It used to be considered the retailer’s crown jewel — a large format store on a swank corridor that showed off the best of what a brand had to offer. But now the so-called flagship store is disappearing from high-profile shopping thoroughfares like Manhattan’s Madison Avenue and Chicago’s Magnificent Mile because of skyrocketing rents and the shift to online shopping.
Over the last year or so, Gap, Tommy Hilfiger, Lord & Taylor and Polo Ralph Lauren have closed their flagship stores on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue. Abercrombie announced in May that it was closing three more of its big locations — an Abercrombie store in Milan, an Abercrombie store in Fukuoka, Japan and a Hollister-branded store in Manhattan’s SoHo area. The announcement came after the teen retailer shut down flagships in Hong Kong and Copenhagen. Other retailers are re-imagining… USA Today
