Lunch At Barneys’, Breakfast At Tiffany’s: Retailers Are Becoming Restaurateurs To Boost Sales

This fall, a new restaurant will open inside the Barneys New York department store at Copley Place in Boston, Massachusetts. It marks another step in the march of retailers into the restaurant business. Freds, the high-end department store chain’s restaurant brand, has origins that date back to the 1920s, when — under a different name — it was a counter-service operation selling roast-beef sandwiches at 17th Street and Seventh Avenue in Manhattan. Now, there are five Freds restaurants up and running in Barneys stores — two in New York and one each in Beverly Hills, Chicago and San Francisco. And there’s plenty of room for the retailer to continue to grow in the food-and-beverage industry, Barneys CEO Daniella Vitale said. Like other retailers, Barneys is looking for ways to keep pace in an era of online shopping. Read more at CNBC.