Chief Executive Officer & Director, NORDSTROM INC
FULL INTERVIEW: Erik Nordstrom reflects on Nordstrom's 125 years in downtown Seattle
For 125 years, Nordstrom has been a cornerstone of downtown Seattle.
In this exclusive interview with KOMO News Senior Reporter Chris Daniels, Nordstrom Co-CEO Erik Nordstrom reflects on the company's remarkable history, from his great-grandfather's immigrant roots and a small shoe store at Third Avenue and Pike Street to one of the nation's most recognizable retailers.
Nordstrom also discusses the company's deep ties to Seattle, the challenges and changes downtown has faced over the decades, and why the family remains committed to the city's future as the retailer enters its next chapter as...
About Erik Nordstrom
Erik Nordstrom, co-CEO of Nordstrom, discussed the company's 125-year history and its ties to Seattle in interviews with KOMO News. He reflected on the company's founding by his great-grandfather, an immigrant who opened a shoe store at Third and Pike, and noted that the company has "grown up with the city." Nordstrom attributed the company's longevity to a focus on customer service, which he said has remained the foundation of the business even as the definition of service has evolved to include digital interactions. He described the company's flagship store in downtown Seattle and its Bellevue Square location as both being among the top five stores in the chain. Nordstrom commented on the company's transition to a private company, stating that it was "somewhat of a unique go private" because the family did not take on a significant amount of debt or involve private equity, and that the family remains the majority owner. He said the change has allowed the company to "remove some noise" and focus on the core business. Nordstrom also discussed the company's expansion plans, noting that Rack stores are the "biggest source of new customer acquisition" and that the company aims to open about 50 Rack stores per year.
Transcript (30 segments)
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Interviewer0:00
So 125 years. What does the number mean for you?
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Erik Nordstrom0:04
Uh well it's a long time. Our business is fashion. It's about newness and certainly we're always trying to look forward but it is a moment to reflect I think internally for our company for the people who've come before us or family. I pulled out my great-grandfather's book the other day and reread that. And it's something to think about that the journey how we got here and so much of it is about Seattle too. It's you know literally our company growing up with the city through all those years. It's been fun.
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Interviewer0:41
You've evolved. You've also survived a couple pandemics, couple world wars. What's been the key to evolving as a company?
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Erik Nordstrom0:50
Uh well, persistence. I think hanging in there a lot. But I think what's helped us a lot. I mean certainly the foundation of our company has been customer service. And that hasn't changed for 125 years. What does change is how customers define service and we work every day to be close to the customer and really view our business through the lens of the customer. And that helps us change, that helps us evolve. And we talk all the time, how does this play out to the customer? Where do we need to change for the customer? It's the same outcome we're looking for, taking care of them, giving great service, but how we do it has changed a lot. And I think that helps us change with the times.
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Interviewer1:32
Yeah. What is good customer service? Because that is what a lot of people associate with Nordstrom.
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Erik Nordstrom1:38
Yeah. It's more complex than it was when I was selling shoes. Certainly back then it was really defined solely as the one-to-one interaction of salesperson and the customer in a store. That's still perhaps the most important customer service interaction we have. But there's so many more. Certainly e-commerce, the digital touch points that we have. It's not just who the customer is, it's what's important to them at that time. Speed, convenience is important to all of us at certain amount of times and that gets defined differently all the time. Same day delivery is capability we need to have and do have and that's something obviously is much more modern times. In terms of the company, it's expanded as time has gone on with stores across the country, but a lot of people still associate Nordstrom with Seattle.
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Interviewer2:35
How important has it been for you to maintain a Seattle brand?
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Erik Nordstrom2:40
We'd be honored if we are associated with Seattle. It's we're proud to call it our hometown. It's where we've all grown up. It's literally where myself, my brother, my cousin have learned the business. You know, this is I don't know the day, but it's about my 50th anniversary of working here. I was 12 years old when I first started Kitty Corner, our old store there of being a stock boy in Brass Pond Shoes. And so our company has grown the city. My great-grandfather came here as an immigrant and I probably a pretty common immigrant story in this country. But came here with nothing and opened a shoe store in Third and Pike. And the city's gone through a lot of ups and downs. Our company's gone through a lot of ups and downs. And yeah, I don't know if this could have happened in another city. It really was provided the opportunity for my ancestors to work hard and take care of customers and grow with the city. So, we're very thankful to be part of the city.
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Interviewer3:48
We've talked about evolving ups and downs. About a year or so ago, the company went from being public to private. What does that mean? What does that mean not only for the company, but for consumers?
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Erik Nordstrom3:59
Well, I think for customers probably not much and even our people. There's not much that's changed on the surface. My brother P, my cousin Jamie and I have been here for a long time and so it's not a takeover. It's also somewhat of a unique go private. We didn't take on a bunch of debt to get it done. We didn't take on private equity. It is our family is majority owner. We have a minority partner who's completely aligned with us. So maybe that's where the story is. It's not a ton of change. It does allow us, I think, to remove some noise, have even greater focus on what's important to the business, particularly the core of the business. You know, things like getting great customer service and one-on-one, having great stores. What's that mean? You know, there's not new malls being built in this country. There's not a lot of growth of new stores, new Nordstrom stores. But it's super important to our brand and who we are and giving great experiences in a store presents the opportunities we have allows us to do things digitally allows us to grow our rack business which we're being pretty aggressive about. So I do think on the edges being private helps with that focus.
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Interviewer5:22
Yeah. You're moving the rack store even in downtown Seattle to be even closer to this building. What does that say about the power of that brand and how successful it has been for the company?
