In 2010, HBC invested $150 million in updating Lord & Taylor. Seven years later, it received another $12 million renovation. Yet within just over a year of that final investment, the company sold the building, the oldest department store in the country, to WeWork, closing its doors for good.

According to one commentator, "while a presence on Fifth Avenue helps elevate the brand image for Lord & Taylor, brand image doesn't translate into profitability. As a corporation driven by stockholders' desire for stock price appreciation, Hudson's Bay Company sold its Lord & Taylor property to boost its profitability."

Profitability is something that HBC needs, given its large amount of debt. In March, the company reported around $4.6 billion in debt and revealed plans to close at least 10 stores including the flagship Fifth Avenue location.

HBC is concentrating on better potential stores: sales at Saks Fifth Avenue, specifically, grew by 7.3 percent in the third quarter of 2018 — by creating experiential efforts. In early 2019, HBC says it will launch a new in-store jewellery concept at Saks Fifth Avenue. At New York Fashion Week, in September, Saks made experiences a priority with a highly Instagrammable experience.

In their most recent earnings call in December, multiple HBC executives alluded to the fact that the company was behind many of its competitors in terms of online and digital tools. Helena Foulkes, CEO of HBC, said that the basic digital infrastructure the company has created for its stores over the last year "was not in place before."

The bright side of HBC's current situation is that it has been able to pay off a significant chunk of its debt, and its executives seem aware of its problems. Adaptation is a requirement for older retailers today, especially as brands sell direct to consumer and resellers cut into retailers' traditional margins.