"Traditional companies held to traditional profit and loss metrics, particularly public companies, are being battered by a lot of venture-backed direct-to-consumer companies that aren’t really built around a profitability model right now. There’s no telling how long it’ll take for the capital inflows to dry up for these competitors that every day are picking off the best customers of the department stores."

Joel Bines, global co-head of retail at consulting firm AlixPartners, in a recent interview with The New York Times for its report, “Chasing Amazon, Retailers Are in a Never-Ending Arms Race.”