Saks Fifth Avenue

Saks Fifth Avenue is a chain of upscale department stores, and is a subsidary of Saks Incorporated. In terms of price (and presumably quality), Saks Fifth Avenue is on par with Neiman Marcus and above Nordstrom. It world headquarters is currently located in Birmingham, Alabama.

Related Topics:
Department stores - Saks Incorporated - Neiman Marcus - Nordstrom - Birmingham, Alabama

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The flagship store was opened by Horace Saks in 1924 on Fifth Avenue (hence the name) in New York City.

Related Topics:
Horace Saks - 1924 - Fifth Avenue - New York City

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The Saks family had operated stores since 1902, but in 1923 they merged with Gimbel's and concentrated the upscale business in the Saks Fifth Avenue store. Within a few years Saks began opening branches.

Related Topics:
1902 - 1923 - Gimbel's

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The very first Saks branch store opened in 1926 Palm Beach, Florida as a resort store, followed by a Southhampton resort store in 1928. The first full-line year-round Saks store was opened in Chicago in 1929, followed by another resort store in Miami Beach. In 1938 Saks expanded to the West Coast, opening in Beverly Hills, California. By the end of the 1930's Saks Fifth Avenue had a total of 10 stores, including resort locations such as Sun Valley, Mount Stowe and Newport. More full-line stores followed with Detroit in 1940, Pittsburgh in 1949, San Francisco in 1952. Beginning in 1963 more expansion followed on the West Coast with stores in Phoenix, Arizona (Biltmore Fashion Park), Palo Alto (Stanford Shopping Center), Palm Springs (resort store), Carmel and La Jolla, California. Chevy Chase, Maryland in 1963 followed along with Troy, Michigan in 1967, replacement of an earlier Philadelphia store with a Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania store in 1969, and Atlanta in 1969. By 1990, Saks had 48 stores nationwide. After an early 1990's retrenchment in California that saw the closing of stores in Woodland Hills, Palo Alto, Mission Valley Center in San Diego and in La Jolla, Saks picked up 4 locations from I. Magnin after Federated Department Store shut that division down, using them to re-open in San Diego at Fashion Valley, replace its smaller, outdated store at Biltmore Fashion Park in Phoenix and operate dual-outlet expansions in Carmel and Beverly Hills. It then rolled out a new smaller store format, dubbed "Main Street", using this to open new stores in Santa Barbara, Palos Verdes, Pasadena, La Jolla, and Danville (closed after 11 months). But in the vicissitude of corporate fadishness and every changing strageties, Saks once again retrenched in 2004-2005, shutting down the 1990's La Jolla and Palos Verdes stores along with 9 others nationwide.

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