A luxury retailer is making its own high-end purchase: Saks Fifth Avenue’s parent company is buying Neiman Marcus for $2.65 billion, in a merger that would create a dominant upscale department store in the U.S.

HBC, the owner of Saks and the Canadian chain Hudson’s Bay, has agreed to buy Neiman Marcus, which also owns Bergdorf Goodman. Amazon will take a stake in the new combined company, slated to provide technology and logistics as part of the deal. Another tech partner, Salesforce, will also be a minority shareholder. The head of Saks.com, Marc Metrick, will run the new combined firm Saks Global.

Saks and Neiman Marcus have long weighed the idea of combining forces to confront a changing market. Neiman was the first department store to topple into bankruptcy at the start of the pandemic, later emerging under new investment-firm owners.

Both chains are facing pressure, particularly from luxury brands that are increasingly flexing their muscles over department stores, connecting with shoppers directly and opening their own retail locations.

“For years, many in the industry have anticipated this transaction. … This is an exciting time in luxury retail, with technological advancements creating new opportunities to redefine the customer experience,” HBC’s CEO Richard Baker said in a statement, touting a plan to use artificial intelligence to create personalized shopping experiences online and in stores.

Luxury shopping went gangbusters as pandemic-weary shoppers splurged on upscale handbags, outfits and skin care. But the shopping spree has now cooled. Those purchases now are often done online.

Rival Macy’s, the owner of Bloomingdale’s, has been closing stores and shifting its focus more to its luxury business, facing big pressure from activist investors to turn around its slumping business. Meanwhile, the family that owns Nordstrom is trying to take the company private.

The merger is likely to face tough scrutiny from federal regulators, who’ve recently sued to block several high-profile deals between market leaders. That includes the mergers of top two grocery chains, Kroger and Albertsons, as well as another luxury merger: Tapestry, which owns Coach and Kate Spade brands, wants to buy Capri Holdings, which owns the Versace and Michael Kors brand.

Saks Fifth Avenue has 39 stores across North America plus numerous off-price stores called Saks Off 5th. Neiman Marcus has 36 stores plus two Bergdorf Goodman locations.

Copyright 2024 NPR

Good morning. The newsletter team is taking a break for Independence Day. We’ll return with the news you need to start your day tomorrow. Today, ring in the summer sun with Morning Edition’s “Summer of Love” series.

The future of marriage

by Claire Murashima, Morning Edition and Up First production assistant

When I was a girl, I didn’t dream of getting married the way many of my friends did. It doesn’t bother me that I’ve spent most of my twenties single.

As my peers and I settled into life after college, it felt as if we either took the traditional path and married young or didn’t think about marriage at all. Of the latter, some don’t believe in the institution, some are ethically non-monogamous, and some feel their long-term relationships suffice without marriage.

So, for the first installment of Morning Edition’s “Summer of Love” series, I teamed up with Michel Martin and futurist Jake Dunagan to answer the question: What will marriage look like in the future?

I also talked to four other experts whose interviews didn’t make it on air. They had a lot to say about how rapidly shifting marriage norms in recent decades will play out in the future. Here are some of their thoughts:

• 💒 Therapist Sheila Addison says the LGBTQ+ community is “leading the way in re-imagining marriage.” Though many of her queer clients are skeptical of the institution, as same-sex marriage was legalized nationally nine years ago, she says they want “committed, intimate relationships of some kind” and added that “for many folks, that still does mean marriage.”
• 💒 Marriage coach Hasani Pettiford counsels couples on the verge of divorce due to infidelity. He says marriage is in peril because of a culture that says to flee when things get hard. He compares the struggle to commit to a relationship with buying a house. “If I rent, I can break a lease and move on. I’ll pay a little fee,” Pettiford said. “But if I own a house, it’s a whole lot harder to leave.” This mentality of renting vs. ownership has spilled into relationships, Pettiford says.

All of the experts I spoke with predict that marriage will continue to become more fluid. It has already evolved away from the model of one male and one female marrying to create children and never getting a divorce.

Dunagan thinks there could be three alternate potential futures for the institution of marriage:

• ❤️ It could collapse. Today, many don’t feel a need for religious or state approval to have a lasting romantic relationship.
• ❤️ Its norms could become more rigid and be used to reinforce social norms.
• ❤️ Lastly, it could completely transform. Humans and non-human entities like AI could marry.

Over the coming weeks, we’ll be sharing more stories about love! Listen to Morning Edition on the NPR app or your local NPR station to hear about how marriage has evolved, the politics of marriage, love songs over time, and more. If you have one story you’d like to hear, please let me know at cmurashima@npr.org.

July 4th stories you may have missed

by Suzanne Nuyen, Up First newsletter writer

Today marks another very important anniversary: the 100th birthday of the Caesar Salad. Caesar Cardini, an Italian immigrant living in Mexico, created the iconic dish on July 4th, 1924, in Tijuana. Cardini’s original restaurant is still open for business. Read about how he created the Ceasar salad and how it’s evolved over the years.

Throughout this week, Morning Edition asked newly naturalized citizens what it means for them to be American.

