Nordstrom, Inc. is an upscale department store chain in the United States, founded by John W. Nordstrom and Carl F. Wallin. Initially a shoe retailer, the company today also sells clothing, accessories, handbags, jewelry, cosmetics, fragrances and home furnishings in some locations. There are now 231 stores operating in 31 states across the U.S. There are 117 Full-Line stores and 110 Nordstrom Racks. The corporate headquarters and the flagship store are located in DowntownSeattle, Washington. The chain also offers free shipping and returns every day all the time without a minimum purchase.

 

Nordstrom's biggest competitors are traditionally Bloomingdales, Lord & Taylor, Von Maur, Neiman Marcus, and Saks Fifth Avenue.

 

History

Beginnings

In 1887, at the age of 16, like many other Swedes in the late 19th century, John W. Nordstrom emigrated to the United States in search of opportunity. He was born in the village of Ale, close to Luleå in Northern Sweden. His name at birth was "Johan Nordström" which he later anglicized to John Nordstrom. After landing in New York, he first worked in Michigan. After working a series of menial jobs as he moved across the country, he saved enough money to purchase a 20-acre (81,000 m2) potato farm in Arlington, Washington, close to Seattle. In 1897, he joined the Klondike Gold Rush in Canada's Yukon Territory, leaving Seattle with countless others. After two years of prospecting and doing whatever it took to continue, he finally struck gold, but sold his disputed claim for $13,000.

 

Returning to Seattle with his new found wealth, he married Hilda Carlson and looked for a business venture, finally settling on a shoe store that opened in 1901, called Wallin& Nordstrom. Carl F. Wallin, the co-founder of the store, was the owner of the adjacent shoe repair shop. John and Hilda had five children, three of whom followed him into the family business, Everett W.(1903), Elmer J.(1904) and Lloyd N. Nordstrom. By the time Wallin& Nordstrom opened their second store in Seattle in 1923, Elmer who recently graduated from the University of Washington had already had enough hands-on experience to be put in charge of its opening.

 

In 1928, John W. Nordstrom retired and sold his shares to two of his sons, Everett and Elmer. In 1929, Wallin also retired and sold his shares to them. The 1930 grand opening of the remodeled Second Avenue store marked the change of name to Nordstrom. Lloyd Nordstrom subsequently joined the company in 1933, and the three brothers ran the business together for almost forty years.

 

By 1958, Nordstrom had expanded to eight stores in two states but still only sold shoes. Their expansion was based on customer service, deep product offerings and full size ranges. Apparel came with its purchase of Best Apparel of Seattle in 1963. The company's name was changed to Nordstrom Best in 1969.

 

By 1968, the second generation debated selling the company as Everett neared retirement. Instead, they were convinced by the third generation Nordstroms—Bruce A. (Everett's son), James F. and John N. (Elmer's two sons), together with John A. (Jack) MacMillan (married to Lloyd's daughter) -- to take the company public instead, and allow the cousins to take over the business. In 1971, the company was taken public on NASDAQ under the ticker NOBE (Nordstrom Best). In 1973, "Best" was dropped from the company's name, and the store assumed its current name of Nordstrom.[8] It was moved to the New York Stock Exchange in 1999 under the ticker symbol JWN after John W. Nordstrom, its founder.

 

Beginning in 1995, the fourth generation of brothers and cousins served as co-presidents for a time. After John Whitacre served as the first non-Nordstrom CEO in 1997, in 2001 the family reasserted its control, with the sons of Bruce A. (Blake, Erik and Peter) assuming senior roles in the company which they continue to hold.

 

Expansion

Nordstrom has grown from a regional department store to a national chain by opening new stores rather than by acquisition of other retailers.

 

By 1975, Nordstrom expanded into Alaska (the only time by acquisition) by purchasing Northern Commercial Company and opened its first Nordstrom Rack clearance store in Seattle. A strong northwest regional retailer with sales already approaching $250 million (making it the third-largest specialty retailer in the U.S.), it opened its first Southern California store at Costa Mesa in 1978. By the early 1990s, it had opened 26 stores plus Racks in California. Subsequent expansion relied on creating a strongly decentralized regional structure, beginning with the Northeast (Tysons Corner Center, 1988), Midwest (Oakbrook Center, 1991), Southeast (Atlanta, 1998), and Southwest (Dallas, 1996) to which the California stores were added. In a new region, the initial store was used as a base for training and recruitment for subsequent expansion, and was usually backed by its own distribution center. From 1978 to 1995, Nordstrom opened a total of 46 full-line department stores.

 

PLACE TWO: In 1976, Nordstrom opened a series of stores called Place Two to sell a more limited selection of apparel in smaller markets. By 1983, there were ten Place Two stores, but the cost of upgrading the smaller stores, especially from a systems perspective, outweighed the benefit, and the division was discontinued.

 

FLAGSHIP: In 1998, Nordstrom replaced its downtown Seattle store with a new flagship location in the former Frederick & Nelson building across the street. At 383,000 square feet (35,600 m2), the downtown Seattle location is the chain's largest store. By contrast, the smallest Nordstrom store (as of September 2008) opened in 1980 in Salem, Oregon and has a total area of just under 72,000 square feet (6,700 m2).

