Saks Fifth Avenue: “Where fashion takes off”
May 27, 2023
Saks Fifth Avenue, known as Saks, is an American luxury department store in New York City, founded by Andrew Saks.
Andrew Saks was born to a Jewish family in 1847 in Baltimore, Maryland. He worked as a peddler and paper boy before moving to Washington, D.C. in 1867. It was here that he established a men’s clothing store with his brother, Isadore. This first store, known as A. Saks & Co. was located in the Avenue House Hotel building in what is still Washington’s downtown shopping district.
In 1896 Saks opened a second store in Indianapolis, Indiana, and then expanded to Norfolk, Virginia. By 1897, he had six stores located in Washington, D.C., Norfolk, Virginia, Indianapolis and two in New York City.
In 1887, Saks erected a new store on the site of the old Avenue Hotel Building, which is the United States Navy Memorial Plaza today.
The year 1902 marked the opening of Saks’ New York City store at Herald Square on 34th and Broadway, his largest store to date. He ran the store with his brother, Isadore, and his two sons, Horace and William.
Andrew Saks died in 1912 and his son Horace took over the company’s management.
In 1923, Horace Saks merged his company with Gimbel Brothers, Inc., owned by his cousin Bernard Gimbel. In 1924, Horace Saks and Bernard Gimbel opened in the Saks Fifth Avenue Building at 611 Fifth Avenue in New York City. Over the following decades, Gimbel continued to expand the company, opening branches in Palm Beach, Southampton, Chicago, Miami Beach, Beverly Hills, Detroit, and Pittsburgh, to name just a few.
From 1960 through the 1990s, expansion continued with stores opening in the Midwest and the South. BATUS Inc. acquired Gimbel Bros., Inc. and its Saks Fifth Avenue subsidiary in 1973 as part of its diversification strategy. In 1990, BATUS sold Saks to Investcorp S.A., which took Saks public in 1996 as Saks Holdings, Inc.
Saks Off 5th was launched in 1990, with an outlet store in New York City, followed by 107 stores worldwide by 2016.
In 1998, Proffitt’s, Inc. acquired Saks Holdings Inc. and changed its name to Saks, Inc.
In November 2001 the first Middle Eastern store opened at Kingdom Centre in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
The first Mexican store opened at the Centro Comercial Santa Fe in Mexico City, Mexico, in 2007.
In 2013, the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC), owner of the competing chain Lord & Taylor, acquired Saks Fifth Avenue’s parent company for US$2.9 billion—plans called for up to seven Saks Fifth Avenues to open in major Canadian markets.
In January 2014, HBC announced the first Saks store in Canada would occupy 150,000 sq ft (14,000 m2) in the Queen Street building in downtown Toronto. The store opened in February 2016 with a second Toronto area location in the Sherway Gardens shopping center opening in spring 2016. On February 22, 2018, Saks Fifth Avenue opened its third Canadian store in Calgary, Alberta.
In 2015 Saks began a $250 million, three-year restoration of its Fifth Avenue flagship store.
Barney’s at Saks was opened on Friday, January 15, 2021, in the Saks Fifth Avenue store. Occupying 54,000 square feet on the fifth floor, Barney’s at Saks’ purpose was to discover and promote emerging designers.
On Monday, January 25, 2021, Saks Fifth Avenue unveiled the first standalone Barneys at Saks store in a 14,000-square-foot location in Greenwich, Connecticut.
In 2021, Saks announced that it would close all 27 of its fur salons by the end of January 2022, and would stop selling products made from animals.
Gloria Sauvé
Communications