The Death Knell For The Bricks-And-Mortar Store? Not Yet

On a quiet strip of Rue de Marignan, just down the block from the Paris power-lunch spot L’Avenue, Alex Bolen, the chief executive of Oscar de la Renta, was standing outside No. 4, where the brand is to open a store next May. “We think long and hard before we enter into a lease,” Mr. Bolen said. “With all that’s going on in retail, we need to think even harder. For a luxury brand, what’s the point of a store, at least a bricks-and-mortar store?” It’s a question many in the industry are asking, and trying to answer anew. In a difficult climate for retail, the stakes are very real, as 4, rue de Marignan makes clear. Above the doorway, a sign hung reading “Reed Krakoff.” Mr. Krakoff, now the chief artistic officer of Tiffany & Company, shuttered his namesake brand in 2015 and never opened a shop in the space. Recent years have seen store closings from small brands and seismic contractions from major retailers, including Hudson’s Bay Company’s sale of the landmark Lord & Taylor building on Fifth Avenue last month to WeWork, the office-sharing start-up. (Lord & Taylor will rent about a quarter of its former space to continue operating.) But the solution, say several retail innovators, is not the end of bricks and mortar, as some in the industry once anticipated. Read more at The New York Times.