After nearly 200 years, US giant Lord & Taylor goes out of business
Lord & Taylor, one of the country’s oldest department store chains, is going out of business after filing for bankruptcy earlier this month.
The retailer was sold just a year ago for $US100 million ($136 million) to Le Tote, a San Francisco online clothing rental company, by Canadian parent Hudson’s Bay Co.
Lord & Taylor will permanently close its remaining 38 stores and shut down its website, the company said. It is currently holding going out of business sales in stores and online.
“While we are still entertaining various opportunities, we believe it is prudent to simultaneously put the remainder of the stores into liquidation to maximise value of inventory for the estate while pursuing options for the company’s brands,” Ed Kremer, Lord & Taylor’s chief restructuring officer said in a statement.
Founded as a dry goods store in 1826, Lord & Taylor has struggled for years as more people shop online and in other stores. But the pandemic has changed the way people shop, accelerated the shift to online shopping, mostly to the benefit of big retailers like Amazon, Target and Walmart.
Since COVID-19 began to spread in the US, several clothing sellers have gone bankrupt, including Brooks Brothers, Neiman Marcus and JC Penney.
Lord & Taylor was shrinking even before the pandemic.
Last year, it closed its 11-storey flagship store on New York’s Fifth Avenue, which it owned for more than a century. Amazon.com, the online shopping giant, is turning the building into an office for its tech workers.
“Lord & Taylor has always had some challenges,” Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData’s retail division told NBC. “It was in a part of the market that was really soft and it was difficult.”
Dozens of retailers, big and small, have filed for Chapter 11 protection this year. The pace through the first half of 2020 far exceeds the number of retail bankruptcies for all of last year.
Last month, Brooks Brothers, the 200-year-old company that dressed nearly every US president, filed for bankruptcy protection. Its rival, Barneys New York, is being dismantled after filing for bankruptcy last year.
Others include J. Crew, JC Penney, Neiman Marcus, Stage Stores, and Ascena Retail Group, which owns Lane Bryant in addition to Ann Taylor.
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