During my week and change in New York, the conversation often led back to Saks Global. Would the company, many wondered, file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection—or worse, Chapter 7 liquidation—by January? Or was it too big to fail? And then there were the expected and occasionally high-pitched gripes. After all, C.E.O. Marc Metrick had recently sent a saccharine note to partner brands on September 10 titled “Kicking Off Fall at Saks Global,” which touted its new mantra (“The Art of You”), laid out the go-forward vision for the group, and linked to a customer survey. Sure, that’s his job and conducting some form of business as usual is required to exit this mess. But I subsequently received several frustrated emails. “What a joke,” one of the recipients wrote to me. “Pay your vendors.”