• 🦅 Bernadette Medina, 47, says becoming a citizen was her “proudest moment.” Eduardo Bautista says it was “a dream come true.”
• 🦅 Joanne and Andy Daw migrated to the U.S. from the U.K. Andy says it was hard saying goodbye to their home. While their ties to family in the U.K. won’t change, they’re signaling they’re starting a different future in the U.S.
• 🦅 Nickolas Grosser left Brazil to feel safe and free as an LGBTQ+ person. He met his husband in the U.S. and says he feels a weight has been lifted off his shoulders after becoming a citizen.

The American flag is one of the most iconic symbols of this holiday. It’s flown worldwide, and many flags across the nation started as strips of fabric at Annin Flagmakers in Ohio. The company began in 1847 in New York City. It has made some of the most historically significant flags, like the one draped over Abraham Lincoln’s casket, the one raised by U.S. Marines at Iwo Jima, the one on the moon and every flag flown at presidential inaugurations since Zachary Taylor. (via WOSU)

What’s on your July 4 playlist? Chances are, you’ll hear Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A” today. But you’ve probably never heard of the Freedom remix of the song. In 1984, on the cusp of superstardom, Springsteen agreed to let a producer remix three songs from his upcoming album, also titled Born in the U.S.A. Four decades later, these remixes have nearly vanished.

Independence Day fireworks can be difficult for veterans because the loud, colorful blasts can remind them of combat or other traumatic military experiences. Mandy Rabenhorst-Bell, the PTSD program manager for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in Eastern Colorado, has advice for how to help ease veterans’ stress. (via KUNC)

This newsletter was edited by Treye Green.

Copyright 2024 NPR

WASHINGTON — President Biden on Wednesday awarded the Medal of Honor for conspicuous gallantry to two Union soldiers who stole a locomotive deep in Confederate territory during the Civil War and drove it north for 87 miles as they destroyed railroad tracks and telegraph lines.

U.S. Army Pvts. Philip G. Shadrach and George D. Wilson were captured by Confederates and executed by hanging. Biden recognized their courage 162 years later with the country’s highest military decoration, calling the operation they joined “one of the most dangerous missions of the entire Civil War.”

“Every soldier who joined that mission was awarded the Medal of Honor except for two. Two soldiers who died because of that operation and never received this recognition,” Biden said. “Today, we right that wrong.”

The posthumous recognition comes as the legacy of the Civil War, which killed more than 600,000 Union and Confederate service members between 1861 and 1865, continues to shape U.S. politics in a contentious election year in which issues of race, constitutional rights and presidential power are at the forefront.

Biden has said that the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol by supporters of Donald Trump was the greatest threat to democracy since the Civil War. Meanwhile, Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, riffed at a recent Pennsylvania rally about the Battle of Gettysburg and about the Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.

The president said Wednesday that Shadrach and Wilson were “fighting and even dying to preserve the union and the sacred values it was founded upon: freedom, justice, fairness, unity.”

“Phillip and George were willing to shed their blood to make these ideals real,” Biden said.

Theresa Chandler, the great-great-granddaughter of Wilson, recalled for The Associated Press how the Union soldier had the noose around his neck on the gallows and spoke his final words.

She said that Wilson essentially said that he was there to serve his country and had no ill feelings for the people of the South, but that he hoped for the abolition of slavery and for the nation to be united again.

“When I read that, I had chills,” Chandler said. “We can feel that as a family and that we’re enjoying our freedoms today, what he tried to move forward at the time.”

Brian Taylor, a great-great-great-nephew of Shadrach, said this was an opportunity for his ancestor to be remembered as “a brave soldier who did what he thought was right.”

“I kind of feel that he was a bit adventurous, a bit of a free spirit,” Taylor said.

Shadrach and Wilson are being recognized for participating in what became known as the Great Locomotive Chase.

A Kentucky-born civilian spy and scout named James J. Andrews put together a group of volunteers, including Shadrach and Wilson, to degrade the railway and telegraph lines used by Confederates in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

On April 12, 1862, 22 of the men in what was later called Andrews’ Raiders met up in Marietta, Georgia, and hijacked a train named The General. The group tore up tracks and sliced through telegraph wires while taking the train north.

Confederate troops chased them, initially on foot and later by train. The Confederate troops eventually caught the group. Andrews and seven others were executed, while the others either escaped or remained prisoners of war.

The first Medal of Honor ever bestowed went to Pvt. Jacob Parrott, who participated in the locomotive hijacking and was beaten while imprisoned by the Confederacy.

The government later recognized 18 other participants who took part in the raid with the honor, but Shadrach and Wilson were excluded. They were later authorized to receive the medal as part of the fiscal 2008 National Defense Authorization Act.

Shadrach, born on Sept. 15, 1840, in Pennsylvania, was 21 years old when he volunteered for the mission. He was orphaned at a young age and left home in 1861 to enlist in an Ohio infantry regiment after the start of the Civil War.

Wilson was born in 1830 in Belmont County, Ohio. He worked as a journeyman shoemaker before the war and enlisted in an Ohio-based volunteer infantry in 1861.

The Walt Disney Corp. made a 1956 movie about the hijacking titled The Great Locomotive Chase, starring Fess Parker and Jeffrey Hunter. The 1926 silent film “The General,” starring Buster Keaton, was also based on the historic event.

Copyright 2024 NPR