Saks to shutter 62 stores with massive clearance sales… and gives gift card update

Saks will shut most of its discount stores and instead focus on its luxury shops under a bid to save the business.

Of the 69 Saks Off Fifth locations, just 12 will stay open after the cull.  All five Last Call shops will close. 

Closing sales will start tomorrow (January 31). 

Earlier this week, parent company Saks Global said it would permanently shut the Saks Off 5th website, where a clearance sale is already underway. 

Some items online are marked down by as much as 90 percent, with the site set to close once remaining stock is sold. Similar discounts are expected in stores.

The move is the latest after Saks Global – which also owns Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman – filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on January 14.  It has huge debts and needs to save money. 

Bosses say the moves are designed to sharpen its focus on full-price luxury brands.  Saks Off 5th and Last Call – the discount arms of Saks and Neiman Marcus -compete with off-price rivals such as Nordstrom Rack and TJ Maxx. 

Customers can use gift cards through February 14, and stores will continue to process returns and exchanges for purchases made before Saturday. Any remaining rewards tied to store credit cards can be redeemed until March 1. 

Saks Off 5th carries a variety of high-end designer brands as well as clearance items from the main Saks Fifth Avenue stores (pictured: models pose in holiday dresses from Saks Fifth Avenue)

Bargain hunters will be pleased to learn that, in light of the liquidation, Saks Off 5th is offering major sales online – with some items being discounted up to 90 percent

Saks Global said the 12 Saks Off 5th stores remaining open will be mainly used to to sell unwanted stock from its full-price stores – Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman. 

In the past it had brought in discounted stock specifically for the off-price chain.

Chief executive Geoffroy van Raemdonck said the changes are part of a broader effort to realign the company around its core luxury business. 

The company emphasized that Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman stores and their e-commerce platforms will continue operating as usual. 

This month’s bankruptcy filing came just over a year after a high-profile deal brought Saks Fifth Avenue, Bergdorf Goodman, and Neiman Marcus together in a bid to build a luxury retail powerhouse.

‘The debt-fueled acquisition of Neiman Marcus always made bankruptcy a likely destination for Saks Global. 

The only real surprise has been the speed of the collapse, which has come barely a year after the deal closed,’ Neil Saunders, a retail expert at GlobalData, told the Daily Mail. 

The filing raised questions about the future of the storied US fashion brands, although Saks said early Wednesday that its stores would remain open after securing $1.75 billion in financing and naming a new chief executive. 

Saks Off 5th is the off-price, discount outlet division of the upscale department store

The Radio City Rockettes are seen backstage ahead of the Saks Fifth Avenue Holiday Light Show and Window Unveiling in New York City on November 24, 2025

Saks said in November that it would shut nine of its roughly 100 Saks Off Fifth stores in January, but there are growing fears the final number of closures could be far higher. 

Retailers often use Chapter 11 bankruptcy to exit expensive leases, and Saks is expected to close around half of its Off Fifth locations, along with several of its 41 main Saks stores and some of its 36 Neiman Marcus locations.

In a typical Chapter 11 process, store closures usually begin around 30 days after the filing. ‘Bankruptcy will give Saks Global some breathing space and a chance to restructure,’ Saunders added.

‘However, it is vital that debt levels are brought down and that the company has room to make the investments needed to make up for more than a year of neglect. Relations with suppliers will also have to be reset. All of this will be a tall order that will take some years to correct.’ 

Long favored by wealthy and high-profile shoppers, Saks never fully rebounded from the COVID-19 pandemic as online competition intensified and luxury brands increasingly shifted sales to their own stores. 

Last year, the company struggled to pay suppliers, prompting some vendors to withhold inventory.

Former Neiman Marcus chief executive Geoffroy van Raemdonck will succeed Richard Baker, the architect of the acquisition strategy that left Saks Global heavily indebted. 

Baker, the company’s executive chairman, had assumed the CEO role only at the beginning of the year.

Shoppers are eager to know whether the bankruptcy filing will translate into deep discounts on luxury goods

Shoppers are eager to know whether the bankruptcy filing will translate into deep discounts on luxury clothes and accessories

Marc Metrick, the retailer’s former CEO, is reportedly plotting his exit from the cash-strained chain

Court filings show Saks Global’s assets and liabilities are each estimated at between $1 billion and $10 billion.  

The original Saks Fifth Avenue store – founded in 1867 by retail pioneer Andrew Saks and known for its exclusive brands such as Chanel, Cucinelli, and Burberry, as well as its holiday light displays – has long been a fixture of American luxury retail.

Its flagship on Fifth Avenue in New York became a tourist attraction in its own right, famous for its elaborate holiday windows and front-row access to the world’s biggest designers. 

But in recent years, Saks has struggled to adapt to a luxury market transformed by internet shopping and brand-owned stores.

The crisis marks a dramatic turn for a retailer that only last year pitched a bold comeback plan built around its $2.7billion takeover of rival Neiman Marcus. But the deal hasn’t paid off for either retailer. Since the merger, Saks closed a store in San Francisco and Neiman Marcus shuttered a flagship in Dallas.

Saks took on billions in debt to fund the deal, betting that combining two struggling luxury chains would turn their retail fortunes around.

Meanwhile, Saks Off Fifth, its discount chain rival to TK Maxx, said in November it planned to close nine stores by early 2026 as part of cost-cutting efforts.