

*FASHION CENTER, Paramus, NJ (1967) 

*SHOPS AT PRUDENTIAL CENTER, Boston MA (1968) 

*PHIPPS PLAZA, Atlanta, GA (1970)

BLOOMINGDALE'S

Bloomingdale's, the creation of Joseph and Lyman Bloomingdale, originated in 1860, with the first bona fide retail store coming along 12 years later. The chain joined the founding members of Federated Stores in 1930 and opened its first branch, in Fresh Meadows, Queens, in 1949.

In June 2007, the Federated Stores holding company changed its name to Macy's, Inc., with Bloomingdale's being established as one of eight divisions. A discount unit, known as Bloomingdale's-The Outlet, was created, with the first store opening in August 2010. 

In mid-2021, there were thirty-four full-line Bloomingdale's stores in twelve states and the United Arab Emirates. Bloomingdale's-The Outlet operated twenty-two stores in ten states. 

BLOOMINGDALE'S SHOPPING MALL STORES: 

*SHORT HILLS MALL CENTER, Essex County, NJ (1967) 

*TYSONS CORNER CENTER, Fairfax County, VA (1976) 

*WHITE FLINT MALL, Montgomery County, MD (1977) 

SAKS FIFTH AVENUE / SAKS 34TH STREET

Saks Fifth Avenue originated with Andrew Saks and his brother Isadore, who opened the A. Saks & Company store, in Washington, DC. This men's wear mercantile commenced operation in 1867. A new DC store was completed in 1887. Branches opened in Indianapolis and Norfolk (1896). By 1897, there were locations in Indiana, Virginia and Washington, DC, as well as newer stores in Richmond and New York City.

  

Andrew Saks passed away in 1912 and was succeeded in business by his son Horace. The chain morphed from a men's clothier into a general department store. In 1923, Saks & Company merged with Gimbel Brothers, Incorporated, of New York City. Gimbels' store -at Manhattan's Herald Square- was across the street from Saks & Company. With the merger, this store was renamed Saks-34th Street. 

A new flagship store was built at Fifth Avenue and 49th Street, in Manhattan. Its address -Saks Fifth Avenue- was used as the name of a newly-created -and decidedly upscale- retail chain. Saks Fifth Avenue's inaugural store welcomed first shoppers on September 15, 1924.

Seasonal resort stores opened in Palm Beach, Florida, in 1926, and Southampton, New York, in 1928. The first year-round Saks Fifth Avenue branch was dedicated, in Chicago, in 1929.  Further expansion placed new Saks Fifth Avenue stores in Beverly Hills (1938) and Miami Beach (1939). By 1940, there were ten stores, with new resort-based locations recently opened in Idaho and Rhode Island. Full-line stores followed in Detroit (1940), Pittsburgh (1949) and San Francisco (1952). 

Saks-34th Street, which was a branch of Gimbels' New York City division, was shuttered in 1965. Saks Fifth Avenue was acquired by BATUS (British American Tobacco) in 1973 and -then- Bahrain-based Investcorp SA, in July 1990. 

In September 1998, the company merged with Tennessee-based Proffitt's, Incorporated, with the new concern going under the Saks Incorporated masthead. Meanwhile, a discount division, originally known as Saks Fifth Avenue Clearinghouse, had opened, in Philadelphia, in 1992. The name of the division was changed to Saks Off Fifth in 1995.

The Toronto-based Hudson's Bay Company completed an acquisition of Saks Incorporated in November 2013. As of late 2021, there were forty-six full-line Saks Fifth Avenue stores in twenty-three states, Ontario and Alberta, Canada, Bahrain, Kazakhstan and Mexico City. 

The Saks Off Fifth chain expanded, with eight European stores, during 2017. There were located in Germany and Holland. All were shuttered in 2019. The late 2021 Saks Off Fifth store count stood at a total of 105 stores. Eighty-nine were located in twenty-three states of the union and the District of Columbia. The remaining sixteen operated in five Canadian provinces. 

SAKS FIFTH AVENUE SHOPPING MALL STORES: 

*SUNRISE CENTER, Ft. Lauderdale, FL (1954) 

*OLD ORCHARD CENTER, Skokie, IL (1958) 

*PHIPPS PLAZA, Atlanta, GA (1968)

NEIMAN-MARCUS

Neiman-Marcus originated in Dallas, Texas and was founded by Herbert Marcus, his sister Carrie Marcus-Neiman and her husband, Abraham Lincoln Neiman. Their first mercantile commenced operation, in downtown Dallas, on September 15, 1907.

A branch opened, on the northern outskirts of Dallas, in 1951. Houston was the location of a second branch...which opened in 1957. The chain's fourth store, a replacement for its circa-1951 operation, opened in August 1965, at Dallas' NORTHPARK CENTER mall.

A merger with California's Broadway-Hale stores was conducted in 1968. Following this union, the chain expanded exponentially. A partial severance from the parent company, by then known as Carter-Hawley-Hale Stores, took place in June 1987, with full independence for the Neiman Marcus division established in 1999. Meanwhile, the first units in the new Last Call by Neiman Marcus chain of outlet stores opened in 1998.

The Neiman Marcus Group was acquired by a joint venture of San Francisco-based Texas Pacific Capital and the New York City-based Warburg Pincus, Limited Liability Company in May 2005. They sold Neiman Marcus to a joint venture of Los Angeles' Ares Management and Toronto's Canada Pension Plan Investment Board in September 2013. 

Neiman Marcus was hit hard by repercussions of the Covid-19 pandemic. A chapter 11 bankruptcy was filed in April 2020, with the company exiting the same in September 2020. Post-bankruptcy, the Neiman Marcus Group is owned by a joint venture of Davidson Kempner Capital Management (of New York City), Sixth Street Partners (of San Francisco) and Pacific Investment Management (of Newport Beach, California).

As of mid-2021, there were thirty-eight full-line Neiman Marcus stores in seventeen states. The Neiman Marcus Group began to jettison the Last Call by Neiman Marcus chain of outlet stores in 2017. At one time, there had been thirty-eight. By mid-2021, this number had been reduced to just five, which were operating in three states.  

 

NEIMAN-MARCUS SHOPPING MALL STORES:

*NORTHPARK CENTER, Dallas, TX (1965) 

*GALLERIA POST OAK, Houston, TX (1969) 

*LENOX SQUARE, Atlanta, GA (1972)