While many retailers and shopping centers have flooded window displays and decked the stores with tinsel, trees and poinsettias, Nordstrom is quietly waiting for the day after Thanksgiving to unveil its holiday decor.
Seattle-based Nordstrom has a long-standing tradition of waiting through each holiday before decorating for the next, said Michael Boyd, a spokesman for the chain.
“It’s important to all of us at Nordstrom to celebrate each holiday on its own before moving on to the next,” Boyd said. “We’ve always felt it was important.”
Outside each store, a sign explains that the retailer is waiting until Nov. 23 to show off its holiday decorations. Nord strom has three stores in Colorado — at Park Meadows, FlatIron Crossing and Cherry Creek, the last of which opened last month.
Industry experts say Nordstrom’s position is unusual in an environment where retailers that decorate tend to do so earlier and earlier. This year, Santa appeared at many malls the second week of November.
“It’s the earliest I’ve ever seen Santa out,” said Britt Beemer of America’s Research Group.
Beemer typically surveys shoppers in the weeks leading up to and during the holiday season. While many commented about how early the decorations were up, most shoppers don’t seem to mind, he said.
“I don’t hear anything negative” from shoppers, he said.
None of the shoppers who commented on the early decorating said they were so bothered that they wouldn’t shop at stores that decorated early, he said.
Generally, stores decorate early to get shoppers in the spirit and encourage them to get a jump on holiday spending.
At FlatIron Crossing, all of the other retailers have been in holiday dress for at least a week or two already, said Heather Drake, senior marketing manager.
“I think it helps create more of that holiday energy and brings up whatever that means to shoppers while they are here,” she said. “But I totally trust Nordstrom, too, and the decisions they make.”
The company, Boyd said, often gets thank-yous from customers who appreciate the wait until after Thanksgiving.
Nordstrom workers will begin to decorate tonight and work through the night to complete the store transformation, Boyd said.
“It’s a choice that our employees make when they work in the visual department,” he said of store-decorating duties that sometimes prevent employees from spending Thanksgiving Day with family. “They understand what we do and that our goal is to create a great holiday shopping environment for our customers. That’s retail.”
This year, Nordstrom’s decorating theme will revolve around a children’s book written by Nordstrom advertising copywriter Randy Schliep and published specifically for Nordstrom. Characters from the book, “Once Upon a Holiday the Moon Fell Out of the Sky,” will be used throughout the store displays.
CHICAGO — FEWER MAY SHOP ON BLACK FRIDAY
Black Friday, typically the busiest shopping day of the year, is losing its sway as the bellwether of the holiday season. Although the day after Thanksgiving is historically hailed by retailers as the start of the holiday shopping season, foot traffic Friday is expected to fall 2.5 percent from a year ago and continue at that rate through Jan. 1, says ShopperTrak RCT Corp., a Chicago-based company that counts shoppers going into stores. The forecast decline follows a 1.7 percent drop for the 2006 holiday season from a year earlier.
