FASHION PHOTOGRAPHY – After more than a century, Nordstrom, the upscale department store chain from Seattle, will make its Manhattan debut on Tuesday.
But don’t expect $4,000 dresses.
Expect 25,000 pairs of discounted shoes, and an automated checkout line more at home in a supermarket than a purveyor of luxury goods.
While retailers of Nordstrom’s caliber typically come to New York to erect sumptuous flagships, Nordstrom is introducing itself here with a low-cost sister store in Union Square — mere steps from Filene’s Basement.
The store, Nordstrom Rack, is good news for the pocketbooks of the fashion-conscious, though not necessarily for the brand’s first impression in New York. For instance, Nordstrom’s customer service is a hallmark of the chain, but the Manhattan store will not offer that level of attention.
“Ideally we would have led with a full-line store,” Blake W. Nordstrom, the company’s president, told reporters on Monday during a walking tour of the new store.
Yet finding a suitably luxurious location in Manhattan is like finding the perfect bowl of porridge. Many spaces are too small, too dark or have ceilings that are too low. And competition for big, alluring spaces is stiff (read: astronomically expensive).
Even the new Union Square store is, at 32,136 square feet, slightly smaller than the typical 35,000-square-foot Nordstrom Rack. Besides, it takes a year or two to find a suitable spot and open a Rack, Mr. Nordstrom said. Opening a traditional Nordstrom takes on average of four years.
“Nordstrom has been trying for years to get a store in New York City proper,” said Bill Dreher, a senior retailing analyst with Deutsche Bank Securities. “A traditional Nordstrom department store would do very well in the Manhattan market.” Read more »
