What: Manor has redesigned the toy departments in eight Swiss department stores around easier navigation and hands-on play, adding an "Autorama" for testing toy cars and 20–30 sqm pop-up spaces that open with Pokémon.

Why it is important: Rotating brand pop-ups let Manor refresh the toy offer for repeat visitors and give brands and suppliers a way to shape the in-store experience through their own fit-outs, promotions and events.

Manor has launched a new toy concept in eight of its department stores, after a pilot in Basel. The concept was extended to Geneva, Lugano, Zurich Letzipark, Winterthur, Lausanne, Aarau and Emmen. Manor says that as purchasing becomes more digital, department stores must remain places where toys can be discovered and tried with all the senses.

The assortment is now organized into thematic worlds, such as games, vehicles, soft toys and dolls, each with its own color code carried across walls, furniture and other store elements. Non-gendered age indications show at a glance which toys suit which age groups. New display units and themed furniture present each range while keeping a consistent look.

Interactive elements include an activity zone with monthly-changing themes, display furniture with built-in "Focus Points", an "Autorama" where miniature vehicles can be tested, and a themed photo booth. Pop-up spaces of 20 to 30 sqm, renewed regularly, host new products, current trends and brand worlds. Brands and suppliers can design them as they wish and add promotions or events. Pokémon, which celebrates its 30th anniversary in 2026, launches the format.

IADS Notes: Manor's toy-floor redesign follows its plan to invest CHF 200 million over three years in modernizing flagship stores while exiting less profitable sites (Press Release, March 2026). The focus on in-store experience over transactional shopping mirrors the shift in Korea, where Hyundai, Shinsegae and Lotte are reorganizing layouts into lifestyle-led, experiential spaces (The Chosun Daily, February 2026). Family-oriented toy formats are expanding in other markets too. Nordstrom is rolling out FAO Schwarz shop-in-shops with interactive activations aimed at multi-generational shoppers (Press Release, June 2026), and Korean department stores are upgrading their children's floors, with children's sales up 21% at Hyundai and 13.9% at Shinsegae this year (Korea JoongAng Daily, October 2026). The category's customer base is also widening beyond children: adults and adolescents drove a 9% rise in France's toy market in 2025 and now account for 36% of toy sales (Le Monde, December 2025).

Manor rolls out new toy concept across eight department stores

What: Speaking at Wharton, Bloomingdale's CEO Olivier Bron credited strategy, wholesale risk-taking and store investment for record Q2 sales, while attributing about 25% of recent performance to competitors' difficulties.

Why it is important: Bloomingdale's is growing by doing the opposite of prevailing US practice: holding wholesale risk, investing in stores over digital, and judging performance over the long term rather than quarter by quarter.

Bloomingdale's CEO Olivier Bron argues that US retail has become too skewed towards short-term returns and data, at the expense of relationships, emotion and brand building. Bloomingdale's posted an 11.3% comparable sales gain in the second quarter, reaching $922 million, its highest second-quarter total ever, helped by a K-shaped economy that has lifted US luxury ahead of Europe and Asia. Net promoter scores are at a record high.

Bron estimates that about 25% of recent performance stems from competitors' difficulties, in an apparent reference to Exemplar Luxury Group, but credits strategy for most of the gains. These include longer-term investments and a buying model in which 80% of products are bought wholesale, a riskier but potentially more profitable approach than concessions.

Bron wants Bloomingdale's stores to resemble brand boutiques, with stronger displays, ambience, service and storytelling, rather than the crowded racks typical of US department stores. He cites Le Bon Marché, which he says has no digital offer, as an inspiration rather than a model. Stores remain the priority: 80% of Bloomingdale's digital sales come from areas with a store, so store investment reinforces online growth.

IADS Notes: Bron's case for boutique-style presentation extends his plan to move Bloomingdale's from premium contemporary to high luxury in line with Asian and European standards, renovating the New York flagship and 10 stores over five years and favouring space to pause, eat and drink over maximising yield from every inch of the store (Monocle, September 2026). His argument that stores drive digital echoes his description of Bloomingdale's as a neighborhood business. Digital accounts for 40% of sales, yet most revenue comes from Manhattan locals, and stylists hired as staff now generate 40% of fashion revenue (Les Echos, October 2026). He had already attributed the US experience gap to shareholder pressure for immediate returns and to investment skewed towards digital, and he keeps concessions at 20% so that the customer belongs to Bloomingdale's (Vogue, September 2026). That wholesale-heavy stance runs against the platform model in which brands carry more of the inventory risk through concession arrangements such as those at Harrods (Harvard Business Review, August 2026). The competitive opening he describes is also documented: Exemplar Luxury Group left bankruptcy with 75% less debt but still owes $1.2 billion and must regain lost market share and priority brand allocations (WWD, September 2026).

Olivier Bron on what makes Bloomingdale's tick

What: John Lewis Partnership chair Jason Tarry warned that a tax raid on large stores in the UK Budget on 28 October would trigger a wave of high street closures.

Why it is important: Business rates are already John Lewis's largest cost, ahead of rent. A further tax rise on large stores would push department stores to cut their most expensive assets, the very stores that anchor UK high street footfall.

Jason Tarry, chair of the John Lewis Partnership, has warned chancellor John Healey that taxing department stores and supermarkets in the 28 October Budget would only harm UK high streets. Retailers fear that prime minister Andy Burnham will fund a business rates cut by shifting costs onto larger stores through a "warehouse tax". Tarry said such a tax would hit far more high street shops than warehouses; for John Lewis, it would raise charges on 18 warehouse hubs and 200 stores.

Tarry argued that the plan reflects a misunderstanding of how modern high streets work. Retailers forced to balance the books will look first at their most expensive operations, their stores. He described department stores and large supermarkets as anchor tenants whose footfall sustains surrounding independent shops, pubs, bakeries and cafes.

Following higher business rates on larger warehouses from April 2026 and rising employment costs, Tarry asked Healey for a clear Budget commitment that no high street shop will face higher taxes. He also criticised the government's limited engagement with retail and hospitality on the cross-government high street strategy announced in January, noting that four high street reviews in 15 years had been shelved.

IADS Notes: Tarry's warning comes a year after industry bodies cautioned that a business rates rise could put more than 100,000 UK retail jobs at risk, with department stores and supermarkets facing the steepest bills (Retail Week, October 2025). Costs have continued to rise since then. Retailers absorbed higher National Insurance contributions and minimum wage increases by cutting hours, headcount and pay rises (Financial Times, October 2025). John Lewis Partnership's first-half pre-tax loss widened to £124m from £88m despite 2% sales growth, a result Tarry attributed to the increased cost of doing business (Drapers, September 2026). In the same results period, he named business rates as the retailer's largest cost, ahead of rent, and said head-office job cuts would not be a one-off (Drapers, September 2026), which supports his argument that stores would be the first operations cut if taxes rise further. Government action on high streets has so far focused on property rather than operating costs: Andy Burnham's £210m package funds the redevelopment of derelict buildings, rental auctions and community rescue schemes, adding to the £5bn Pride in Place programme (Retail Week, September 2026).

John Lewis chair warns Budget tax raid on large stores would trigger high street closures