Barneys Goes Bankrupt: What Happened to the Luxury Retailer?

Barneys -- one of America's most iconic luxury clothing brand retailers -- has filed for bankruptcy protection. Evan Clark, Deputy Managing Editor of Women's Wear Daily, explains why the company is in dire need of a rebound.

[TASconfidential]

This is why Barney’s went out of business:
1.Poor Customer Service
2. Couldn’t keep up with competition....

In terms of Customer Service, Barneys was always known for employee snobbery, and snippy salespeople. The only
Customers they valued was the celebrity, many of whom don’t buy most of their own clothes.
Add the “stop & frisk”, issues with the black customers and people just stopped shopping there.

In terms of competition, the luxury department store changed. In Barney’s prime, they had the niche of being the only store with exclusive cutting edge designers. Once Barney’s competitors (Neiman’s, Saks, Bergdorf’s) started selling those same designers, even more customers left. They didn’t need Barney’s anymore. They could get cutting edge designers, from other stores, with better customer service.

Good riddance to Barney’s. Glad they’re gone.

[BobSmith-uiqu]

Landlord ups the rent, tenant can’t afford, goes bankrupt, landlord gets nothing. Who wins?

[DOYLECLEVERLOBE]

$30 million in rent for the one store, yeah I could see that as a problem.

[markg]

Barneys sales people were snobs! Just like those in Needless-Markup (Neiman-Marcus).

[patrickm]

Good riddance, times are changing and they failed to innovate. It’s like fashion, one day you’re in, the next day you’re out and unfortunately that day has come for them.

[Max-wdwz]

they don't treat people of color well in this store so I stopped shopping there and I told my friends also not to shop there I don't think they will be open to much longer