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I hope this doesn't change Nordstrom too much. One of the last department stores worth stopping into. JC Penny and Macys feel so run down (and I'm talking a nic

I hope this doesn't change Nordstrom too much. One of the last department stores worth stopping into. JC Penny and Macys feel so run down (and I'm talking a nice Southern California mall, not one somewhere in the middle of the country). Bloomingdales is nice too, but they don't seem like they'll have the same staying power.

daft_pink 2y ago
I think it’s a positive. Generally the founders are more customer friendly/focused than CEO’s chasing constant revenue/profit growth. Hard to imagine such a customer friendly company drastically changing when the founders retake control.
- Eric_WVGG 2y ago
  Seemed to work pretty well for Dell Computer.
- kevin_thibedeau 2y ago
  The Walton family disproves that theory.
  - TylerE 2y ago
    Does it? Remember when Walmart sold made in the USA products exclusively? Hint: It was before Sam Walton died.
    - kevin_thibedeau 2y ago
      That is the point. The heirs have ruined the business by pissing on the founder's grave.
  - daft_pink 2y ago
    I don’t think you’d see them taking Walmart private and putting their money on the line to improve the business.
Aloha 2y ago
We have one of the new concept Penny's here in Hurst Texas, and its amazing, the store is very well merchandised, clean and well lit. They're supposedly rolling them out nationwide - JCP does gamify shopping in a way that almost makes it fun. https://fortworth.culturemap.com/news/fashion/11-01-19-j-c-penney-reimagined-store-concept-hurst/ https://fortworth.culturemap.com/news/fashion/11-01-19-j-c-p... https://www.jcpenney.com/m/hurst-store-page https://www.jcpenney.com/m/hurst-store-page
- kylehotchkiss 2y ago
  WOW do I love their new logo. This all seems really well thought out. Glad they're doing the hard work to step out of the 90s!
  - jjeaff 2y ago
    which one, I searched and found several iterations that are supposedly "new"
- r00fus 2y ago
  This sounds really interesting - they've decided to make their new stores a place to visit not just to shop but as a place to learn (clearly leading to more shopping). Stores used to rely on other mall properties to do the 2nd part but as the concept of the Mall starts fading, they need to start doing this themselves.
- wombat-man 2y ago
  That's good. For nostalgia reasons I shop at the mall around the holidays. JCP seems to be marching right behind the SEARS that is no longer there.
- conductr 2y ago
  I happen to have some inside knowledge, this was a concept store created for a specific marketing campaign and no intention of this being rolled out further to their stores. The store/campaign itself was like three waves of executives ago at this point and will likely never be more than this single store. They were experimenting with box in a box but have mostly lost those partnerships too, the Sephora partnership was largely seen as beneficial to Sephora more than JCP.
AzzieElbab 2y ago
I used to grab coffee in Toronto's Nordstrom cafe. The store was positioned so that you had to cross it after getting out of the subway on your way to other stores and offices—as prime of a location as it gets. It still got tanked by the rent
legitster 2y ago
Nordstrom played really smart - they didn't overexpand or cheap out their brand.
- ciabattabread 2y ago
  They had the failed Canada expansion, but they smelled like roses compared to the crash and burn of Target Canada.
  - transcriptase 2y ago
    On top of the hilariously mismanaged rollout and botched logistics/inventory system, Target thought that Canadians would pay $19 for a $5 tee when the exchange rate was ~1.04.
  - bpye 2y ago
    It’s unfortunate. As mentioned elsewhere, the Vancouver store was one of their most profitable (overall) but the rest were not - and I guess sustaining operations in another country for one store doesn’t work out.
    - transcriptase 2y ago
      6 months after the grand opening the east coast locations looked as if they were being liquidated not ramping up. To hide the fact that they couldn’t get the inventory mix they needed the staff were spacing out what little they did have. E.g. An entire aisle of king sized duvets with huge empty gaps, and no twin or queen sized to be found.
mywittyname 2y ago
My local Macy's is pretty nice, so I shop there pretty regularly. It's in the middle of the country, but it's also located in a relatively affluent area and attached to a mall that's still doing quite well.
buildsjets 2y ago
As a male with absolutely no fashion sense but an occasional need to look presentable, I’ve always appreciated that you can get a free appointment with a personal stylist to help select your wardrobe. The cost is of course baked into the price of the clothing, but it is going to be quality stuff that lasts for a long time and be comfortable.
- jeffbee 2y ago
  Saks used to have a men's store in San Francisco where you could just get a guy to dress you. Barney's men's department was good, too. Unfortunately these are long gone. There is an overall lack of places for a man to buy clothes in American cities. I've noticed when I am abroad there seem to be more.
  - skyyler 2y ago
