The Department Store (oh so long ago...)

When I was growing up in Worcester, the major department store was Denholm's (formally: Denholm & McKay). Denholm's was also known as The Boston Store, because Worcester was the state's second city and was perpetually in the shadow of Boston, from whence cometh all things fine and sophisticated. 

There were a couple of other department stores in Worcester - R.H. White's and Barnard's (which I think was a full department, not just a clothing store), as well as specialty shops for men (Shack's, Ware-Pratt, Lujon's) and women (Marcus, Ullian's, Richard Healy - where one Christmas, my father bought my mother a fur hat). There was also a good-sized Filene's, with a good-sized Filene's Basement in its basement. But Filene's didn't sell furniture and housewares, so, to me, it wasn't a true department store. 

When it came to department stores, Denholm was the It Store for Worcester. 

I loved going to Denholm's. Like all true department stores, it sold pretty much everything, including furniture and toys. It's where we went for our Stride-Rite shoes, our Easter dresses, our pictures with Santa (one per childhood: I'm in the b&w one with Kath and Tom, Rich and Trish had their own pic - in color). If I remember correctly, the toy department was near the shoe department, so after we got our Stride-Rites, we could look around the toy department. Ooh! Aah!

Denholm's closed in the mid-1970's, and one of my mother's last purchases there was a fablous covered casserole dish - dark brown bottom, pale robin's egg blue and brown leaf pattern lid - which she gave me as a "housewarming gift" when I moved permanently to Boston. I still use this gorgeous dish, and think of my mother (and Denholm's) every time I use it. 

When I moved to Boston, Filene's Basement was my main source for clothing, but Jordan's was my department store. I still have an upholstered arm chair I got there 40 years or so ago. Over the years, I've gotten towels, sheets, cookware, dishware, records, books and lots of other stuff (including some clothing) at Jordan Marsh. 

(I did a Christmas season retail stint at both Filene's and Jordan's. In both cases, I worked in the stationery department.)

Most cities had an iconic department store or two. In Providence it was Shepard's. For Hartford, it was G. Fox. Philadelphia? Wannamaker's. Detroit? Hudson. Boston? Jordan Marsh.

Chicago had two: Carson Pieri Scott and Marshall Field. 

New York City has two as well: Gimbel's and Macy's.

The only one of these department stores still standing as its own brand is Macy's which, along the way, has hoovered up many of the rest, including Jordan Marsh and Marshall Field.

When it comes to department stores, in plenty of places, Macy's is the last man standing. (And it's not as department-y in Boston as Jordan's was. There's no furniture department, no books and records, no stationery, toys in the Christmas season only. And, unlike Jordan's: no bakery where you could get blueberry muffins. Fortunately, the recipe lives on, and I've made it: delish.)

But it's not clear how much longer Macy's will hang on.

It's closed a lot of its stores over the last couple of years, and plans on shuttering nearly one-third of the remaining stores. (No word as of this writing which stores in Massachusetts are getting the axe.)

There are plenty of reasons why department stores are going the way of the dodo.

Big box retailers like Walmart and Target may have lower quality, but they do the job of selling a tremendous variety of stuff. And you can even buy a lot more food at them than blueberry muffins. 

Online shopping has, of course, cut bigly into department sales. And then there was the pandemic...

Another key problem: The retail industry has been split in two as inflation has taken its toll. That means brands like Walmart that are focused on inexpensive items are succeeding, as are luxury brands for people who still have means to afford finer items. But department stores, focused on America’s middle class, are fading. (Source: Yahoo)

Hmmmm. Big department store fade as metaphor for the hollowing out of the American middle class, anyone? 

Another issue with the Macy's of the world, according to retail analyst Neil Saunders, is that they weren't at all nimble when responding to the threats from big boxdom and online. 

But to retail analyst Neil Saunders of GlobalData, the key problem for Macy’s and many other troubled department store chains is more fundamental: Company management did little to update their offerings to compete with new rivals over the years.

“Quite frankly, a lot of them stopped caring. They stopped listening to customers,” he said. “Sure online has taken its share, sure big box has taken its share. But most of all, it’s a failure to evolve.”

And that "failure to evolve" has cost the department stores big time. 

Saunders’ stats show that department stores have fallen from 14.1% of US retail sales in 1993 to just 9.8% ten years later, to 5.7% in 2013, and to only 2.6% last year. Total sales by US department stores are expected to fall from $103 billion in 2018 to only $81 billion by 2026, according to projections from Coresight Research, an analytics firm that tracks the sector.

Wow! That is some precipitous fall. 

I'd hate to see department stores entirely disappear - especially the Macy's in downtown Boston. I don't shop there a lot, but when I want a set of sheets, that's where I head. 

“Decline is inevitable. But I don’t think extinction is inevitable,” Saunders said.

Phew...

Meanwhile, I'll do what us olds do: wallow in a bit of nostalgia, in this case for shopping at Denholm's and Jordan Marsh, those long ago  department stores. Glad I still have that casserole from Denholm's.