Goodbye to Lord & Taylor, and the Way We Used to Shop

[elleng]

*This is not just nostalgia for me. These closures signify how the relentless march of capitalism, now accelerated by the pandemic, has robbed us of spaces to be together and to pass time slowly. And that deeper shift explains why, as store after store shutters, former customers of one retail chain or another may find themselves like me, surprised to be eulogizing a place we stopped patronizing years ago.'>>>

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/03/opinion/lord-taylor-closed.html?

[secondwind]

1. Very sad. I loved that store. Bought all my daughter's dresses there.

But that was long ago.

[elleng]

2. Dad bought dresses for me there (in NYC,)

and many years later, daughters and I always found just the right thing for proms and other special events (in DC suburb.)

[montanacowboy]

3. When I was a kid many moons ago

My Mother and Aunt would take me shopping on Saturday on the street car and made a day of it. First taking me to the Buster Brown section of the shoe salon where I could see my toes illuminated in the X-ray machine and made sure there was plenty of room so I didn't outgrow my new oxfords too fast.

Then Mom and Aunt drug me around all 6 floors of Stone & Thomas, smelling that wonderful smell of marble floors and escalators, making the obligatory stop in the powder room, finally culminating in the high point of the day, lunch in the Tea Room. Then a long street car ride back home.

It is a memory you never forget.

[OnlinePoker]

4. Here's how bad it is in San Francisco

More Than Half Of San Francisco Storefronts Closed Due To Pandemic

More than half of all storefronts in San Francisco are no longer in business due to COVID-19, according to the survey by the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce.

“The survey showed only 46 percent of storefront businesses in San Francisco that were open at the beginning of the pandemic are still operating,” said Jay Cheng, spokesman of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce.

That means 1,200 stores are still open, while about 1,300 have closed, Cheng said.

https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2020/08/24/more-than-half-of-san-francisco-storefronts-closed-due-to-pandemic/

-------------------

From the first line in the article, it sounds like they are closed permanently, not just shuttered temporarily.

[Warpy]

5. I never shopped there, I could never afford it

and when I lived in Boston, the only time I bought anything above ground was off a pushcart.

Still, they were good for window shopping.

Retail was on the ropes before this virus hit us. Decades of cheap labor conservatism that refused to allow the minimum wage to chase inflation have taken their toll. People just don't have the money to shop, not like they used to.

And don't blame Amazon. I would much rather flip through a rack to find something than flip through hundreds of thumbnail pictures on dozens of pages to find it. Sears & Roebuck didn't shut the country down in the 30s and Amazon isn't doing it now.

So goodbye, Lord & Taylor. You had a good run and will be missed. We who are left behind are going to have to learn how to mend.