Nordstrom: dying too?

Predicting the demise of Sears & Kmart since 2017!
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ClownLoach
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Nordstrom: dying too?

Post by ClownLoach »

On another thread someone mentioned that they felt a Nordstrom may be thriving and helping a busy shopping center where Macy's had left. I checked that store out and another nearby because I needed a dress shirt for an upcoming wedding I have to attend.

All I can say is that now I get the same serious Sears vibes inside Nordstrom. Both stores functioned entirely as hallways between the parking lot and the rest of the mall, with no customers actually shopping for anything that I could see.

Nordstrom was very good at having a full selection of sizes of dress shirts on hand. The shirts were a bit more expensive but the quality and comfort was immediately apparent; I always felt like I got my money's worth. Now I couldn't find my size (I have long arms) available in stock at any local store; I would have to order online and wait for delivery. And only a few basic colors stocked but most are online only.

Empty space everywhere, scaled back service. Display tables with single shirts spread out so that if you picked one up someone is going to have to rearrange or find something else to fill the hole immediately. Racks that looked like they could hold 30 hangers but had 6 on them.

The area I am in is overstored by Nordstrom; I believe they actually have one more store here than Macy's if I count malls with separate men's and women's buildings as one location. But I've been seeing the sale on floor space opening up at Macy's for years now where it looks like they haven't received a new piece of merchandise in months and just keep consolidating the emptying racks. Now Nordstrom looks the same.

What happened?
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Re: Nordstrom: dying too?

Post by storewanderer »

ClownLoach wrote: May 18th, 2022, 11:04 am On another thread someone mentioned that they felt a Nordstrom may be thriving and helping a busy shopping center where Macy's had left. I checked that store out and another nearby because I needed a dress shirt for an upcoming wedding I have to attend.

All I can say is that now I get the same serious Sears vibes inside Nordstrom. Both stores functioned entirely as hallways between the parking lot and the rest of the mall, with no customers actually shopping for anything that I could see.

Nordstrom was very good at having a full selection of sizes of dress shirts on hand. The shirts were a bit more expensive but the quality and comfort was immediately apparent; I always felt like I got my money's worth. Now I couldn't find my size (I have long arms) available in stock at any local store; I would have to order online and wait for delivery. And only a few basic colors stocked but most are online only.

Empty space everywhere, scaled back service. Display tables with single shirts spread out so that if you picked one up someone is going to have to rearrange or find something else to fill the hole immediately. Racks that looked like they could hold 30 hangers but had 6 on them.

The area I am in is overstored by Nordstrom; I believe they actually have one more store here than Macy's if I count malls with separate men's and women's buildings as one location. But I've been seeing the sale on floor space opening up at Macy's for years now where it looks like they haven't received a new piece of merchandise in months and just keep consolidating the emptying racks. Now Nordstrom looks the same.

What happened?
The Reno Nordstrom Rack has been like this since COVID reopening took place. When I questioned what was going on, actually I asked if they were going out of business, I was told they pulled half of the merchandise out to ensure people were able to stay "socially distanced" when browsing the racks.

I suggest Dillard's for dress shirts. Roundtree and Yorke "Gold Label" private label brand. Problem is their website is pretty useless and I guess El Centro or Palmdale isn't very convenient.
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Re: Nordstrom: dying too?

Post by ClownLoach »

storewanderer wrote: May 18th, 2022, 8:12 pm
ClownLoach wrote: May 18th, 2022, 11:04 am On another thread someone mentioned that they felt a Nordstrom may be thriving and helping a busy shopping center where Macy's had left. I checked that store out and another nearby because I needed a dress shirt for an upcoming wedding I have to attend.

All I can say is that now I get the same serious Sears vibes inside Nordstrom. Both stores functioned entirely as hallways between the parking lot and the rest of the mall, with no customers actually shopping for anything that I could see.

Nordstrom was very good at having a full selection of sizes of dress shirts on hand. The shirts were a bit more expensive but the quality and comfort was immediately apparent; I always felt like I got my money's worth. Now I couldn't find my size (I have long arms) available in stock at any local store; I would have to order online and wait for delivery. And only a few basic colors stocked but most are online only.

Empty space everywhere, scaled back service. Display tables with single shirts spread out so that if you picked one up someone is going to have to rearrange or find something else to fill the hole immediately. Racks that looked like they could hold 30 hangers but had 6 on them.

The area I am in is overstored by Nordstrom; I believe they actually have one more store here than Macy's if I count malls with separate men's and women's buildings as one location. But I've been seeing the sale on floor space opening up at Macy's for years now where it looks like they haven't received a new piece of merchandise in months and just keep consolidating the emptying racks. Now Nordstrom looks the same.

What happened?
The Reno Nordstrom Rack has been like this since COVID reopening took place. When I questioned what was going on, actually I asked if they were going out of business, I was told they pulled half of the merchandise out to ensure people were able to stay "socially distanced" when browsing the racks.

I suggest Dillard's for dress shirts. Roundtree and Yorke "Gold Label" private label brand. Problem is their website is pretty useless and I guess El Centro or Palmdale isn't very convenient.
You are correct on Dillard's, when I still needed dress shirts for work I actually made a special trip to Las Vegas to go there. (yeah, weak excuse for a weekend in Vegas but it did work!)
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Re: Nordstrom: dying too?

Post by HCal »

I've noticed this too. I wonder if their online sales have picked up. They might be thinking of the stores as showrooms at this point.

But of course Nordstrom has higher margins than Sears, so they need fewer customers to be profitable.
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Re: Nordstrom: dying too?

