Nordstrom
In NYC when something new opens, the crowds come to look. The question is how long will the crowds continue?
The complete ugly abomination of architecture at Hudson Yards is such a complete stain of awfulness on the west side of NYC that the developers should be heavily fined and the city administrators who signed off on that mess should be held accountable too. People are now living there, including plenty of office space rented so it might be atrocious but the food situation should survive. People have to eat but they don’t have to shop.
Nordstrom opened its first NYC store. It is located on 57th and Broadway. Not an area that I frequent but a good location for many reasons. The good news is it doesn’t look as sad as Neiman Marcus in Hudson Yards but it is not exactly creative nor does it reflect their chic cutting edge ads that they have been running in the NYTimes for months.
Nordstrom just put lipstick on a pig. It is a department store with big open floors, tons of four-ways of merchandise, each brand has a certain space of real estate and hangs with like-minded merchandise. It looks the same as a well-tuned department store does and has since the 80’s. This is not a 2019 concept like Galleries Lafayette did on the Champs-Elysee in Paris. This is not clever like Merci, or forward like Colette (RIP) or innovative like Dover Street Market. These four stores in Paris are at least thinking out of the box. All customers deserve something new.
I wonder why? Is it fear of failure? It has worked in the past so let’s try put a bit of lipstick on it? Is it lack of innovation in the buying team or C-team of these stores? Is it the way they are structured? When I was a buyer it was sink or swim. You were responsible for your bottom line and if you didn’t make money, you were gone. Pretty simple.
It pains me. There is such an opportunity to create a new department store of shopping. People still like to shop and see. Nordstrom was packed. If only it was exciting and inspiring inside vs the ballyhoo outside that shut down part of Broadway to party about the opening. The store doesn’t stand for anything but a boring department store with all the same shit lined up in the same way it has for decades.
When we left the person at the door thanked us for coming and said they look forward to us coming back. I mumbled under my breath I will never return. What a shame.
Comments (Archived):
My wife went shopping with our daughter at Century City Mall in LA. Jammed. You go to a mall in Chicago and it’s not crowded. Somehow I don’t think it’s the weather. I don’t know a thing about Century City Mall in LA but they must be doing something right.I do think people will go out and shop, but they need a reason to get out off of the couch.
Hunting and gathering is hard wired. People just need promising and fertile terrain.
Ditto. Similar thoughts went into our heads after we went into that new Nordstrom on the weekend, and didn’t make it past the 4th floor. We were out of there in less than 20 mins with great pains and after much wondering about what the fuss was all about. We didn’t get it. Good thing we weren’t the only ones.
I think I met that developper. Well, I think my ex shook hands with him and I was standing beside him. Is Hudson yards on the Hudson River, and across from that is the New Jersey side?
The food truck vendors are the smart ones. Positioned outside when everyone leaves after seeing the prices inside!!
You don’t seem like the mumbling type.Taleb has written about the influence of modern financial capital allocation on architectural design.
“People still like to shop”. — Yes. Online. Just the thought of entering a BIG department store or mall gives me the shivers. Online shopping is better than ever.
I wonder why? Is it fear of failure? It has worked in the past so let’s try put a bit of lipstick on it? Is it lack of innovation in the buying team or C-team of these stores? Is it the way they are structured? When I was a buyer it was sink or swim. You were responsible for your bottom line and if you didn’t make money, you were gone. Pretty simple.Ask yourself if you were graduating college now if you would have gone into retail and worked for Macy’s? I don’t mean because retail is shit now. I mean because my guess is that there are so many more opportunities that you would see and be able to choose from. And not only that, it’s easy for you to see what those other things are (research is simple) and get involved or associate with someone who is.My point is the good people, the creative people, the hustlers are not in that retail game anymore. There are many other things they see they can do. What you saw in another city is an aberation sure in this country there are a few places that click but most don’t (no more ‘low hanging fruit of opportunity’ as I say).When we were growing up there was little exposure to multiple paths. Not even close to today with all the tools, resources and things that a young person can do. So many that I am sure it’s pretty difficult to even decide. That’s my guess.The business that I started (right out of college) is still operating today (I sold it a long long time ago). But in no way would I have done that out of college if I was graduating today (and once again I don’t mean because the business landscape for it has changed I just mean there are so many other things to pick from).For that matter I don’t think that Fred would have gotten an MBA today (per your mother’s advice) today. Very clear that MBA programs are still popular and hard to get into. But the demand even at the top programs is down.https://www.forbes.com/site…
Tell it like it is! A NYTimes Op-Ed waiting to happen!
They all look the same, and it’s not great… It’s sad, but even with being a Seattle company and the flagship just a few blocks from my office, I rarely go to Nordstrom unless I’m walking through it to go somewhere else. I’m more likely to grab something at the rack before a trip, as it is connected to the light rail station, but the shopping experience there is so bad with long lines and disorganized merchandise that I’m increasingly better planning ahead by two hours and using Amazon Prime Now.Lmk when you want to try to reinvent retail one day. Sounds fun 🙂
I would love to!
We live a few blocks from Nordstrom’s flagship in Seattle. Well located, beautiful store, well merchandised w/ excellent customer service that Nordstrom is known for. I believe the flagship does reasonably well. For the life of me, I don’t understand Nordstrom’s investing so heavily in traditional retail in NYC. You can count on two hands the number of department stores that have failed in NYC, most of them pre-internet. This investment, unfortunately, will be a disaster for Nordstrom’s and lead to massive write-offs, compounded by an era of shrinking retail margins. Can’t anyone successfully reinvent retail w/ a hybrid model? This massive retail operation in NYC can’t possibly succeed.