Hurricane Sandy smacked luxury stores last month — and now they’re showering shoppers with discounts.
Upscale shops, led by Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue, are running clearances on fall fashions from top designers like Gucci, Prada and Marc Jacobs after the historic storm disrupted the start of the crucial holiday season on the East Coast.
Neiman Marcus yesterday was advertising hundreds of dresses, tops and even shoes online at markdowns of more than 50 percent.
The Sandy-forced discounts included a pair of Manolo Blahnik lizard-skin sandals for $335, down from $745.
“I’m seeing a lot more discounts than last year and a lot more in-season merchandise” such as cashmere sweaters, said Candace Corlett, president of WSL Strategic Retail, an industry consultant.
Indeed, bargains on Saks’ site yesterday included a merino wool dress from Michael Kors at $597 — down from $995.
A 40 percent-off sale that Saks began last weekend will last “another few days,” said CEO Steve Sadove.
The swanky chain is scrambling to recover from the temporary shuttering of nearly a dozen stores. The company’s Fifth Avenue flagship, which accounts for 20 percent of its business, was boarded up for two days after Sandy hit the Big Apple.
“This is not a repeat of the recession in 2008,” Sadove told The Post in an interview yesterday, referring to the storewide discounts of 70 percent that Saks took four years earlier, after the collapse of Lehman Brothers.
Nevertheless, Saks yesterday lowered its fourth-quarter forecast, saying it expects margins to drop slightly on flat sales.
“The big questions looking ahead will be: (1) how quickly will sales rebound in this affected markets and (2) will the pending fiscal cliff cause consumers at the high-end to pause this upcoming holiday season,” Deutsche Bank analyst Charles Grom wrote in a note to clients.
Saks shares tumbled as much as 6.5 percent yesterday before recovering to close at $9.92, up 0.4 percent.