Number of the Day

Behind Lord & Taylor’s Bankruptcy, By the Numbers

A venture-backed startup acquired the department store chain last year. Then they both went bankrupt.

$100 Million: That’s approximately what Le Tote, a clothing rental startup, is reported to have paid to acquire the iconic Lord & Taylor department store chain last year, per The Washington Post.

This week, the venerable department store filed for bankruptcy. But it isn’t really Lord & Taylor that’s going bankrupt, or at least not on its own. The chain’s much younger, venture-backed parent company is the one in trouble. When Le Tote (founded in 2012 and valued at a reported $180 million) bought the department store brand (founded in 1826, with $1.1 billion annual revenue that exceeded the entirety of the clothing rental category) it was a stark example of a trend in motion at the time: “Thing You’ve Never Heard of Acquires Thing You’ve Heard of Your Entire Life.”

The premise of the deal was mixing a tech-savvy up-and-comer with an established and widely known brand. That was then. The experiment was, of course, unceremoniously cut short by the pandemic shutdown that’s taken a heavy toll on retail — with more than 114,000 layoffs and department stores J.C. Penney and Neiman Marcus filing…