Maybe that’s why they’re out of business.
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Or why they’ve stayed in business so long. The point being: I’ll miss the gracious, person-to-person customer service.
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I think the person-to-person service will always be there, but probably shifting away from the middle level stores like Bed Bath and Beyond to say Williams Sonoma. I imagine anyone buy higher end cookware will always expect this.
They sell furniture. https://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/store/category/furniture/kitchen-dining-furniture/13494?icid=hp_homepage_topcategories_diningfurniture And they’re arranged by department.
Do you have a definition of ‘department store’ to share? Is there a department such a store must have to qualify?
I agree, lots of shopping for BBB’s type of merchandise moved online. I just spend a wedding week with lots of late 20’s/early 30’s adults. Repeatedly, a conversation would arise about a product that someone was raving about and a whole bunch of them pulled out their phones and literally ordered right then and there. They wouldn’t dream of waiting around to purchase at BBB.
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Sure. A department store is usually multiple stories, and it aims to serve an extremely wide variety of needs. For instance, Macy’s has clothes, cosmetics, accessories, and furniture for the bedroom and the living room in addition to kitchen and bath stuff. But even if you’re going to quibble about definitions, BB&B is certainly not
I named a bunch of others, and there are way more than that.
So Kohl’s and Target don’t qualify? If it matters, the downtown BB&B store had multiple stories and escalators.
Does Nordstrom make the cut? Walmart? Target? Costco? Neiman-Marcus?
The concept of a department store is slippery without preconceived notions.
Usually. Is what I wrote. As you can see. And - as I also wrote - even if
you’re the one who said that BB&B is “one of the last vestiges.” Clearly, you don’t believe that, or you wouldn’t be throwing out more examples of department stores.
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Department Stores are where we went to see Santa.
Target and Wal*Mart don’t qualify for holiday memories.
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The concept of a Department Store had been very clearly defined, but modern shifts in retailing have blurred these lines. It’s primarily the “merchandise mix” and presence or absence of services that determine the type of retailer.
A traditional Department Store sells both “soft” and “hard” goods, soft being clothing, towels, bedding etc. and hard being furniture or appliances. Traditional flagship store are multi-level, but branch stores in malls may be single level. There is/was also a service component that is sadly dwindling in all but the most expensive of stores. Service levels at Macy’s are in the dumpster these days and Bloomingdale’s isn’t much better.
Target and Wal-Mart are big-box stores because of their “discount” policies and single-floor layouts. They also don’t have a flagship store or offer the services that a dept. store traditionally would. It’s precisely the lack of services that give them the discount status. Theoretically, goods would cost the consumer less at these places because they are not paying for delivery, fancy packaging, window displays, alterations etc.
Costco is a Wholesale Club based on it’s price policies and membership requirements.
Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus are commonly called dept. stores, but they are technically specialty retailers because they only have soft goods (clothing, shoes, cosmetics etc.) Services that were commonplace in many full line dept. stores can generally be found in these stores nowadays.
BBB would be considered a specialty retailer because they focused on goods for the home.
Source: 4 year degree from FIT in Fashion Merchandising and 15+ years working in the fashion business. And an absolute love of reading about old retailers.
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Yeah. I agree, a fairly focus set of goods
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But only if we’re talking about authentic department stores, right?
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Don’t get ME started ipse… I can talk your ear off about department stores all day every day. I have opinions 
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Only a REAL department store has a Santa that speaks Dutch 
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You must’ve been my first customer when I was a shoe salesman at Nordstroms.
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Do you have anything in a 9 AAAA? Asking for a friend …
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No, I said historians may conclude that.
There may somewhere be a centenarian who thinks there hasn’t been a true American department store since the Bon Marché closed. That’d be based on preconceptions, too.
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Where? Does a shoe department require Brannocks and fitters? Is Nordstrom a department store by your definition?
From my post:
Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus are commonly called dept. stores, but they are technically specialty retailers because they only have soft goods (clothing, shoes, cosmetics etc.) Services that were commonplace in many full line dept. stores can generally be found in these stores nowadays.
Having studied the history of merchandising, the traditional department store has an academic definition. It is not “mine” but the actual definition used in business and historic writing.
Here are a few sources for your perusal. Ms. Whitaker is considered an expert in consumer history and had written extensively about department stores.
This site is run by Bruce Kopyeck, author of several comprehensive retail histories:
Michael Lisicky’s books–he’s a department store historian, author of 10 books and a regular contributor to Forbes magazine:
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