The contrast: Saks Global is winding down most of its Saks Off 5th stores, shuttering saksoff5th.com, and closing its final five Last Call locations—even as several major off-price retailers aggressively expand to prominent and strategic sites.

• TJX, parent of TJ Maxx and Marshalls, aims to grow its 5,200-store footprint by nearly 35%, including its first new New York City lease in a decade at Herald Towers, across from Macy’s flagship and Madison Square Garden.
• Nordstrom plans to open at least 14 new Nordstrom Rack stores this year and is relocating its downtown Seattle Rack to a more central 39,000-square-foot space at the historic 601 Pine Street.
• Burlington in November raised its store opening target to 110 net new locations this year, citing strong performance from recent openings.

Why this is happening: Off-price has become one of the most reliable growth engines in physical retail—Burlington, Ross Stores, and TJX each grew at least 7.1% in Q3.

Saks Off 5th never found a formula that worked. Its stores struggled to drive traffic, deliver compelling value, or clearly define what they stood for relative to peers that have steadily refined their playbooks over time.

Nordstrom Rack offers the clearest counterexample. Nordstrom has successfully used Rack as both a standalone growth engine and as a customer acquisition funnel, with 25% of Rack shoppers eventually migrating to full-line Nordstrom stores, per Forbes. Several lessons from Nordstrom’s approach stand out:

• Appeal to the aspirational shopper: Rack extends Nordstrom’s reach beyond premium customers, especially to younger and value-conscious shoppers.
• Balance the assortment: Rack mixes recognizable designer brands like Veronica Beard, Vince, and Rag & Bone with private-label goods, widening price points and seeding future full-price customers.
• Lean into discovery: Rack has embraced the treasure-hunt experience, a core driver of off-price’s appeal.
• Offer a quality experience: Nordstrom’s brand strength and technical capabilities have enabled Rack to support omnichannel features—such as store fulfillment and BOPIS—that most off-price rivals lack.
• Use stores as scalable growth engines: Rack’s smaller 23,000- to 36,000-square-foot spaces make the concept far easier to scale while serving as three-dimensional marketing for both Rack and Nordstrom to drive awareness, customer acquisition, and traffic across banners.

Implications for retailers: Saks’ struggles with its full-price banner—the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in mid-January—spilled over into Off 5th. Just as Saks focused narrowly on affluent shoppers, it failed to build momentum with aspirational customers who could have driven its next phase of growth. Off 5th leaned heavily on high-end leftover inventory, which blunted its appeal to younger and value-driven shoppers.

Saks assumed brand equity alone would drive growth at Off 5th. But in a crowded off-price landscape with plenty of alternatives, shoppers didn’t find compelling value or clear differentiation and simply went elsewhere.

In off-price, success comes from a sharp value proposition and disciplined execution, not pedigree.

Go further: Read about off-price retailers’ performance in the Retail & Ecommerce Earnings Q3 2025 report.