The tire story was the result of Nordstrom's absorbing a local department store chain in Alaska. They weren't just taking in a product Nordstroms doesn't stock.

The tire story was the result of Nordstrom's absorbing a local department store chain in Alaska. They weren't just taking in a product Nordstroms doesn't stock. The dumb version of the story was good PR at first and was disseminated among the staff but contributed to unreasonable customer expectations.