Paris’s Department Stores Transformed Urban Life. What Can They Teach Today’s Struggling Shops?

On the top floor of the fabled La Samaritaine department store in Paris, an empty row of champagne-branded deckchairs is arranged on an artificial beach, facing a wall-sized digital screen of the sun setting over a sparkling sea. Downstairs, at the “beauty light bar”, futuristic face masks glow with red LED light, promising to stimulate natural collagen production and restore radiance to sagging skin. Nearby, an immersive Olympic retail…