Nordstrom all set for New York debut

The Nordstrom family has run stores in the US for more than a century, first selling shoes in the Pacific Northwest and later introducing fashion-forward clothing to wealthy suburbanites across the country. But the Nordstroms, one of the last remaining dynasties of US retailing, had never made a big bet in the nation’s retailing capital until now.

On Thursday, Nordstrom will open its first full-line store in Manhattan, a sleek, three-floor home to men’s clothing, shoes and grooming supplies at 57th Street and Broadway.

The Seattle-based company arrives in New York at an inauspicious time for retailers. Its competitors are selling off or converting some of their grandest stores, not building new ones. The city’s toniest shopping strips, in SoHo and on Madison Avenue, have been littered with empty store fronts.

But the Nordstroms think they can buck the trend, even as many investors on Wall Street have grown wary of brick-and-mortar retailing. Last week, the new store buzzed with contractors installing wiring and sales staff getting trained on shoe styles and online pickup.

Nordstrom created a mock-up of the new men’s store in an industrial area outside Seattle, accessible only to employees, as it tried to figure out how best to appeal to both New York’s fashion mavens and more down-to-earth shoppers on lunch break.

“We know a market like New York doesn’t need just another place to buy a pair of pants,” said Peter Nordstrom, a company co-president and a great-grandson of the cofounder John W. Nordstrom.

The store may serve as a test case for whether department stores have a future, as people more frequently shop online.