The encyclopedia · Strategy & Leadership · Strategic decision · 2006–2021
Lord & Taylor, America's oldest department store, liquidated in 2021 after 195 years
The 1826 New York dry-goods store that invented the department store was sold for $75M in 2019 and gone by 2021.
Lord & Taylor
What happened
Lord & Taylor was founded in 1826 in New York City, making it the oldest department store in the United States. For nearly two centuries it defined American retail, pioneering the concept of a single store where customers could buy everything from clothing to home goods under one roof. By the 2000s it operated 38 stores across the US.
The chain was sold several times, each transaction adding complexity and debt. In 2006, NRDC Equity Partners bought it for $1.2 billion. Two years later, NRDC purchased Hudson's Bay Company and made Lord & Taylor a subsidiary. In 2019, HBC sold operational control to Le Tote, a clothing rental startup, for just $75 million cash — a fraction of the $1.2 billion paid 13 years earlier — while HBC kept the real estate.
The Le Tote deal was a disaster. The startup had no experience running physical stores and took on $213 million in inventory and $58 million per year in lease obligations. When COVID-19 hit in March 2020, Lord & Taylor's stores closed. By August 2020, the company filed for Chapter 11. Within weeks, all 38 stores were slated for permanent closure. By 2021, the 195-year-old institution was gone.
Why it happened
- A series of ownership changes — from NRDC to HBC to Le Tote — each loaded Lord & Taylor with transaction costs and debt without addressing its declining relevance in American retail.
- The 2019 sale to Le Tote, a clothing rental startup, put Lord & Taylor's operations in the hands of a company with no experience running physical stores or managing retail inventory.
- Lord & Taylor failed to differentiate itself in an increasingly crowded market — it was neither as affordable as Macy's nor as aspirational as Neiman Marcus, leaving it squeezed in the middle.
- COVID-19 dealt the final blow when stores closed in March 2020; the chain had no online business sufficient to survive and no owner willing to fund a turnaround.
The lesson
Selling a 195-year-old store to a startup that cannot run stores is fatal. The Le Tote deal killed Lord & Taylor by assuming a rental startup could save an ailing department store.
Aftermath
Lord & Taylor's intellectual property was sold to Saadia Group, who relaunched it as an online-only store. Regal Brands Global acquired the IP in 2024 and relaunched e-commerce in 2025. The physical chain that had anchored American shopping for 195 years — the nation's first department store — is gone. Its flagship Fifth Avenue store was sold and later became an Amazon office, a final symbol of how completely retail had changed.
Sources
- Lord & Taylor — Wikipedia (founding 1826, 2006 NRDC acquisition, 2008 HBC subsidiary, 2019 Le Tote sale, Chapter 11 2020, liquidation 2021)
- Reuters
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