If Saks Holdings Inc., parent of Saks Fifth Avenue stores, does buy Barney’s Inc., parent of Barneys New York stores, will the stores themselves be named Saks Fifth Avenue/Barneys New York?
That’s too much to put on a shopping bag. Too much for an operator to say when answering the phone. Sounds like a law firm with a few too many partners.
Saks Holdings and Isetan Co.–Barneys’ financial partner in some licensing and real estate ventures–are bidding to acquire the upscale Barneys stores, which filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January 1996. The $290 million Saks/Isetan bid could be rejected by the court and creditors.
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Saks has stores here on Michigan Avenue and at Old Orchard. Barneys came into the Chicago market at Oak and Rush streets with a big flourish about five years ago.
Talk in the retail community focuses on possible name changes or merging of stores. The word from one of the involved companies is that both chains would operate as they are, with Barneys as a separate division of Saks Holdings–if the deal goes through.
The situation is really heating up, with Barneys is asking for more delays. Isetan is anxious to retrieve some of its money (one of the big issues is a dispute over rental payments for certain Barneys stores).
Travel taking off in big way: Travel superstores? Gigantic retail stores are called superstores, or big boxes, when they’re just plain huge. When they specialize–as in Sportmart, CompUSA, Circuit City, etc.–they’re category killers.
When Denver-based Samsonite Corp. or other luggage manufacturers start opening travel-related superstores, will they be Big Bags?
Samsonite is pursuing just such a business, aiming to create a new chain called Travel Expo, a place that sells everything from airline tickets to maps to disposable cameras and travel-size toothpaste. Stores are already open in Kansas City and Houston.
Samsonite did not return calls regarding possible locations in the Chicago area.
The Houston store has 800 styles of Samsonite luggage, including its American Tourister and Lark brands.
But so many choices might be a problem. Does anyone need to look at 800 brands, wonder independent travel store owners such as Sandye Wexler.
“I can’t imagine mega-corporations dealing with things like travel books and maps,” said Wexler, owner of one of Chicago’s best-known travel stores, The Savvy Traveller at 310 S. Michigan Ave.
The store–which sends customers regular newsletters, holds seminars and carries three lines of midpriced luggage–has an extensive selection of travel books and maps, along with the vast miscellany of travel products.
But might Travel Expo become the Barnes & Noble and Borders of travel shops? Kroch’s & Brentano’s and Stuart Brent and other independents thought they could pull through the takeover by big book chains.
Wexler says she “can’t imagine they would impact us. This is a difficult business to run. There’s not a lot of markup in some of the products. It’s a love-not-money business.”
Shining up shoe deal: San Francisco-based Levi Strauss & Co. and Stride Rite Corp. of Lexington, Mass., are working together on a line of casual shoes under the Levi’s brand name.
Levi’s spokesman Brad Williams said Friday that he had no idea when the shoes would reach Chicago, because “the agreement was just signed.”
A Stride Rite spokeswoman, Lorie Karnath, said hikers and boots, and other casual styles, should be in stores by July 1998.