越來越多的已經破產或失敗的零售商似乎在去年起死回生，其中一些深受喜愛的品牌更是以一種更具親和力的形象回歸生之國度。

Le Tote最近從HBC手中購買了舉步維艱的Lord & Taylor，并于假日季在紐約市推出了這家百貨店連鎖品牌的快閃店。這是Lord & Taylor于2019年初閉店之后在曼哈頓的首次亮相。2019年初申請破產的兒童服飾品牌Gymboree（兩年內的第二次破產）將以商店的形式繼續存活于200 Children’s Place店面之中。已經完成店面清算的Barneys New York將出現在薩克斯第五大道（Saks Fifth Avenue）的多家店面中，包括薩克斯第五大道位于曼哈頓旗艦店的第五層樓。

上述案例與最近FAO Schwarz玩具店和玩具反斗城的小范圍回歸告訴人們，盡管遭遇了企業的管理不善以及令人窒息的債務危機，但它們依然擁有頑強的生命力。因此，雖然所謂的零售寒冬已經讓多個連鎖品牌凋零，但很多起死回生的品牌得到了消費者的熱烈歡迎。

以Lord & Taylor為例，HBC在該品牌的電子商務化方面可謂是異常緩慢：拋開其他失策問題不談，公司在2018年才設立一個適用于移動設備的網站。Le Tote的首席執行官拉克什·唐頓對《財富》雜志說：“我們將傳統銷售方式與Le Tote將要采納的科技進行了結合。”他在談論這家有著193歷史的零售商時說：“它是一個殿堂級的品牌，其價值是不可估量的。”同時，公司經驗豐富的管理團隊正在努力尋找提取這種價值的方法。（財富中文網）

本文另一版本登載于《財富》雜志2020年1月刊，標題為《起死回生》。

譯者：馮豐

審校：夏林

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A growing number of bankrupt or failed retailers seem to be discovering an afterlife last year—with some beloved brands returning to the land of the living in notably snugger incarnations.

Le Tote, which recently bought the ?struggling Lord & Taylor from HBC, opened a pop-up shop for the department store chain in New York City for the holidays, its first Manhattan presence since the store closed in early 2019. Kids’ apparel brand Gymboree, which filed for bankruptcy in early 2019 for the second time in two years, will live on in the form of shops within 200 Children’s Place stores. And Barneys New York, once it is done liquidating its stores, will have a presence at a number of Saks Fifth Avenue stores, including the fifth floor of the chain’s Manhattan flagship.

These cases, along with the recent small-scale comebacks of FAO Schwarz and Toys “R” Us, all show how much life there still is in many storied retail brands, corporate mismanagement and choking debt loads aside. So while the so-called retail apocalypse has claimed a number of chains, many are being welcomed back with open arms by consumers.

In the case of Lord & Taylor, HBC had been very late in equipping it for e-commerce: It only got around to having a mobile-device-friendly site in 2018, among other missteps. “We are combining tradition with the technology that Le Tote is bringing to the table,” Le Tote chief executive Rakesh Tondon tells Fortune. “It’s an iconic brand,” he says of the 193-year-old retailer. “There’s a lot of value in that.” And savvier management teams are figuring out how to extract such value.

A version of this article appears in the January 2020 issue of Fortune with the headline “Die Another Day.”