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Nordstrom

They said "reasonably", not "modestly'. And Saks and Norstrom offer pretty much the same clothes.

I was able to find more selection within my price point (i.e. contemporary designers) at Nordstrom than at Saks. There are also brands at Saks not available at Nordstrom and vice versa (Stuart Weitzman, for example was noticeably absent from the shoe section at Nordstrom - a store KNOWN for offering a good selection of small sizes. SW is one of the FEW brands I can think of selling shoes as small as women's size 4. Trust me, when your feet are tiny, you know which brands to buy).
 
Just a little update to how Nordstrom has been performing in Toronto to date. The Eaton Centre location has been struggling when compared to what they were projecting; they are making 20% less than what the company was expecting so far. It is too early to give numbers on the Yorkdale location, but the pre-opening gala that was done at Yorkdale significantly outperformed the one that was done at the Eaton location. Yorkdale made almost triple the amount Eaton did for the same event.

It's very obvious to pin what the problem is at the company's Eaton Centre location.
 
What do you think the issue is with the TEC location? Would it be the location itself? The mall is quite busy most of the time. I wonder if Saks is struggling as much?
 
What do you think the issue is with the TEC location? Would it be the location itself? The mall is quite busy most of the time. I wonder if Saks is struggling as much?
It's not so much the location that's the issue; let's remember that TEC has one of the highest grossing sales per sq.ft in North America, the issue is more along the lines of the product offerings. Both the Yorkdale location and Eaton location offer very similar selections, but of course there are some products that are unique to both stores due to the licensing agreements that have been signed.

Yorkdale is obviously going to attract a lot more higher end clients compared to Eaton Centre, and that's what they are going to find out the hard way unless they change what is offered. TEC attracts more students, and business clientèle compared to the luxury savvy shoppers and the products dont reflect the demographic they should be targeting. Nordstrom is very well capable of targeting the downtown demographic if they wanted to (just take a look at their online shopping portal).

Another thing is that the company has been very ambitious with the sales they are expecting with both locations, so this shouldnt be taken as Nordstrom is "stuggling". It's more of some early warning signs that they cannot be blind as to who they are targeting at both locations; what works at Yorkdale will not necessarily work at TEC.
 
Lower the prices and get the same brands as the Nordstrom in the sates and you will see an increase in sales. Did Nordstrom learn nothing from the Target fiasco?
 
It's not so much the location that's the issue; let's remember that TEC has one of the highest grossing sales per sq.ft in North America, the issue is more along the lines of the product offerings. Both the Yorkdale location and Eaton location offer very similar selections, but of course there are some products that are unique to both stores due to the licensing agreements that have been signed.

Yorkdale is obviously going to attract a lot more higher end clients compared to Eaton Centre, and that's what they are going to find out the hard way unless they change what is offered. TEC attracts more students, and business clientèle compared to the luxury savvy shoppers and the products dont reflect the demographic they should be targeting. Nordstrom is very well capable of targeting the downtown demographic if they wanted to (just take a look at their online shopping portal).

Another thing is that the company has been very ambitious with the sales they are expecting with both locations, so this shouldnt be taken as Nordstrom is "stuggling". It's more of some early warning signs that they cannot be blind as to who they are targeting at both locations; what works at Yorkdale will not necessarily work at TEC.

OK. Makes sense. But I wonder how Saks is doing so well according to HBC? Unless it is all smoke and mirrors? Speaking about menswear specifically, I found Nordstrom at TEC to have the best selection of every day 'common man' clothing than Nordstrom Yorkdale or Saks on Queen. So from a menswear perspective I feel like they are on the right track.
 
Lower the prices and get the same brands as the Nordstrom in the sates and you will see an increase in sales. Did Nordstrom learn nothing from the Target fiasco?

What brands is the Eaton Centre Nordstrom missing?
 
Just a little update to how Nordstrom has been performing in Toronto to date. The Eaton Centre location has been struggling when compared to what they were projecting; they are making 20% less than what the company was expecting so far.

Do you have a source for the numbers? Also, do you think Christmas sales will give us a good indication of this store's success rate?
 
Do you have a source for the numbers? Also, do you think Christmas sales will give us a good indication of this store's success rate?
These are internal sales numbers. All I can say is that the company is pretty transparent about financial figures and facts to employees.

To be honest I think the more important determinant on success will be year-round sales. We all know that traffic and sales will be increased during the holiday season so any increase there will be expected. However, I will say that boxing day will be an an important day to mark. We'll have to see if they adjust and make prices competitive, or if they maintain the status quo and completely ignore the tradition due to -and i'll put it bluntly- American ignorance.
 
Lower the prices and get the same brands as the Nordstrom in the sates and you will see an increase in sales. Did Nordstrom learn nothing from the Target fiasco?

Nordstrom learned a lot from the Target fiasco. First, they started small, with just one store, and gradually opened more, as opposed to starting large like Target did. Second, they made sure they were well-stocked, and didn't expect to be hugely successful right off the bat.

Target's failure was portrayed by the media as being the result of having prices too high and not the same product selection, but that's going to be the case with *any* retailer coming from the US. Nobody complains that Walmart Canada is more expensive than their American counterpart, or that they don't carry the same brands. It's a fact of life that the cost of doing business here is higher, and lots of things just aren't available here.

Target's real problem was that they started out large, rather than opening up in just one area, and organically growing the business, adjusting, adapting, and improving it as they grew. Starting large meant every little problem became a huge problem, such has having a lot of less-than-ideal locations. But soon they discovered they had even bigger issues, namely a massive logistics failure. Target in the US has an incredibly well-run inventory control and monitoring system. That system wasn't suitable for Canada, but rather than rebuild or expand their internal system, they tried to run the Canadian operation with untested, off-the-shelf inventory and POS systems. These were a complete disaster. The stores quickly became completely unreliable for stocking merchandise, and after one or two attempts to shop there and leaving empty-handed, customers gave up.

So yes, Nordstrom is taking great care to make sure they don't make those mistakes.
 
Target was a unique situation. It has nothing to do with other retailers. I read a fascinating article outlining a large series of mistakes. Another thing I wish I bookmarked. I think it was in Macleans.
 
Target was a unique situation. It has nothing to do with other retailers. I read a fascinating article outlining a large series of mistakes. Another thing I wish I bookmarked. I think it was in Macleans.

It was likely the one in Canadian Business to which you are referring - it was discussed at length in the Target thread. It was an excellent, lengthy analysis of what went wrong at Target Canada. The focus of the article was primarily on the IT (there were so many other massive cock-ups, it would've required another series of articles to cover them all in the same level of detail).
 
Nordstrom learned a lot from the Target fiasco. First, they started small, with just one store, and gradually opened more, as opposed to starting large like Target did. Second, they made sure they were well-stocked, and didn't expect to be hugely successful right off the bat.

Target's failure was portrayed by the media as being the result of having prices too high and not the same product selection, but that's going to be the case with *any* retailer coming from the US. Nobody complains that Walmart Canada is more expensive than their American counterpart, or that they don't carry the same brands. It's a fact of life that the cost of doing business here is higher, and lots of things just aren't available here.

Target's big failure was higher prices and less selection, along with empty shelves. Which improved over the year, but prices didn't. I shopped at Target in Canada, the stores were empty!!!!! Millions of Canadian shoppers cross border shop, so they know what they are talking about. J Crew, Ann Taylor, Abercrombie. Costco and other American retailers lowered their Canadian prices so they are closer to American price tags. Walmart Canada lowered prices on over thousand products and price matched all DVD/CDs/books with their American store prices, Target didn't
 
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