"It's an unusual time," he said, pointing out that Bergdorf's has no suburban branches to cushion a decline in sales.

Downtown stores are now often less important than suburban branches, and the once-proud flagship has become only an aging link in a chain.

It was built as the second suburban branch of Strawbridge and Clothier.

The chain was slow to open other suburban branches.

At the time, charge plans were limited largely to big New York department stores with suburban branches.

But its decision not to build suburban branches left it with a relatively modest profit margin.

At Iraklio, the line forked to form two suburban branches.

And when the suburban branches of these stores were included in the total, sales rose only 2.7 percent.

In Augusta, original downtown store added three suburban branches over time.

The store, which by then had suburban branches, was bought by Lamonts.