    Heimie's Haberdashery in Saint Paul still offers this sort of personal styling, and they offer tailoring as well. Definitely worth a stop if you're in the Twin Cities.
    - Arrath 2y ago
      Likewise, John Helmer Haberdashery in Portland, OR
  - chokolad 2y ago
    Bonobos has guide stores with stylists in them. If you need that kind of clothing it can work out pretty well. It's a completely different price range to Saks though.
  - ghaff 2y ago
    I'm a bit skeptical that a department store was ever a great option for that, Maybe once upon a time. Aside from a one shop tailor, I'd look to small chains oriented around men's clothing like J Banks, J Press, and so forth at this point.
  - yunohn 2y ago
dagmx 2y ago
I hope this actually does change Nordstrom because their corporate direction has been terrible over the last few years while trying to maximize shareholder value. They’ve closed all Canadian operations, despite their Vancouver store being one of their highest earning stores in North America. They’ve closed several west coast stores in the US as well, citing crime but insiders had said it was because they want to move into lower cost areas instead. Basically they’re trying to move into the market that JC Penny and Macy are leaving open, which has been slowly making Nordstrom itself much lower quality as a shopping experience. Over the last few years they’ve turned their shopping experience into more of a dumping ground of random clutter Perhaps going private will let them focus on treating their experience as part of the product.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- cogman10 2y ago
  The retail death spiral. Sales are down, so they cut costs by cutting staff and presentation. That ultimately turns the store into a warehouse of goods which in turn discourages shopping further. With that decline they often resort into cutting store operating hours which further kills off shopping. One of my local malls is open from like 11am to 6pm on the weekdays and 8pm on the weekends. Even if I wanted to shop there, it's hard because they are closed during normal work hours. The shops and stores are all manned with a skeleton crew. I've seen Macy's have a single employee manning the entire store.
  - stuckindoors 2y ago
    When companies go public - it’s no longer about running the store/company well or efficiently. It is an extractive process as much as possible at least in the last 20 years. Public companies think quarter to quarter and no longer think long term. Only smaller private companies are able to invest in the long run and invest in the future. The only group of public companies are that can swim against this tide are the tech darling like intel, apple, Microsoft, google. I worry that the corporate quarter to quarter mentality is ruining American corporation that is taking American capitalism to a new low. Maybe Nordstrom has a chance if they are private in the long run.
imzadi 2y ago
I worked at Nordstrom for 8 years, first in customer service, then in IT, then in engineering. I think this is a good move. The Nordstrom family cared a lot about the brand and the customers, the shareholders didn't. Things were really going downhill when I left. I hope they can get the boat righted.
game_the0ry 2y ago
Me too. Have to say -- I am not a big retail shopper, but my experiences at Nordstrom has been the best I have ever been too, including Apple store. I bought the suit that I wore to my wedding form Nordstrom. The sales associate that helped me out did a fantastic job.
jedberg 2y ago
> and I'm talking a nice Southern California mall, not one somewhere in the middle of the country You do realize that all the best maintained malls are in the middle of the country right? :) Mall of America is about as middle as it gets.
mrobins 2y ago
Respectfully disagree. I feel like quality and selection at most Nordstroms I’ve been to recently has been much worse. Salespeople have been less knowledgeable and more pushy. Feels like they’ve moved from upmarket into a space more easily replaced by lower cost online competitors.
bdcravens 2y ago
Dillards isn't bad, and at least seems to have a better selection than Macy's. They are a bit pushy in terms of sales though, and they don't seem to do a good job at customizing their selection regionally (the amount of winter coats and thick sweaters I've seen at Dillard's is absolutely comical for Houston locations)
geor9e 2y ago
I mean, of course Nordstroms feels less run down than JC Penny. Everything costs 10x.
mindslight 2y ago
> and I'm talking a nice Southern California mall, not one somewhere in the middle of the country This isn't the bound you seem to think it is. SoCal is quite wealthy, but the workers aren't exactly motivated or caring. I remember going keyboard shopping at Fry's well before any talk of bankruptcy and the whole aisle was basically a pile of scattered keycaps and nearly-empty keyboards. And I was just in a Macy's the other day (not in SoCal), and actually remarked how nice the store was set up compared to the overall trend of everywhere else going down hill. So as usual, YMMV.

daft_pink 2y ago

I think it’s a positive. Generally the founders are more customer friendly/focused than CEO’s chasing constant revenue/profit growth. Hard to imagine such a customer friendly company drastically changing when the founders retake control.

