Seattle – Peter Nordstrom, 43, joined the family business in 1978.
His great-grandfather, a Swedish immigrant named John W. Nordstrom, founded his namesake company in 1901. Today, the Seattle-based company is one of the most admired retailers in the country.
As president of full-line stores, Peter Nordstrom heads his chain’s 95 department stores, separate from 49 Nordstrom Rack and other outlets. He is the son of Nordstrom chairman Bruce Nordstrom and the younger brother of Nordstrom president Blake Nordstrom.
The Denver Post dropped in on Peter Nordstrom in Seattle last week. Here’s a transcript of the interview, edited for space and clarity.
Q: Next year, Nordstrom will open its third Colorado store at Cherry Creek Shopping Center. Will that hurt sales at your stores at Park Meadows and FlatIron Crossing?
A: Well, you hope it won’t. The reality of it is, any time you put a store in a market like that, there’s going to be some transfer. It’s hard for us to predict. But the greater Denver area is still such a great market.
Q: Why do you say that?
A: It’s growing, and people in Denver like fashion. We tend to have pretty good penetration in the western part of the country where people are familiar with what we do. This goes way back to the ’80s when we started getting letters like, “Hey, I moved to Denver from the Northwest” or “I visited your stores in Seattle or California. Why don’t you have a store here?”
Q: So why did Nordstrom wait until 1996 to put its first store in Colorado?
A: Part of it was that we wanted to be at the best mall, Cherry Creek, but we couldn’t get in there. When Park Meadows was built (in 1996), it gave us the opportunity to come into a town and do something that we thought would be a really good first step for us. As you know, it was an ambitious project, and it has turned out to be a great center.
Q: There was talk that competitors tried to keep Nordstrom out of Cherry Creek.
A: Oftentimes, our competitors are not interested in having us there. Our goal is the opposite: We want to be where all the stores are.
Q: Are you disappointed that your new store at Cherry Creek will be smaller than your stores at Park Meadows and FlatIron Crossing?
A: We’d like to have more space, but that’s as much as we can get. There are zoning issues, permit issues and issues with the permission required from other anchored tenants.
But we’re going to be able to do a lot of great things there. It’s going to have all our newest concepts. It’s going to have absolutely the top level of merchandise, because obviously that’s what’s going on in that mall.
Q: In Cherry Creek, you will be up against high-end players like Saks and Neiman Marcus. Does Nordstrom typically locate stores near these players?
A: All over the country. Everywhere you go.
Q: Nordstrom’s financials are in great shape even as other retailers complain about the economy. Why?
A: We like to think it’s because we’re executing pretty well. We can’t get ourselves all concerned about external economic factors that we have no control over. What we have control over is the products we offer to our customers and the kind of service we provide.
Q: Nordstrom appears to be on the sidelines in the merger frenzy that has taken over the department store world. Will it remain there?
A: If some kind of opportunity presented itself that would allow us to be more successful, we want to be open to that. But our focus is running Nordstrom stores as best we can.
Q: Will you consider putting stores in smaller Colorado cities?
A: The Colorado Springs thing has come up before. Fort Collins has come up before. It’s always been our policy to listen. We don’t have some preordained number that says, “This is how many stores Colorado gets. This is how many stores California gets. This is how many Illinois gets.” But for our stores to do well, we need critical mass (of people).
Q: Where else do Nordstrom shoppers shop?
A: We share a lot of customers with Target. I mean, a ton of them. And a lot of customers with Costco. People aren’t so much locked into this and that store. They’re going to go to whatever store they want to go to to get what they want to get.
Q: What business do you admire?
A: Look at what Howard Schultz at Starbucks has been able to do. (Starbucks has) this theory that everybody can appreciate good service and a quality product. They were able to do it with something that was $3, and it became an affordable luxury for people. They do a really nice job of that. They have a nice environment; it makes you feel good when you’re in there, and they’re able to serve a broad demographic.
Q: Do you know Schultz well?
A: Sure, I know Howard. We talk about basketball a lot, because he’s one of the owners of the SuperSonics and so am I. We mostly talk about basketball.
Q: Is basketball a good investment?
A: I’m glad that my business is retail at Nordstrom. And I’m glad that I’m able to invest in the Sonics thing more like a fan.
