• USA Today, Wednesday, August 30, 2006 1:15 PM

Consolidation in the department-store industry has led to a battle among high-end clothing marketers for space inside a diminishing number of large retail outlets. The battle of the brands has pitted successful companies like Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger, and Liz Claiborne against each other, following a retail-industry shakeup. In recent moves, Federated Department Stores bought May Department Stores last year, and on Sept. 9, former May stores across the country will become Macy's. Meanwhile, Saks has sold several of its non-Saks department stores to Belk and Bon-Ton. The mergers have left clothing brands looking for new outlets, opening their own retail stores and trying to make friends with new buyers for the remaining department-store names. "Both the retailers and the suppliers are looking at their business with new scrutiny," says Arnold Aronson, a former CEO of Saks Fifth Avenue and the former Woodward & Lothrop department-store chain. He says they are asking themselves how they will get better so they can survive?

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