JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
“Small-scale commercial production is, every moment of every day, giving birth spontaneously to capitalism and the bourgeoisie…wherever there is small business and freedom of trade, capitalism appears.”— V.I. Lenin A great connoisseur as well as sworn enemy of the free market, Vladimir Lenin might smile a bit if he witnessed what is now happening to…
After 123 years in business, Henri Bendel’s announced last Friday, September 14, that it will be shuttering its doors and going out of business. The closing of Bendel’s wasn’t entirely unexpected — brick-and-mortar retail had been struggling against the onslaught of ecommerce, and Bendel’s struggled with finding its niche among other luxury retailers. It’s fitting…
For shoppers and browsers, department stores can be a fragrant, shiny escape from the harsh outside world. (I know this from personal experience and having read — and taught — Emile Zola’s novel, “The Ladies’ Paradise.”) Not so, necessarily, for the stores’ workers. At The Cut, Diana Tsui reports that Bloomingdales employees are having a…
