A few days ago it was announced that Lord & Taylor is going out of business, shuttering the 38 brick-and-mortar stores it owns, holding sales in person and online, then closing its doors forever. 

It already shut down its flagship Fifth Avenue store, whose windows would delight me every Christmas when I lived in the city, and whose shop clerks always seemed to know a little more about their merchandise than your average retail worker. At almost 200 years of age, Lord & Taylor is the oldest department store in the country.

For some time I have felt sad entering my local Lord & Taylor. It has been emptier than the rest of the mall, its days more numbered. I knew it wasn’t long for this world, but I continued to shop there because its goods were quality and its demeanor was dignified. 

But soon it will be gone, following Hecht’s and Woodward and Lothrop (D.C. area stores) and Wolfe-Wile, Purcell’s, Stewart’s and Lazarus (Lexington, Kentucky-area stores) and hundreds of others across this land. 

What went wrong? Just about everything, but most of all the boxes that “smile.” I wonder how long we’ll be smiling when all the department stores are gone.