Saks Fifth Avenue
Saks Fifth Avenue (originally Saks & Company; colloquially Saks) is an American luxury department store chain headquartered in New York City and founded by Andrew Saks. The original store opened in the F Street shopping district of Washington, D.C. in 1867. Saks expanded into Manhattan with its Herald Square store in 1902 and flagship store on Fifth Avenue in 1924. The chain was acquired by Tennessee-based Proffitt's, Inc. (renamed Saks, Inc.) in 1998, and Saks, Inc. was acquired by the Canadian-based Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) in 2013.[5][6]
This article is about the department store chain. For the related chain of off-price stores, see Saks Off 5th. For its former parent company, see Saks, Inc.Company type
1867
- 42
Marc Metrick (president, 2015)
- Saks, Inc. (1998–2013)
- Hudson's Bay Company (2013–present)
As of March 2021, Saks Fifth Avenue operates its brick-and-mortar stores and e-commerce platform as separate divisions, distinguished as SFA and Saks, respectively.[7] Saks Off 5th, originally a clearance store for Saks Fifth Avenue, is now a large off-price division in its own right.[8][9]
Legal controversies[edit]
In 2005, vendors filed against Saks alleging unlawful chargebacks. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigated the complaint for years and, according to the New York Times, "exposed a tangle of illicit tactics that let Saks... keep money it owed to clothing makers", inflating Saks' yearly earnings up to 43% and abusively collecting around $30 million from suppliers over seven years.[73] Saks settled with the SEC in 2007, after firing three or more executives involved in the fraudulent activities.[73][74]
In 2014, Saks fired transgender employee Leyth Jamal after she was allegedly "belittled by coworkers, forced to use the men's room and repeatedly referred to by male pronouns (he and him)".[75][76] After Jamal submitted a lawsuit for unfair dismissal, the company stated in a motion to dismiss that "it is well settled that transsexuals are not protected by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964."[75][76][77] In a court filing, the United States Department of Justice rebuked Saks' argument, stating that "discrimination against an individual based on gender identity is discrimination because of sex."[78] The Human Rights Campaign removed the company from its list of "allies" during the controversy.[75][76][77] The lawsuit was later settled amicably, with undisclosed terms.[78]
In 2017, following the events of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, Saks's San Juan store in Mall of San Juan suffered major damages along with its neighboring anchor store Nordstrom. Taubman Centers, the company which owns the mall, filed a lawsuit against Saks for failing to provide an estimated reopening date and failing to restore damages after the hurricane due to a binding contract.[79][80] Although Nordstrom reopened on November 9, 2018,[81] Saks Fifth Avenue vacated The Mall of San Juan after two years of ligitation.[82]
