WisContext: The Collateral Damage Of Declining Department Stores (And Malls)

The chain had not been profitable for years. Wisconsin School of Business professor Hart Posen argued in an April 20 interview with Wisconsin Public Radio’s Central Time that the company wasn’t competing very effectively with its retail peers, to say nothing of online challengers. “Really the fundamental problem at Bon-Ton was there was nothing distinctive about them,” Posen said. “They weren’t low-price, they didn’t have the best selection, they didn’t have the best customer service. There was nothing that would really make you go into a Bon-Ton store … Bon-Ton would have been in trouble, I think, regardless.”