Explore every episode of the podcast Luxury Retail Market

In this episode, LRM examines the unraveling of Saks Global—the entity formed by Hudson’s Bay Company’s $2.65B acquisition of Neiman Marcus and merger with Saks Fifth Avenue.

This episode analyzes:

• The financial engineering behind the “fantasy merger”
• The controversial real estate strategy associated with Richard Baker
• The structural decline of the traditional department store model
• The widening divide between aspirational and top-tier luxury consumers
• A strategic roadmap for CEO Geoffroy van Raemdonck grounded in human-centered leadership and organizational alignment

At stake is more than a bankruptcy restructuring. The question is whether Saks Global can evolve from a real estate vehicle into a true luxury curator in the era of Luxury 4.0.

From today’s vantage point, the years following 2020 reshaped consumer behavior, supply chains, and competitive dynamics, creating a new and more volatile equilibrium.

In this episode, we examine how the industry transitioned from crisis to recalibration between 2020 and 2025, and distill the strategic imperatives luxury leaders must prioritize to remain resilient, relevant, and competitive in 2026 and beyond.

Sources: Empirical evidence, Industry experts and McKinsey, BCG & Bain industry reports.

For deeper research. long-form insights and private podcast episodes on the luxury retail industry, visit + subscribe at luxuryretailmarket.org.

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