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Lord & Taylor Flagship Store Officially Closes For Good

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- With a new year comes a new era for shoppers in New York City.

After 104 years, Lord & Taylor's flagship store on Fifth Avenue shut its doors for good Wednesday afternoon.

The venerable department store, famed for its animated holiday window display, was shuttered after a blowout sale that left whole floors empty. Surviving floors still offer an assembly line of racks stuffed with clothes all going for $5.99 that once sold for as much as $100.

Some even took home pieces of the store, like lights, furniture, and signs.

In 2017, store owners announced they were selling the 11-story building to WeWork, a space-leasing company for startups and entrepreneurs, for more than $850 million.

"Really sad to see it go, I've been coming here for 40 years and I'm really gonna miss it," Upper East Side resident Marleen Stein said.

Like many big box stores, Lord & Taylor fell victim to online consumer giants like Amazon. 45 other, smaller Lord & Taylor stores remain open, mostly on the East Coast.

To keep up, the company recently launched a digital flagship on Walmart.com, but for many nothing will compare to the look and feel of the real deal.

The brand is owned by Canadian corporate giant Hudson's Bay Company, which also runs Saks Fifth Avenue and other stores.

The doors at the Fifth Avenue Lord & Taylor were officially locked to the public at 3 p.m.

(© Copyright 2019 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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