When I worked in downtown Toronto, a week didn’t go by when I walked through the flagship Bay during a lunch hour outing from work. Their shoe department was the absolute best! I got most of my lingerie and bed linens there as well.

Dee, I found it -- It's Adam Gopnick, not Anthony Lane.

https://www.newyorker.com/maga.....cd12320c42

This is his conclusion, in part:

The urge of the great department stores was to hide acquisition as sociability, to disguise acquisitiveness as membership, so that one entered them not as one entered a store—with one eye on the beseeching salesgirl, one hand on the knob of the door, just looking—but as one entered a library or a club: striding in with pleasure. The department store was the cathedral of that material aspiration, and its diminishment leaves us with one less place to go and hope in. ♦

Suz- Thank you for finding the link, what a marvelous article on this topic, and this was the opinion of these big department stores way back in 2003 too, when the Gap, Victoria Secret etc.. were now taking precedence over retailing as the new kids on the block. How times have changed once again.

Loved the conclusion that you've included because that's exactly how I feel about these grand department stores. It always felt like a special event going there. I was rather excited and hopeful entering these big stores even if it was only just to browse. With the advent of technology, all that has changed now.

Yes, isn't that walk through history amazing, Dee? I really enjoyed it. I loved working in one of those big department stores. It was special. Simpson's still had its packaging department right on site there back then -- narrow hallways behind the sales desks took you into a warren where people literarlly wrapped stuff up in brown paper and string.

*SOBBING*

I LOVE department stores. My favourite places to shop are Japanese departments stores.

I was thinking about this yesterday evening as I walked through and looked at one of our very few large department stores. I had a medical appointment on the other side of our city finishing around 5 pm which is a terrible time for traffic, so I had planned to go to the large mall nearby (which I hardly ever go to) for an hour or so. It was late night.
This store is David Jones, which the Aussies will know. It’s our only David Jones in NZ, there was one other which closed. It’s one of Australia’s 2 big department store chains I believe. It was quite enjoyable looking at the shoe section for me! But with the clothing, a few extra brands, but many of the brands I walked out the door of the department store and there were the stores of all those brands in the main mall. It seemed a weird duplication. I noticed that there were not many shoppers in David Jones. I did quite like the mixture of things, like I enjoyed looking at Waterford crystal and also Portmerion, a china brand from England that I love and own some of already. But I bought nothing!

There is an Australian movie called Ladies in Black about women working at a department store in Sydney in the 1950s. One of the interesting things about it is seeing how much interest and glamour attached to department store shopping in those days. The staff would open the doors and the customers came pouring in.

It’s a shame but I think those days are over. Department stores need to rethink their sales model. I think it’s do-able because there are places that still attract crowds. Zara and Uniqlo come to mind. In furniture and homewares, IKEA comes to mind. I also think shoe sections still do well - people like to try on shoes. It is tricky though because I think, in terms of brands, the market is quite fickle.

I’m sorry about your store Dee. I hope they convert the building into housing, since everybody needs it. Or it might become a mixed development. It’s amazing what they can do with beautiful old buildings. It might end up being better than ever.

Ket,Suz, Runcarla, Karen23- Thanks for chiming in, lots of nostalgia as we look back on how retail once was.
Angie- I’ll sob right along side you, yet, somehow I feel that the Japanese department stores may not suffer the same fate.
Jenni NZ- The shoe department was always a favourite of mine too. You’re right, these department stores do carry many of the same brands that you’ll find in the attached malls, its a limited stock but they often had some pretty darn good sales on these brand items.
Brooklyn- Yes, there was a certain glamour to these grand department stores, but now, we just have so much more shopping options and they haven’t been able to keep up with the pace of change. There is however, one department store here called Simons that is expanding its presence throughout Canada.They have excellent houses brands and are mostly focused only on fashion and house linens.

Well, according to the latest new, The Bay will keep 6 stores open for now. One of them is a flagship in downtown Toronto, this is the closest store to me.

I just saw that too Irina, it appears 3 stores here in Montreal, including the main one downtown are to be spared from closure at this time. Fingers crossed.
Sadly, my local one will not remain open and they had just done a beautiful renovation on it about 5 years ago.

I’m with you Angie! Only in a department store can you shop across brands to put a unique outfit together.

Carla, soooooo with you! Personally, nothing beats an awesome department store in my book. I LOVE the shopping experience. I'll take department store shopping a million times over boutique shopping.

It is sad. I don't want to think about this strange new phase of retail with less/no storefronts. It is true I do most shopping online, but it is still fun to browse around brightly lit racks of seasonal clothes.