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In spite of the recession of the early 1990s, Nordstrom opened new stores in the East and the Midwest: in Paramus, New Jersey, in September 1990 and in Oak-brook, Illinois; Riverside, California; Edison, New Jersey; and Bethesda, Maryland, in 1991. In 1990 sales rebounded slightly?ˆ”8 percent?ˆ”and profits rose less than 1 percent. Slow growth continued for Nordstrom in the early to mid-1990s, due in part to a serious recession in southern California where much of the store’s square-footage was located. Sales increases in the 1990s were mainly due to new store openings; existing store sales were flat. nordstrompromotioncodenow​.com nordstrom promotion code

Nordstrom continued to expand through the late 1990s, adding more full-line stores, more Rack stores, and more boutiques?ˆ”in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Washington, and Texas. In the early 1990s, Nordstrom introduced its first mail-order catalog, opened the first Nordstrom Factory Direct store in 1993 outside Philadelphia, and offered a proprietary Visa card in 1994. That same year, Nordstrom joined U.S. West and J.C. Penney Co. to begin testing an interactive home shopping channel. Nordstrom also turned to technology to help improve customer service, increase sales, and monitor inventory, personnel, payroll, and benefits processing.

In the second half of the 1990s, the company again changed hands when, in 1995, the third generation of Nordstroms handed the business over to former Nordstrom co-presidents Ray Johnson and John Whitacre who, in turn, were replaced by six fourth-generation Nordstroms in June of that year. This new generation of Nordstroms was now faced with the task of running their enormous family business at a time when sales were sluggish and competition fierce.

In the 1990s, Nordstrom expanded rapidly. In 1996, the company opened stores in the Philadelphia, Dallas, Denver, and Detroit areas. The following year, it added stores in Garden City, New York; Farmington, Connecticut; and Beachwood, Ohio. That same year, Nordstrom also opened two Rack stores (one in Bellevue, Washington and one in Hempstead, New York), two Faconnable boutiques in California (one in Beverly Hills and one in Costa Mesa) and a shoe store in Honolulu, and it expanded two already-existing California Rack stores. In 1998, Nordstrom planned to open three more full-line stores (in Georgia, Kansas, and Arizona) and four Rack stores (in Oregon, Minnesota, California, and Colorado) and, the following year, it planned another four full-line stores (in Virginia, Rhode Island, California, and Maryland) and another Rack store in Los Angeles.

STRATEGY Nordstrom has consistently maintained enormous inventories, usually twice that of other department stores, with great variety. This contributes significantly to Nordstrom’s ability to provide excellent customer service. Personal service has been a hallmark of Nordstrom since early in the company’s history. The company tells of how on opening day of the Wallin & Nordstrom shoe store in Seattle in 1901, Nordstrom was unable to locate the shoe a woman desired in his stock. Not to be deterred, Nordstrom grabbed the pair from the display window and made the company’s first sale.

In the 1980s, Nordstrom’s customer service included free coat check service, concierges, and piano players entertaining customers while they shopped. This policy also caused the company some problems with the employees’ union. In 1989 a group of unionized employees complained that they were not being compensated for performing company-required, extra services for customers. Early in 1990, the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries found that the company had consistently broken state laws by failing to compensate employees for a variety of duties and ordered Nordstrom to change its procedures for compensation and record-keeping and to compensate about 30,000 of its employees for back wages. In spite of the settlement, over the next three years, the company was the target of several class-action lawsuits involving these issues. The company finally settled the suits out of court for between $20 to $30 million. here nordstrom promotion code

CHRONOLOGY: Key Dates for Nordstrom, Inc.

1901:

The Wallin and Nordstrom shoe store opens in Seattle, Washington 1928:

John Nordstrom retires and passes his shares to his sons 1963:

Nordstrom acquires Best Apparel 1965:

The company begins to build its stores as combined shoe and apparel stores 1967:

The company becomes Nordstrom Best 1971:

Goes public 1973:

Nordstrom Best becomes Nordstrom, Inc.

1982:

Nordstrom Rack opens 1988:

Opens its first East Coast store outside of Washington, DC 1994:

The company joins U.S. West and J.C. Penney to create an interactive home shopping channel; Nordstrom, “The Catalogue” debuts 1998:

Nordstrom launches a second catalogue called “Nordstrom 2^nd Nature”

A key to Nordstrom’s excellent, legendary customer service has been the company’s aggressive, enthusiastic sales force from which managers have generally been chosen. Managers routinely give pep talks to salespeople, and motivational exercises have been routine at Nordstrom. But Nordstrom’s generous employee incentive program, which helped fuel the company’s reputation for extraordinary customer service, and the company’s nationwide expansion have contributed to a fall in earnings from 5.3 percent in 1988, to 3.91 percent in 1993, to 3.8 percent in 1998.

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