Fortune Archives: The ‘boring’ department store whose stock is outperforming Tesla

Dillard’s, the Arkansas-based family run retailer, saw its shares hit an all-time high earlier this year, and the regional department store operator’s stock has outperformed those of Tesla, Apple, and Microsoft over the last five years—with a 500% increase.

I was curious about that staggering performance and wondered: What’s Dillard’s secret to succeeding amid a retail apocalypse? I dug into that question in my feature published last week. It turns out the 86-year-old chain has thrived on a mix of drama-free consistency, focus on the fundamentals of its business, and cultivating the loyalty of suppliers as well as employees. Sometimes being boring is the best business model. 

Mine was not Fortune’s first deep dive into Dillard’s. In 1989, reporter Susan Caminiti profiled the “quiet superstar” of retailing, and landed the first ever lengthy interview granted by its publicity-averse founder WIlliam Dillard. 

She noted that Dillard’s immaculate stores had friendly but not pushy sales staff, and avoided the unsightly clutter that is so common in department stores—those mounds of unfolded sweaters on the floor, for example. Some 35 years later, we saw the same discipline. 

Another consistent strategy, observed both in 1989 and 2024: the absence of the garish “30% off” signage found at many other department stores. Dillard’s has trained its customers not to expect discounts, William Dillard told Caminiti in 1989. “Having constant sales is just like taking dope,” he explained. “You start with 10% off, then it’s 15%.”

The results speak for themselves: The last three years have been the most profitable in Dillard’s almost nine decades. In contrast, a discounting doom loop has severely harmed rival department stores Macy’s, J.C. Penney, and Kohl’s. Another unexpected edge Dillard’s has maintained: The chain has been far more tech-focused than its rivals, and ahead of its time in adopting technology like real-time sales and inventory tracking.

It’s a testament to this long-term strategy that last week, when the activist investor Barington Capital took a shot at Macy’s, it said the venerable department store should look to Dillard’s as a model. Macy’s, with its famous Herald Square Christmas window displays, is four times larger by revenue than Dillard’s, but its slumping stock is down 18% this year. Dillard’s is up 10%, and its $7 billion market value has far surpassed Macy’s $4.6 billion value. Barington Capital’s advice seems sound.