PASSIONS
44
FORTUNE.COM // APR.1.19
today), it’s still trying to channel
that spirit as it looks to make the
Fifth Avenue store a modern-day
destination.
Last year the beauty section
moved up a floor and gained 40%
more space, offering new amenities
like facial workouts and anticellu-
lite treatments. The area,
historically on street level
to generate shopper visits,
offers clean sight lines
with more natural light
from outside, a feature all
floors will have by 2021.
Shopping isn’t the
only component of Met-
rick’s vision for Saks as
a New York destination:
L’Avenue, a high-endPhilippe Starck– designed restau-
rant, recently opened on the ninth
floor. It’s the only outpost of the
Paris eatery that attracts A-list
names like Rihanna and Beyoncé.
While Saks is thriving now, it
had been in turmoil almost since
2013, when it was bought by Cana-
dian department store conglomer-
ate HBC for $2.4 billion.
There was turnover in the
C-suite, strategy lurches, and the
prevailing opinion that Saks was
an icon adrift. So when Metrick,
now a 23-year veteran of the
brand, took the reins in 2015, he
immediately began with a deep
dive into customer perceptions.
Among the humbling discoveries:
Saks and its archrival Neiman
Marcus were interchangeable
in shoppers’ eyes.
“After years of trying to be all
things to all people, Saks didn’tThe dazzling new escalator con-
nects the street level—for decades
home to a beauty area teeming
with sales staff trying to spritz you
with perfume—to an opened-up
second floor. The new street-level
space is a 53,000-square-foot
emporium for leather goods and
handbags, what Metrick calls the
“gateway drug” for luxe shoppers.
By late summer of this year, the
renovations will include The
Vault on the lower level, once a
storage basement but soon to be
home to Saks’ priciest jewelry,
like Chopard watches.
The buzz of activity comes at a
time when Saks has some wind
in its sails, after going through
a rough patch three years ago.
Sales were declining quarter after
quarter. It was losing market share,
and the grande dame of New York
luxury, a fixture since 1924, had lost
much of what made it stand out.
But in the past two years, sales
have grown seven out of eight
quarters, and recent results have
bested those of two major rivals—
Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus.
The luxury market might
be crowded, but it is booming.
According to Bain & Co., the U.S.
personal luxury-goods market rose
5% last year, to $85 billion.
A run-of-the-mill store just
wouldn’t do, so for Saks, a $250 mil-
lion multiyear remodel of the Fifth
Avenue location was in order.
“There is no better time to ce-
ment your strategy as
a luxury retailer than
when you’re about to
put a quarter of a billion
dollars into your flagship
store,” says Metrick.
While Saks isn’t
installing anything out-
landish, like the indoor
ski hills it featured in
the 1930s (try getting a
CFO to sign off on that
“After years
of trying to be
all things to
all people, Saks
didn’ t stand
for any thing.”
—MARC ME TRICKMarc Metrick ascends the Rem
Koolhaas–designed escalator to
the store’s new cosmetics area.