Lord & Taylor To Close Its Doors For Good After Nearly 200 Years

After 196 years, Lord & Taylor is officially closing its doors for good. The first department store retailer made the announcement Thursday that it would close all of its 38-remaining brick-and-mortar stores and its e-commerce site, with both already offering liquidation sales, CNN reported.

In a statement obtained by CNN, Ed Kremer, chief restructuring officer at Lord & Taylor said: "While we are still entertaining various opportunities, we believe it is prudent to simultaneously put the remainder of the stores into liquidation to maximize value of inventory for the estate while pursuing options for the company's brands.”

After being purchased by Le Tote from Hudson Bay Co. for $75 million in 2019, Lord & Taylor filed for bankruptcy in August. As the retailer looked for a buyer, it announced store closures, increasing the number of locations to close in a matter of a few weeks.

Now, Lord & Taylor will close all of its stores as it was unable to secure a buyer in bankruptcy, which was further compounded by the retail downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic. In March, retailers temporarily closed their stores due to stay-at-home orders across the U.S.

Lord & Taylor folded under the weight of the pandemic as sales dropped and foot traffic dwindled.

Lord & Taylor’s bankruptcy filing joined a litany of other retailers that also filed for Chapter 11 during the coronavirus pandemic, including Neiman Marcus, J. Crew, Brooks Brothers, RTW Retailwinds, Ascena Retail Group among others.

With a history that dates back to 1826, Lord & Taylor opened its first store on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, which was eventually moved several times, winding up at its flagship shop on Fifth Avenue in 1914.