Long Island's last Saks Fifth Avenue store to close

The last Saks Fifth Avenue store on Long Island is closing, as the high-end retailer's troubled parent company expands its list of store shutdowns months after a bankruptcy filing.

The 12 Saks Fifth Avenue department stores on the newest closings list include the location at the Walt Whitman Shops in Huntington Station, parent company Saks Global Enterprises LLC announced Friday afternoon.

The company also will close three of its Neiman Marcus stores, including one in Westchester County's White Plains. The Neiman Marcus store at the Roosevelt Field mall in Uniondale will be the only one left in New York State after the Westchester County store closes.

“These actions are designed to advance Saks Global’s transformation with a focus on serving luxury customers, strengthening brand partner relationships and driving full-price selling to enable profitable and sustainable growth,” the company said in a statement Friday.

The closings, including those previously announced, will leave 13 Saks Fifth Avenue stores in eight states and 32 Neiman Marcus stores in 15 states, according to Saks Global. Also, 12 off-price stores, called Saks OFF 5TH, will remain open, including the one on Long Island at Westbury Plaza in Uniondale, Saks Global said.

The Saks Fifth Avenue at Huntington Station is expected to remain open until the end of May, a company representative said in an email.

The company declined to say how many employees will be affected by the closings but said it will provide transfer options when possible.

"We are deeply grateful for these team members’ hard work and dedication, and will support them as much as we can through this transition," Saks Global said in an email.

When the 100,000-square-foot Saks store opened in Huntington Station, at 230 Walt Whitman Rd., on March 11, 1999, it employed 225 people, according to a Newsday article published that day.

"The specialty department store, known for selling pricey designer clothing and shoes, is the last of three new anchors to debut in an $80 million face-lift aimed at helping the 37-year-old South Huntington mall to better compete with larger rivals," the article stated.

Another Saks Fifth Avenue on Long Island, in Garden City, closed in 2005 after 43 years. 

Since filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in mid-January, Saks Global has announced multiple rounds of closings.

The company announced in January that it would close dozens of its 74 off-price stores, including two Saks OFF 5TH stores on Long Island — at Tanger Outlets Deer Park and Tanger Outlets Riverhead — and all Last Call locations as the company maneuvered through bankruptcy proceedings.

Also, last month, Saks Global announced that it would close eight Saks Fifth Avenue stores and one Neiman Marcus.

Combination 'a disaster'

Saks was started in 1867.

The retailer became a sister chain to Neiman Marcus in 2024, after Saks' then-parent company, HBC, bought Neiman Marcus Group, which also owned luxury retailer Bergdorf Goodman, in a deal valued at $2.7 billion.

But department stores have been declining for years due to online retail competition, as well as from cosmetics chains, such as Sephora and Ulta, said David Swartz, senior equity analyst at Morningstar Research Services LLC, a financial services firm in Chicago.

Also, luxury department stores have been fighting competition from high-end product brands opening their own stores, he said in an email.

“Neiman Marcus has been in bad shape for years — it previously went bankrupt during the pandemic period. The combination between Saks and Neiman Marcus was a disaster — the company wasn’t even paying vendors on time,” he said.

By Tory N. Parrish

tory.parrish@newsday.comToryParrish1

Tory N. Parrish covers retail and small business for Newsday. She has worked at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and Observer-Dispatch in Utica, N.Y.