Post by Alpha8472 »

I know of a Nordstrom in a rich suburb that closed. It was the Nordstrom at Stoneridge Mall in Pleasanton, California. That is a low crime city with many upper middle class residents. I have no idea why it closed as the mall is one of the busiest malls in the San Francisco Bay Area.

It is possible that the company felt that Macy's and JCPenney were too much competition at the mall. The Sears at the mall already closed.
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Re: Nordstrom: dying too?

Post by lake52 »

Alpha8472 wrote: May 19th, 2022, 1:41 pm I know of a Nordstrom in a rich suburb that closed. It was the Nordstrom at Stoneridge Mall in Pleasanton, California. That is a low crime city with many upper middle class residents. I have no idea why it closed as the mall is one of the busiest malls in the San Francisco Bay Area.

It is possible that the company felt that Macy's and JCPenney were too much competition at the mall. The Sears at the mall already closed.
I wouldn’t think too much into the Pleasanton closure. That mall is in a great area, but Walnut Creek and Livermore won out on attracting the big name tenants. The tenant mix at Stoneridge just isn’t all that great, similar to Arden Fair or Clackamas Town Center. All decent malls, but not the tenant mix Nordstrom wants.

I walked through a Nordstrom on the Peninsula the other day. The store was decently stocked, I’d imagine the areas that look a little light were due to supply chain. They had cleared out a pretty big area for online pickup and tailor services which both had customers. Looking at google, it seems that Nordstrom has expanded the tailor services to a bunch of stores, even Nordstrom Rack. It will be interesting to see how that goes.
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Re: Nordstrom: dying too?

Post by ClownLoach »

lake52 wrote: May 19th, 2022, 5:58 pm
Alpha8472 wrote: May 19th, 2022, 1:41 pm I know of a Nordstrom in a rich suburb that closed. It was the Nordstrom at Stoneridge Mall in Pleasanton, California. That is a low crime city with many upper middle class residents. I have no idea why it closed as the mall is one of the busiest malls in the San Francisco Bay Area.

It is possible that the company felt that Macy's and JCPenney were too much competition at the mall. The Sears at the mall already closed.
I wouldn’t think too much into the Pleasanton closure. That mall is in a great area, but Walnut Creek and Livermore won out on attracting the big name tenants. The tenant mix at Stoneridge just isn’t all that great, similar to Arden Fair or Clackamas Town Center. All decent malls, but not the tenant mix Nordstrom wants.

I walked through a Nordstrom on the Peninsula the other day. The store was decently stocked, I’d imagine the areas that look a little light were due to supply chain. They had cleared out a pretty big area for online pickup and tailor services which both had customers. Looking at google, it seems that Nordstrom has expanded the tailor services to a bunch of stores, even Nordstrom Rack. It will be interesting to see how that goes.
They've always had tailoring in every full line store and brag that they employ more tailors than anyone else in the USA. But to make up for the reduction in merchandise now they've moved them out to the sales floor to take up space (and drive awareness).
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Re: Nordstrom: dying too?

Post by Super S »

Nordstrom's traditional department store business model is dying. While I have not purchased anything in a Nordstrom store in recent years, I have walked through their stores a few times and honestly didn't feel that they offered anything better than a Macy's in the same malls. Perhaps their service is better, but their prices are high.

Nordstrom itself, to their credit, has sensed this by opening the Rack stores.
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Re: Nordstrom: dying too?

Post by buckguy »

They report out their 1st quarter performance next week. Their 2021 was generally favorable: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/01/nordstr ... 0Refinitiv.

It looks like over 40% of their sales are online-driven. They're opening two stores in NYC that are fulfillment based.

Pleasanton closed 2 years ago as part of a 16 store closure. As mentioned upthread, they mostly locations that didn't make the most sense for them. Annapolis Mall was one of these---there are small upscale pockets in its trading area but they don't really define it. It also had an early Lord & Taylor closure. There are places where they didn't go into the most upscale mall when they entered an area because that mall was in trouble--they went into Perimeter over Phipps in Atlanta (and then went into Phipps years later when it was redone) and Montgomery instead of White Flint in DC (White Flint is now demolished except for the Lord & Taylor which had been the subject of a long litigation). There probably were locations where this strategy didn't work out or else, like Annapolis, the trading area didn't have enough customers for them.

Esp. on weekdays, I've never seen a Nordstrom be very busy unless it was one of their semi-annual sales.
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Re: Nordstrom: dying too?

Post by BreakingThrough »

I was in the Del Amo Fashion Center (Torrance CA) location doing some shopping today, a Friday. This is one of Nordstrom's newer-build stores, built from the ground up in a relocation from the nearby dying South Bay Galleria in Redondo Beach.

Haven't been in since before the pandemic. Agree inventory has shrunk; I am male and they seemed to have cleared out much of the entry-level young men's stuff. Which makes sense since that overlapped price-wise with Rack. There was still a healthy selection, which I found to be well-curated, but things were in the $60 for a t-shirt range. I did find quality to be a cut above Macy's overall with some Macy's-level items. Service was excellent; I was immediately greeted and attended to by a salesperson, who helped find what I was looking for, chaperoned fitting, and got me out quickly. Good experience.

The store seemed to have a healthy crowd for Noon on a Friday; the adjacent Ebar coffee shop was doing brisk business and the in-store restaurant was also pretty busy (I've actually heard good things about the restaurant).

So this location, while not as high-end as the Century City location which was built around the same time, seemed healthy. But I realize that this is likely one of their better locations and not representative of the whole chain. New-builds like this store, UTC and Century City really stand out from the rest.
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