 

DIRECT: The company also expanded into direct sales in 1993, beginning with a catalog division[13] led by John N.'s son Dan that was followed by an e-commerce business. Nordstrom.com's fulfillment and contact center is located in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Currently, it has distribution centers in Ontario, California, Portland, Oregon, Dubuque, Iowa, Upper Marlboro, Maryland and Gainesville, Florida.

 

NORDSTROM BANK & FASHION REWARDS PROGRAM: Nordstrom FSB, a wholly owned subsidiary of Nordstrom, Inc., is a federally chartered savings bank doing business as Nordstrom Bank. It was formed in 1991 in Scottsdale, Arizona, with its customer contact center in Englewood, Colorado. Nordstrom FSB was formerly known as Nordstrom National Credit Bank and changed its name to Nordstrom FSB in March 2000. The bank offers various banking and credit products, such as Nordstrom Signature VISA, Nordstrom retail credit and debit (fka "MOD") cards, interest-bearing checking accounts, check cards, and certificates of deposits. It offers Nordstrom customers cards under Nordstrom Fashion Rewards - its customer loyalty program - where customers earn a minimum of two reward points per dollar spent at Nordstrom when using a Nordstrom debit or credit card. Few retailers offer a rewards debit card. Nordstrom VISA purchases at non-Nordstrom merchants earn one reward point. Rewards include Nordstrom Notes which are redeemed or used like cash in stores for new purchases and the Nordstrom Signature VISA card also has an optional travel/leisure rewards feature. The Fashion Rewards program features 4 levels of status depending on annual spend and offers various promotional times throughout the year to earn double, triple and even ten-times points.

 

Nordstrom is revving up Fashion Rewards even more in 2012 making its rewards less expensive to get; it will take fewer points (about half) to get perks, customers now will get a new pick-your-own Triple Points day, and earn complimentary alterations and standard shipping all the way to a private shopping party sooner. Nordstrom Rack is now included too. The top two member levels (3 and 4) annual spend levels have been halved - level 3 is achieved now with annul spend of $5000+ and Level 4 for $10,000+. Nordstrom officials say the number of Fashion Rewards members is growing (about 2.6 million), as is the amount they are spending. Kevin Knight, president of Nordstrom Credit, told the Wall Street Journal that these customers make twice as many shopping trips and spend three times more than a typical Nordstrom shopper. The change-up is part of Nordstrom's efforts to drive more shoppers to its stores. Sales are trending up - preliminary year-to-date total sales for 2011 were up nearly 13 percent to $9.8 billion compared with 2010.

 

Today

As the stores expanded in size, restaurants were added beginning in 1979, reaching their peak with the then-largest (and most expensive) Westfield San Francisco Centre California flagship store that opened in 1989, that included no fewer than four restaurants as well as an English pub.[18] Recently, the "Espresso Bar" from older stores has been discontinued and re-introduced as the "eBar" with offering a variety of quick-fix snacks, and an expanded "hotbar" drink list. Smaller stores (mostly consisting of two-stories) now have an "in-House Cafe," which offers the same menu but with seating. Nordstrom has also revised its four restaurants (found in select larger stores), the casual "Classic Cafe" and "Marketplace Cafe," the "Cafe Bistro" specializing in brick oven entrees and the "Nordstrom Grill" offering food and alcoholic beverages.

 

Nordstrom sold its stand-alone boutique chain Façonnable in 2007 though it still offers that label in its lineup.

 

In February 2011, Nordstrom announced the acquisition of HauteLook, an LA-based online retailer that offers flash sales on designer goods. The deal includes Nordstrom paying $180 million in stock and a three-year "earn-out" payment based on HauteLook's financial performance.

 

On May 26, 2011, Nordstrom announced that they will be closing the downtown Indianapolis, IndianaCircle Center Mall location due to declining business at Downtown site. The remaining location on the north side of the city at the Fashion Mall at Keystone as well as the future Nordstrom Rack store in the Rivers Edge Shopping Center, also on the north side, will remain as the only two locations in the state. Erik Nordstrom, president of stores at Nordstrom stated, "We've enjoyed serving our customers in downtown Indianapolis, but unfortunately our business has declined over the long term for some time and despite our efforts to turn things around we don't see the outlook significantly changing."

 

August 2011, Nordstrom opens the store Treasure & Bond in SoHo, New York. Interesting fact about this store is that the profits will not contribute to the bottom line of Nordstrom. Instead the profits will be donated to charity. The Treasure & Bond store's customer will be the cool hipster sister of the typical cashmere cardigan wearing Nordstrom customer.

 

March 22, 2012, City Creek Center opened up in Downtown Salt Lake City, with a new Nordstrom anchor store. The store features a light feature on the west facade adjacent to Temple Square (as seen in the picture on the right). City Creek Center's only other anchor is Macy's.

 

Nordstrom officially announced its expansion to Canada on September 13th 2012, announcing the opening of 4 locations in some of the most successful shopping malls in Canada; Pacific Centre in Vancouver, Chinook Centre in Calgary and Ottawa’s Rideau Centre, all owned by Cadillac Fairview and all in Sears stores to close on October 31 2012, the result of a 170 million dollar buyout to vacate the sites. The fourth store is to be a new build in Toronto's Sherway Gardens. The Canadian expansion is set to open in fall 2014 (Calgary), spring 2015 (Ottawa and Vancouver) and 2016 (Toronto).