| Dreamstime.com
On Friday, Jan. 2, as the Christmas holiday drew to a close, everything seemed like business as usual at Saks Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, the glittering flagship of Saks Global. On the designer floor, a woman tried on a stunning floral Oscar de la Renta gown as her husband waited. Two young women in jeans outfits that belied the frigid temperatures outside chatted as they paced by the sales racks.
But these are not the best of times for Saks Global, which also includes Bergdorf Goodman, Neiman Marcus and the off-price Saks Off Fifth and Last Call brands. Weighed down by debt and the prospect of unpaid vendors withholding product, the luxe retail conglomerate has shifted helmsmen as it reportedly mulls Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Saks Global executive chairman Richard Baker has replaced chief executive Mark Merrick, who stepped down after the company missed a loan payment. According to The New York Times, “In October, the retailer lowered its guidance for the full year and said revenue in the quarter that ended Aug. 2 had fallen more than 13% from a year earlier, to $1.6 billion.”
Ironically, the very action that was supposed to reinvigorate Saks turned out to be key to its debt crisis – the $2.7 billion acquisition of the Neiman Marcus Group, which included Bergdorf, in 2024.he idea was to build a luxury juggernaut. But a $2.2 billion loan to create the new Saks Global brand has only resulted in a cash flow crunch and disenchanted vendors.
The department store group’s woes, however, are not expected to affect stores in the metro area. Saks Global has 70 stores nationwide, which besides the Saks flagship include the world’s only Bergdorf Goodman, also in Manhattan; Neiman Marcus in White Plains; the four Saks Shops at Greenwich; and Saks Off Fifth locations in Eastchester, White Plains and Stamford.
Saks closed its flagship Saks Off Fifth in Manhattan Dec. 31. Nine more Saks Off Fifth stores will close this year, including the one in West Hartford.
Can Saks turn its fortunes around? While the retail picture has been buffeted by the headwinds of e-commerce and the pandemic in recent years and despite tariffs and persistent inflation in 2025, shoppers proved resilient during the Christmas season, with Mastercard and Visa reporting a 3.9% and 4.2% growth in holiday spending respectively.
Crucial to Saks, experts said, will be rebuilding trust with vendors.
“They must do something very quickly to rectify this situation in the market, or they will not have a spring season,” Gary Wassner, CEO of brand insurer Hilldun Corp., told Business Insider. “Every order is on hold until Saks clarifies to the industry what they intend to do.”
