Growing up, going to the mall was always a special occasion. Naturally, my mother would always park our SUV outside a department store and enter the mall through the store, my favorite being Saks Fifth Avenue. The flawless white interior, paired with the brightly colored clothes, completely caught my attention. My poor mother had to drag me from the displays, kicking and screaming. Even though I couldn’t (and still can’t afford anything in Saks Fifth Avenue), I’ve eternally been drawn to the beautiful window displays and illuminating lights.
Nothing could prepare me for the current headlines: Saks Global Avenue declares bankruptcy.
The announcement was first made on Tuesday, January 13. Saks Global, the parent company of Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, and Bergdorf Goodman, is filing for bankruptcy. “The truth is that Saks Global put itself in a financially precarious position that undermined the day-to-day operations of the business,” Neil Saunders, a retail analyst and managing director of GlobalData, a market intelligence and analytics company. Another contributing factor, David Schwartz, an analyst at the investment research firm Morningstar, says that many shoppers don’t use department stores as much. “A lot of luxury shoppers buy directly from the brands themselves,” Schwartz said. “They don’t need to go to Neiman Marcus to buy a Louis Vuitton handbag. They’ll just go to Louis Vuitton.” Many onlookers are still puzzled, though. What really went wrong with the luxury retail giant?
The majority of experts point to the 2024 Neiman Marcus merger orchestrated by now resigned CEO Richard Baker. While the merger did consolidate the biggest department stores under one name, there was a catch. The merger cost $2.65 billion, all of which Saks Global didn’t have, putting the corporation in massive debt. The following year, in December of 2025, things took a turn for the worse when Saks Global failed to make an interest payment to creditors of $100 million. This was tied to nearly $2.2 billion of debt that was taken on to fund the merger. The missed deadline also came at a time when Saks Global was continuing to create frustration with their vendors, many of whom hadn’t been paid for months and had halted shipments. Saks Global has still declined to comment on its inventory shortages and its plan to pay vendors.
Many Saks loyalists have been negatively affected by these developments. For example, Richard Browne, 66, had shopped at Saks Fifth Avenue for five years, picking articles of clothing from the online catalog. Browne is a marketing consultant who lives in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He was drawn to the retailer’s high-quality clothing, still priced within his budget. Last summer, Browne noticed some issues with several items being marked out of stock. This didn’t dissuade him from shopping at Saks, though. Placing an order on January 1st on the Saks Fifth Avenue website for a pair of Michael Kors jeans, discounted at $77. To his chagrin, Browne received an email the next day notifying him that the pants were sold out. “It was just frustrating that I had spent the time to find an order, and then they said, ‘We’re sorry, tough luck’,” Browne expressed. After the interview, Browne also said he would be less likely to shop at Saks now because of that experience.
While there has been a lot of turmoil, things are currently looking up for Saks Global. They just appointed a new CEO, Geoffrey van Raemdonck, the former head of Neiman Marcus. Saks Global is now restructuring, but not completely gone. The Saks Off Fifth stores will permanently close, but Saks Global overall seems likely to live another day. Some, though, question whether the company will regain its footing. “This company has exhibited all of the characteristics of a trainwreck,” said Mark Cohen, the previous head of retail studies at Columbia Business School. With all of the negative news, my memories of spending afternoons at the mall with my mother keep replaying in my head. I refuse to believe that this is the end for the company. Time will tell whether Saks Global ever truly recovers. I, for one, am rooting for their recovery and the revival of department stores throughout the country.
Words by Erika Marquardt
Graphics by Aubrey Lauer