Eric_WVGG 2y ago
Seemed to work pretty well for Dell Computer.
kevin_thibedeau 2y ago
The Walton family disproves that theory.
- TylerE 2y ago
  Does it? Remember when Walmart sold made in the USA products exclusively? Hint: It was before Sam Walton died.
  - kevin_thibedeau 2y ago
    That is the point. The heirs have ruined the business by pissing on the founder's grave.
- daft_pink 2y ago
  I don’t think you’d see them taking Walmart private and putting their money on the line to improve the business.

Aloha 2y ago

We have one of the new concept Penny's here in Hurst Texas, and its amazing, the store is very well merchandised, clean and well lit. They're supposedly rolling them out nationwide - JCP does gamify shopping in a way that almost makes it fun. https://fortworth.culturemap.com/news/fashion/11-01-19-j-c-penney-reimagined-store-concept-hurst/ https://fortworth.culturemap.com/news/fashion/11-01-19-j-c-p... https://www.jcpenney.com/m/hurst-store-page https://www.jcpenney.com/m/hurst-store-page

kylehotchkiss 2y ago
WOW do I love their new logo. This all seems really well thought out. Glad they're doing the hard work to step out of the 90s!
- jjeaff 2y ago
  which one, I searched and found several iterations that are supposedly "new"
r00fus 2y ago
This sounds really interesting - they've decided to make their new stores a place to visit not just to shop but as a place to learn (clearly leading to more shopping). Stores used to rely on other mall properties to do the 2nd part but as the concept of the Mall starts fading, they need to start doing this themselves.
wombat-man 2y ago
That's good. For nostalgia reasons I shop at the mall around the holidays. JCP seems to be marching right behind the SEARS that is no longer there.
conductr 2y ago
I happen to have some inside knowledge, this was a concept store created for a specific marketing campaign and no intention of this being rolled out further to their stores. The store/campaign itself was like three waves of executives ago at this point and will likely never be more than this single store. They were experimenting with box in a box but have mostly lost those partnerships too, the Sephora partnership was largely seen as beneficial to Sephora more than JCP.

AzzieElbab 2y ago

I used to grab coffee in Toronto's Nordstrom cafe. The store was positioned so that you had to cross it after getting out of the subway on your way to other stores and offices—as prime of a location as it gets. It still got tanked by the rent

legitster 2y ago

Nordstrom played really smart - they didn't overexpand or cheap out their brand.

ciabattabread 2y ago
They had the failed Canada expansion, but they smelled like roses compared to the crash and burn of Target Canada.
- transcriptase 2y ago
  On top of the hilariously mismanaged rollout and botched logistics/inventory system, Target thought that Canadians would pay $19 for a $5 tee when the exchange rate was ~1.04.
- bpye 2y ago
  It’s unfortunate. As mentioned elsewhere, the Vancouver store was one of their most profitable (overall) but the rest were not - and I guess sustaining operations in another country for one store doesn’t work out.
  - transcriptase 2y ago
    6 months after the grand opening the east coast locations looked as if they were being liquidated not ramping up. To hide the fact that they couldn’t get the inventory mix they needed the staff were spacing out what little they did have. E.g. An entire aisle of king sized duvets with huge empty gaps, and no twin or queen sized to be found.

mywittyname 2y ago

My local Macy's is pretty nice, so I shop there pretty regularly. It's in the middle of the country, but it's also located in a relatively affluent area and attached to a mall that's still doing quite well.

buildsjets 2y ago

As a male with absolutely no fashion sense but an occasional need to look presentable, I’ve always appreciated that you can get a free appointment with a personal stylist to help select your wardrobe. The cost is of course baked into the price of the clothing, but it is going to be quality stuff that lasts for a long time and be comfortable.

