The Cost of Saks' Sale

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When Saks cut prices on luxury goods 70% in late November, they moved a lot of merchandise—and pissed off a lot of designers and independent boutique owners. "Saks's maneuver marked an open abandonment of the longstanding unwritten pact between retailers and designers over when, and to what extent, to cut prices. Those old rules boiled down to this: Leave the goods at full price at least two months, and don't do markdowns until the very end of the season." Now, according to one WSJ source, designers are considering "withholding some top items from department stores in order to feature them in their own stores." [WSJ]