They all seem to have decided on a "market expansion at the expense of brand dilution" strategy. Ditto most of the formerly-consistently-good clothing brands. I'm not really sure which stores/brands replace the ones that have done this, these days.
[EDIT] I suspect part of this is because the cost of actually-good clothes hasn't dropped like shitty-clothes costs have, because (this is further speculation on my part) a good bit of the "savings" from internationalization, by the time it reaches consumers, is actually making many categories of goods worse and eliminating mid-tier stuff (formerly bottom-tier) outright so the gulf between lower-end luxury (paying for quality, not name) and plain ol' low-end has grown, putting pressure on luxury brands to cut prices... but they can't with their current products, because internationalization hasn't actually dropped the price of producing decent goods by very much, so instead they cut quality.
Yeah. It's not just department stores--which I have less direct experience with. A lot of the old line "mail order" outfits like LL Bean, J Crew, Lands' End, etc. (as well as many of the at least semi-premium outdoor clothing/gear/etc. brands) are much more of a both quality and customer service crapshoot than they once were.
At the risk of painting with an overly broad brush, when everything is made in the same, mostly Far East, factories and has to compete with essentially disposable clothing at some level, it all starts to look more or less the same.
I used to be an Eddie Bauer guy. Shirts, shoes, shorts, jeans, coats, you name it. Spent a good chunk of change at their mall store where you could try stuff on. Overtime, the fabrics got thinner on shirts and jeans. They stopped stocking my size in store. Stuff started wearing out quicker. I tried to order online, but the order fulfillment was hit and miss. Too bad for them...
I still mostly buy clothes at Eddie Bauer online - while there is a hit and miss occasionally, they have mostly consistent quality and sizing, and it’s easy to pass on inferior items by reading reviews. Easy return policy also makes it risk-free. They also have constant sales.
I bought an old Eddie Bauer Explorer model - had no idea who the guy was, but I ran the car for a while and then sold it to someone who paid me almost 30% above the asking price, because he really wanted the Eddie Bauer model.
I ordered stuff from Banana Republic Factory about a year ago. I was on their email list, saw something I liked in the ad, clicked on it, bought it. It was on sale, a shirt for like $30. I had good experiences with stuff I bought from them in an actual store years prior.
The shirt came, and it was synthetic blend of polyester IIRC- the shirt felt like wearing a garbage bag, but much worse was that the fabric was so thin that you could see through it. I had a white shirt with a light logo on it of a tech company, and you could clearly read the logo through the shirt- and even with a plain white tee on you could clearly see where the sleeve ended on the undershirt- this was something I would have expected to see in the bargain bin of a Walmart for less than $10, not for $30 (which was the sale price) from a reputable brand.
What's worse- is they wouldn't even take it back without a fee of $6- I don't live near a Factory store, and a regular Banana Republic wouldn't take it back. I told the CS rep that they should be embarrassed for even selling something of such low quality, and to not take it back is just appalling. She didn't care, and that's the last I have ever ordered from BR online.
Most brand's factory stores use different production factories or textiles than the non-factory stores. J Crew Factory and Brooks Brothers Factory stores are mostly garbage produced by the same designers but at much lower cost than their mall stores. I would recommend avoiding them unless you're looking for something disposable.
The original Banana Republic was sort of a fun, funky thing in the day of mail order catalogs. At some point, they morphed into something that always seemed pretty bland and generic. But I'm not surprised they may have gone downhill even further.
TBH, I buy very few clothes these days as I'm mostly either WFH or (normally) traveling--where I'm mostly a very light packer. I'm sure I have tons of perfectly clothes in my closets I haven't worn in years and that's with pruning.
You'd be surprised. The cost of rubbish clothing has fallen, but then the cost of very reasonable mid-quality has dramatically fallen. I used to buy Levis, then Gap for mid range. Now, I get the same quality (and literally the same factory) jeans from Joe Fresh, for 1/4th to 1/5th of the price.
Suit shirts are the same. An online tailor I've been using for a decade sells shirts at half the price of Banana Republic (comparing to Canada), but mine are bespoke, perfectly fitted, and I can make choices from a website. To wit, I've stopped buying shirts in stores and now just use their service... since 2008. To make matters worse for retailers, his quality has improved at the price point.
As someone who knows very little about the fashion business--though I have had tailored clothing made--I'm a little surprised that more of a market for bespoke online ordering hasn't developed. Sure, you'll "never" get to the level of an in-person tailor with multiple fittings. But one would think that there would be a fair number of people willing to pay something of a premium for at least roughly customized clothing. I know that exists for shirts but, as I recall from when I used to buy more business casual, it was still a very big premium over buying stuff that fit me reasonably from Lands' End.
Online tailors have solved that by partnering/paying for local alterations. They come into town X times per year (4-5?) for those who want the ongoing bespoke relationship. Then, when your clothes arrive, you can take them to a tailor to have them altered if necessary - paid for by the tailor, and your details updated, paid for by the tailor.
Every men's shirt on JoeFresh.com is either $24 or $29. What Gap do you shop at where prices are 4 or 5x higher? I'd use jeans for a comparison but they aren't on the web site.
Joe is frequently $15. Further, it's frequently 20% off at that point. But from a jeans perspective Gap jeans are $79, and the pair I'm wearing where $20. In January I paid $35 for two.
Comparing the ladies' t-shirts you can get at Gap or even their more-expensive sibling Banana Republic with ones I bought in the late 90s is amazing. I’m still wearing two old ones around the house, occasionally having to restitch a section of the bottom hems, but I’ve not been able to find any ribbed cotton fabric women's tops that come close to the thickness and durability in the past 10-15 years. The old Gap shirt I’m wearing right now was made in the Philippines around 1996 - I wore it in my school picture that year!
I even have an Old Navy t-shirt from around 2000 that is far sturdier than any current men’s t-shirts (which are still usually sturdier fabric than women’s), and by that point, they were already the discount sibling to Gap.
Every shopping mall, even ones in the middle of nowhere in Bumfucktown has a Macy's and a Victoria's secret. None of those two companies look like they are on a sustainable trajectory.
With gig work and the internet, you can find a tailor or contact someone on Etsy for less than a boutique experience.
Off the rack is globally commoditized now, so you're paying for a trendy location, labels, personal shoppers, or design IP. If those things don't matter to you...
[EDIT] I suspect part of this is because the cost of actually-good clothes hasn't dropped like shitty-clothes costs have, because (this is further speculation on my part) a good bit of the "savings" from internationalization, by the time it reaches consumers, is actually making many categories of goods worse and eliminating mid-tier stuff (formerly bottom-tier) outright so the gulf between lower-end luxury (paying for quality, not name) and plain ol' low-end has grown, putting pressure on luxury brands to cut prices... but they can't with their current products, because internationalization hasn't actually dropped the price of producing decent goods by very much, so instead they cut quality.