jeffbee 2y ago
Saks used to have a men's store in San Francisco where you could just get a guy to dress you. Barney's men's department was good, too. Unfortunately these are long gone. There is an overall lack of places for a man to buy clothes in American cities. I've noticed when I am abroad there seem to be more.
- skyyler 2y ago
  Heimie's Haberdashery in Saint Paul still offers this sort of personal styling, and they offer tailoring as well. Definitely worth a stop if you're in the Twin Cities.
  - Arrath 2y ago
    Likewise, John Helmer Haberdashery in Portland, OR
- chokolad 2y ago
  Bonobos has guide stores with stylists in them. If you need that kind of clothing it can work out pretty well. It's a completely different price range to Saks though.
- ghaff 2y ago
  I'm a bit skeptical that a department store was ever a great option for that, Maybe once upon a time. Aside from a one shop tailor, I'd look to small chains oriented around men's clothing like J Banks, J Press, and so forth at this point.
- yunohn 2y ago

dagmx 2y ago

I hope this actually does change Nordstrom because their corporate direction has been terrible over the last few years while trying to maximize shareholder value. They’ve closed all Canadian operations, despite their Vancouver store being one of their highest earning stores in North America. They’ve closed several west coast stores in the US as well, citing crime but insiders had said it was because they want to move into lower cost areas instead. Basically they’re trying to move into the market that JC Penny and Macy are leaving open, which has been slowly making Nordstrom itself much lower quality as a shopping experience. Over the last few years they’ve turned their shopping experience into more of a dumping ground of random clutter Perhaps going private will let them focus on treating their experience as part of the product.

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
cogman10 2y ago
The retail death spiral. Sales are down, so they cut costs by cutting staff and presentation. That ultimately turns the store into a warehouse of goods which in turn discourages shopping further. With that decline they often resort into cutting store operating hours which further kills off shopping. One of my local malls is open from like 11am to 6pm on the weekdays and 8pm on the weekends. Even if I wanted to shop there, it's hard because they are closed during normal work hours. The shops and stores are all manned with a skeleton crew. I've seen Macy's have a single employee manning the entire store.
- stuckindoors 2y ago
  When companies go public - it’s no longer about running the store/company well or efficiently. It is an extractive process as much as possible at least in the last 20 years. Public companies think quarter to quarter and no longer think long term. Only smaller private companies are able to invest in the long run and invest in the future. The only group of public companies are that can swim against this tide are the tech darling like intel, apple, Microsoft, google. I worry that the corporate quarter to quarter mentality is ruining American corporation that is taking American capitalism to a new low. Maybe Nordstrom has a chance if they are private in the long run.

imzadi 2y ago

I worked at Nordstrom for 8 years, first in customer service, then in IT, then in engineering. I think this is a good move. The Nordstrom family cared a lot about the brand and the customers, the shareholders didn't. Things were really going downhill when I left. I hope they can get the boat righted.

game_the0ry 2y ago

Me too. Have to say -- I am not a big retail shopper, but my experiences at Nordstrom has been the best I have ever been too, including Apple store. I bought the suit that I wore to my wedding form Nordstrom. The sales associate that helped me out did a fantastic job.

jedberg 2y ago

> and I'm talking a nice Southern California mall, not one somewhere in the middle of the country You do realize that all the best maintained malls are in the middle of the country right? :) Mall of America is about as middle as it gets.

mrobins 2y ago

Respectfully disagree. I feel like quality and selection at most Nordstroms I’ve been to recently has been much worse. Salespeople have been less knowledgeable and more pushy. Feels like they’ve moved from upmarket into a space more easily replaced by lower cost online competitors.

bdcravens 2y ago

Dillards isn't bad, and at least seems to have a better selection than Macy's. They are a bit pushy in terms of sales though, and they don't seem to do a good job at customizing their selection regionally (the amount of winter coats and thick sweaters I've seen at Dillard's is absolutely comical for Houston locations)

geor9e 2y ago

I mean, of course Nordstroms feels less run down than JC Penny. Everything costs 10x.

mindslight 2y ago

> and I'm talking a nice Southern California mall, not one somewhere in the middle of the country This isn't the bound you seem to think it is. SoCal is quite wealthy, but the workers aren't exactly motivated or caring. I remember going keyboard shopping at Fry's well before any talk of bankruptcy and the whole aisle was basically a pile of scattered keycaps and nearly-empty keyboards. And I was just in a Macy's the other day (not in SoCal), and actually remarked how nice the store was set up compared to the overall trend of everywhere else going down hill. So as usual, YMMV.