department-stores
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William T. Dillard and the store that kept changing its address
He borrowed $8,000 to open a shop in Nashville, Arkansas. William T. Dillard built a department store chain by watching where Americans were going - and getting there with something to sell.
Kohl’s needs a reason to visit. Then a reason to stay.
Amazon returns bring people through the door. Sephora gives them a destination. Kohl’s next challenge is making the rest of the shopping trip earn its place.
Macy's is learning to think smaller
The store that taught America to shop is pruning its footprint and putting people back on the floor. Its turnaround asks a deceptively simple question: how much department store do customers actually want?
Dillard’s knows what to keep
A department store can sell more and keep less. Dillard’s offers a useful lesson in the opposite ambition: protecting the value of what passes through the till.
Bill Dillard and the education of a department-store heir
He learned the family business from the inside, then helped bring it into the computer age. After decades at Dillard’s, Bill Dillard II is putting another kind of infrastructure to work: classrooms, accounting programs and the people who will run what comes next.
Tony Spring and the art of making people stay
He went to Cornell to study hospitality and stayed at Bloomingdale’s for 36 years. Now Tony Spring is trying to make Macy’s feel worth the trip again.
Deniz Anders
Deniz Anders is Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at Nordstrom, the Seattle-based fashion retailer. A homegrown leader who joined the company in the late 1990s and spent more than two decades climbing through its marketing ranks, she now oversees brand programs, digital marketing, creative strategy, and corporate affairs. Anders was named SVP and CMO in 2022 after the retirement of longtime marketer Scott Meden, and was elevated to EVP in 2025, making her one of the senior executives shaping how one of America's best-known retailers speaks to its customers.
Burlington Stores, Inc.
Burlington Stores, Inc. is one of the largest off-price retailers in the United States, selling brand-name apparel, footwear, accessories, baby gear, and home goods at prices well below full-price department stores. Founded in 1972 as Burlington Coat Factory, the company built its business on opportunistically buying excess and closeout merchandise from thousands of vendors and passing the savings to shoppers through a rotating, treasure-hunt assortment. Headquartered in Burlington, New Jersey and trading on the NYSE under the ticker BURL, it operates more than 1,200 stores and is pursuing an aggressive small-format expansion toward a long-term target of 2,000 doors.