New Saks is ‘first of its kind’
Saks Fifth Avenue’s new store in New York City is unlike any other the retailer has opened to date.
Located at Brookfield Place in lower Manhattan, the 86,000-sq.-ft. store is decidedly smaller than most Saks’ locations. It feels more like a boutique than a department store, with some traditional departments, such as handbags eliminated. (Handbags and certain other products are grouped by brand as opposed to category.) It also boasts such new services as a “power lunch” offering.
The merchandise mix includes a strong focus on emerging designers, many of whom are commonly not featured in department stores, along with such established but equally cutting-edge brands as Marc Jacobs. In total, the store will carry more than 200 brands and 100 exclusive styles unique to the location.
Product is merchandised in a “lifestyle edit” (meant to reflect how the contemporary woman shops). The beauty department has private treatment rooms for facials and other services. And the sunglass selection includes a 70-ft.-long mirrored display.
“Saks Downtown may be our second store in NYC, but it is the first of its kind,” said Marc Metrick, president, Saks Fifth Avenue. “The design is open, the edit is unique, and it’s quite simply fun to shop.”
The store has understated palette and modern look, with rose gold and brass fixtures, floor-to-ceiling windows and playful accents. The centerpiece of the space, designed in partnership with Found Associates, is a stepped amphitheater, dubbed “The Stadium,” that rises vertically between the first and second floors. Designer installations will rotate in and out of the space.
In other highlights, a 220-foot-long by 12-ft.-high mural, created by London-based Artist Barry Reigate, runs the full length of the shoes and sunglasses departments on level two. The graphic design is composed of interconnecting freestyle lines that play off the clean, crisp lines of the overall store design.
The store boasts an enhanced Fifth Avenue Club, with five private rooms and two VIP suites. The Club also is offering a new service, customized for the downtown shopper, called the “power lunch” that provides customers with a style consultation and express beauty treatment in 60 minutes, with lunch served as well.
Saks is also launching a “Save Me” hotline to help customers with fashion emergencies like a broken heel or ripped seam. The Saks At Your Service Mercedes-Benz sprinter, the ultimate personal shopping experience that brings the best of Saks to the home, hotel or office, now also serves downtown.
The downtown store is the first of several planned new stores and renovations Saks plans in the New York metro area in the coming years, including a dedicated Saks Downtown men’s store (opening in spring 2017); the renovation at the flagship Fifth Avenue store (2016-2019); three new The Saks Shops at Greenwich stand-alone store openings, including 10022-SHOE (Oct. 20), The Collective (Feb. 2017), and The Vault (May 2017); the renovation of Saks Walt Whitman Shops on Long Island (Oct. 20); and a new location in New Jersey’s American Dream project (2018).