Tiffany’s $250 Million Bet on a 78-Year-Old Store

In an internet age, why are companies pouring so much money into brick-and-mortar shops? Because the customers are still coming.

By

The famous Tiffany building on the corner of 5th Avenue and 57th Street, where Audrey Hepburn’s Holly Golightly mused “nothing very bad could happen to you” in 1961, may be the most enduring example of what retailing looked like before the Internet arrived.

So it’s striking that the Tiffany & Co. of 2018, faced with an onslaught of online commerce, is responding by making a big bet on that old store. It’s investing as much as $250 million in the 78-year-old flagship.

...