Nordstrom Rack Rebranding & Expanding

[Alpha8472]

The new Nordstrom Rack logo looks like it says Crack instead of Rack.

I can't believe they paid a company to design this new logo and marketing campaign.

The company is opening 5 new stores in California including one in Davis, California. I'm sorry but Davis is a middle of nowhere town surrounded by farmland. No one travels to Davis for shopping. The city smells like cows.

https://chainstoreage.com/nordstrom-rac ... d-new-logo

[veteran+]

The new Nordstrom Rack logo looks like it says Crack instead of Rack.

I can't believe they paid a company to design this new logo and marketing campaign.

The company is opening 5 new stores in California including one in Davis, California. I'm sorry but Davis is a middle of nowhere town surrounded by farmland. No one travels to Davis for shopping. The city smells like cows.

https://chainstoreage.com/nordstrom-rac ... d-new-logo

Have you ever been to Hemet or San Jacinto?

[Romr123]

LOL so true. Davis is home of UC-Davis---the athleisure needs of the students probably aren't fully satisfied by the retailers currently (lol)

[ClownLoach]

The last couple of times I went into a Nordstrom Rack I found the store conditions to be so horrific from a recovery and cleanliness perspective that I thought I had walked into a bootleg Ross.

They have tried far too many changes that have all fallen flat. The bizarre attempt to completely remove checkout stands and have customers hunt down an employee in a green shirt to pay, for example. The logo changes about once every year, but never makes it onto a building (no two stores have the same exact logo in SoCal). TJX at least attempts to merchandise some small feature displays of specific brands with mannequins and tables, but Nordstrom Rack seems to have removed all such fixtures creating a thrift store style environment. Some stores keep only one shoe on the floor and make you go to a window to wait in a line to get the other shoe, while others bolt them together with security tags which make it impossible to actually try them on and walk around. Condition of merchandise has greatly deteriorated and appears to include many soiled used returns that are in conditions Goodwill and Salvation Army would not be willing to stock. Shoes with clearly miles of wear and tear. About the only worse thing they could do is start selling used swimwear and underwear, that is if they aren't doing so already.

I begin to question if Nordstrom would be better off tightening the famous "anything goes" return policies to add a reasonable timeline and condition requirements (with leeway for actual defective product), negotiating full RTV rights with their vendors, and getting rid of these stores entirely. They are a poor representation of the Nordstrom company's standards for service and quality. I fear that their department stores are becoming more like the Rack side of the business too as they seem to be investing more in Rack than mainline. It's like the new car dealership filling the showroom with used clunkers and putting the new stock at the back corner of the lot.

[storewanderer]

I read recently that Rack is opening a new store in Clovis, CA. They already have a store in Fresno, CA. Why do they need a store in Clovis? It feels like they are trying to penetrate areas.

The new Rack logo and blue color scheme screams ROSS. Or Macy's Backstage. Absolutely terrible.

I think this new Rack logo and the tiny Nordstrom box on the top is a way to transition the "Rack" brand away from Nordstrom entirely. I think they are going go try and spin it off or otherwise get rid of it.

I think the way Nordstrom has handled Rack has hurt its image significantly. They expanded into many markets with this format. People heard Nordstrom and they had an expectation- a high one- an unrealistic one. Over the years as the Rack conditions have deteriorated these customers image of Nordstrom at large has to have declined as a result. Nordstrom may have been better off pushing e-commerce on profitable customers in these distant markets and leaving the discount format to Ross and TJX.

If I were Nordstrom, I'd take the Nordstrom name off of Rack entirely and I'd do it immediately.

[veteran+]

Genius C-Suite as usual.....................

They are slowly dismantling the cachet of Nordstrom. Seems to be a common affliction amongst American companies in their rapacious focus for more profit (no matter the "cost").

[ClownLoach]

I read recently that Rack is opening a new store in Clovis, CA. They already have a store in Fresno, CA. Why do they need a store in Clovis? It feels like they are trying to penetrate areas.

The new Rack logo and blue color scheme screams ROSS. Or Macy's Backstage. Absolutely terrible.

I think this new Rack logo and the tiny Nordstrom box on the top is a way to transition the "Rack" brand away from Nordstrom entirely. I think they are going go try and spin it off or otherwise get rid of it.

I think the way Nordstrom has handled Rack has hurt its image significantly. They expanded into many markets with this format. People heard Nordstrom and they had an expectation- a high one- an unrealistic one. Over the years as the Rack conditions have deteriorated these customers image of Nordstrom at large has to have declined as a result. Nordstrom may have been better off pushing e-commerce on profitable customers in these distant markets and leaving the discount format to Ross and TJX.

If I were Nordstrom, I'd take the Nordstrom name off of Rack entirely and I'd do it immediately.

But now they're using Rack stores to accept Nordstrom store returns as well as e-commerce returns. Makes some sense, saves on transportation costs since the returns would all land there anyway. They are removing the cachet of the brand because they have sworn allegiance to Wall Street's illogical mantra that every retailer must be omnichannel over all else or risk a swift and immediate demise at the hands of the Amazonians. It is far more important to be able to return your used Nordstrom purchased socks to the nearest Nordstrom Rack so they can be put out for immediate resale.

I really think they need to recruit some TJX people as fast as possible to turn the ship around on Rack. These stores look like they are being run by Goodwill or Value Village leaders. They always maintained the Nordstrom standards around cleanliness and service before. Now you see a trashed queue line with go-backs everywhere as you are rudely called by a surly clerk to approach a counter overflowing with more returns and damaged goods. I wouldn't allow the dumpster area to look as bad as their average front end does.

What shocks me more is that the stores do appear to be 100% stocked with returned items, nothing new. In the past they were about a 50/50 mix of good condition returns and new special buy items sourced just for Rack. Many of these special buys were displayed on mannequins and endcaps. Some were especially good values, such as 2 packs of liter size salon shampoo and conditioner that would normally cost twice as much for just one of the bottles. Again now it looks like Big Lots or Ross on a bad day with used Salvation Army donations. Their standards around what gets resold must have been slashed to basically allow anything aside from used underwear. You feel dirty and uncomfortable going through these racks seeing unpleasant stains on clothing and shoes with obvious use wear and tear. I thought clothing was wildly high margin? If so then they can afford to throw out the pair of jeans with spaghetti sauce stains down the front that shouldn't have been returned in the first place (I mean if it's stained that bad then it obviously fit!). The standard should be if the tags were removed it doesn't get resold. I can't believe I have to say that.

[storewanderer]

After reopening from COVID, Rack took out about half of its displays "to promote social distancing" and the stores looked quite empty and very sad. I don't think they have ever recovered from doing that.

I haven't noticed any amount of soiled clothing in the Reno Rack, but have noticed very used looking shoes. What I notice is a lot of private label stuff specific for Rack at not great prices and the quality of these items is not what I would expect to be connected to Nordstrom either. There are some items that clearly came out of a standard Nordstrom (tags still attached, etc.) but it doesn't feel like 50% of what they have. Maybe 20% of what they have. I have been told the CA Racks that are located near full Nordstrom units still get a lot more stuff directly from the Nordstrom location nearby.

There is clearly a standards issue with whatever Nordstrom stores are "feeding" these soiled items into Rack that you see. The fact that a full line store thinks that stuff is "okay to send to Rack" and then the people running Rack think that stuff is "okay to put out for sale" shows a break down in two different parts of the organization on standards and is quite pathetic. I can only imagine how many customers see this and their image of the entire Nordstrom brand is ruined.

The front end is a disaster and what is odd is they remodeled the front end, it used to be a counter in the corner sort of like a return counter and there was a wall behind it and the counter for checkout and that was it (looked sort of like a hotel front desk). So returns, etc. all went behind that wall. Then they did the push to do checkout on the sales floor and demolished that whole counter area up front and merchandised it. Not long after it was determined the checkout on the sales floor was confusing and also a big theft mess. So they put a makeshift checkout counter back in against the front wall completely in the open and now returns, etc. are strewn around the counter, behind it on the floor/in boxes, etc.

[SamSpade]

Not sure what they believe they will get out of all this California new store opening-
Salem, Ore. may appreciate having a Rack after losing a full line store downtown (along with JCPenney)
Article from CNBC including a quote from the Nordstrom still leading the company:
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/05/12/nordstr ... rowth.html

[BatteryMill]

The new Nordstrom Rack logo looks like it says Crack instead of Rack.

I can't believe they paid a company to design this new logo and marketing campaign.

The company is opening 5 new stores in California including one in Davis, California. I'm sorry but Davis is a middle of nowhere town surrounded by farmland. No one travels to Davis for shopping. The city smells like cows.

https://chainstoreage.com/nordstrom-rac ... d-new-logo

Reminds me of the kind of logo they had in 1980s.

And I mean, Davis has already had a Target for a while...