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Erik Nordstrom5:32
Yeah, I mean it is an ecosystem there. There's a synergy between our rack business and our Nordstrom business. Rack stores are biggest source of new customer acquisition. Good percentage of those customers end up migrating across to become Nordstrom customers as well. And it's just a great business. It's been very successful part of our business. We have a lot of momentum there. Right now, we're open about 25 stores this year. We think we can ramp that up to get to about 50 stores a year. There's a lot of places where we can add a rack store. It is something that works because it is not just rack, it is Nordstrom Rack. It carries the same brands that we have in our Nordstrom business. And that synergy is what really drives our business. So, we don't look to locate them way out in maybe the outskirts of areas. We look at close to our best stores and this is our flagship store. So they have a rack store right across the street which we have now. But to take it from the basement and bring it above ground in a more prominent location is something we're really excited about.
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Interviewer6:40
And there's a similar but it's not apples to apples comparison with what you've done in Belleview. There's a rack store there. There's obviously a store that does extremely well at Belleview Square. I heard you make comments recently at the Petersontown Regional Council about Seattle and Belleview. How do those two stores stack up now for you internally in the company?
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Erik Nordstrom7:01
Well, they're two really good stores for us. They're both top five stores in our entire chain. So, we do a lot of business here a few miles apart, but it's different. You know, Bellevue Square, it's a mall. Obviously, downtown Seattle's an urban environment. Both very successful and we certainly have customers who go back and forth between the two. It's a big deal for us to have two big stores so close to each other. They get a lot of attention. Again, it is our home. We try a lot of new things in one of these two stores all the time. You see it here. We have the Mohigh retrospective going on. And there's a lot of special events around our 125th anniversary that these two stores get disproportionate amount of that.
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Interviewer7:46
And how do you avoid the idea that, you know, people come and window shop at Nordstrom and then maybe go home and order from some other website? How do you fight off those tendencies?
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Erik Nordstrom7:56
Well, we have to win with the customer. We got to give them a better experience. You know, customers, they don't think of themselves as being an online customer or a store customer. Pretty much all customers cross digital cross into the physical sometimes in the same visit. So stores for us are an asset and it's something that we can leverage to serve customers better but we have to be great digitally as well. The selection we have, the speed with which we can serve customers, for us those the digital and the physical working together gives us a lot of advantages and allows us to serve customers better. So that's what we focus on. You know, retail it's a battle every day. It's very competitive. We have to earn the customer's business each and every time. There's lots of choices out there and we've hung in there longer than most of those choices. Maybe that gives us the opportunity to be considered. It certainly doesn't guarantee us anything. You know, we've got to earn the customer's business. And I think that fire, that competitiveness is good for us.
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Interviewer9:05
How do you feel about downtown Seattle right now and the customer experience coming in and out of the store?
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Erik Nordstrom9:10
Well, it's better. There's no doubt things have improved. The pandemic was tough on Seattle like most cities across the country. You know, the one lagging piece is the office vacancy that has not returned and may not in the near term. I think you just look back recently to the World Cup, you know, Seattle's got tremendous assets. I mean, the waterfront, the tourist business we get, and even the local visitors, there was a lot of people from the area who came down last couple weeks, and I'm sure some of them it been a while. I hope and I do think that they had a great time and hope for coming back because there are unique assets that I think only a downtown a big urban downtown has that we can leverage. So we feel great about being downtown. It's not only our flagship store, it's our headquarters where all our corporate workers are here downtown. We've made a big commitment here, been here for a long time. So we have a lot at stake. I'd like to see it continue to improve. I don't think we should rest on our laurels. But encouraged with the progress.
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Interviewer10:23
Yeah. You told an interesting story on stage at Peterson Regional Council about San Francisco and how the company had pulled out of San Francisco and now you've gone back and seen the vibe change in San Francisco. How are these two cities connected, San Francisco and Seattle? What can be learned from what you've experienced in maybe the Bay Area versus here in Seattle?
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Erik Nordstrom10:44
Well, I think there's a lot of downtowns that I'm always trying to learn from and you know, I'm involved in number of groups trying to help the city and help downtowns. I try to bring back whatever ideas I can get out there. I think San Francisco is a great story these days. They've really focused on their downtown and it shows. It's clean, safe, businesses are returning, tourists are returning, it's a great residential market. It's terrific. We've recently opened a Nordstrom local store there which is a little service hub for us and are certainly open to looking at having a store there someday and we'd love to be part of that market. So I think there are some great lessons that we can learn from here in Seattle from San Francisco.
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Interviewer11:29
And what voice have you lent here in this city to whether it be city hall or county government about getting employees back to work back to downtown or other retail here in the core around you?
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Erik Nordstrom11:42
Yeah, we have a good relationship with the city, the police department. I met with the chief I think it was last month and very impressed with their focus on safety. So there's good dialogue there. You know, I'm not a politician. I'm a retailer, but there are things about the environment that only the city can provide. Public safety. We have security, but we can't solve that on our own. And I think that's something that San Francisco did really well. I think they got super crisp on the city focused on the environment and then business playing business's role and they're participating in very shared goals. And you know when I've spoken with the mayor, what my brother and I have tried to emphasize is we have so many goals in common. We want downtown Seattle to be successful. We want the city to be successful. Obviously she does as well. So there's lots of common things that we can work on together.
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Interviewer12:44
So 125 years, what are the next say 25 years to get you to 150? What are those?
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Erik Nordstrom12:52
Could ask me the next 125. You know, things are good for us right now. Business has been strong the last couple years. You know, being a private company now has been really nice for internally, I think, in particular. So we're really excited about our business. Investing in our business, investing in our people, and there's no doubt we're going to have to keep evolving with the customers, but there's also no doubt any success we're going to have, we're going to have to keep fortifying that foundation of service and being a great employer and taking care of people, we can't lose sight of that.
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Interviewer13:28
And I think we've solved one riddle here in the idea of is it Nordstrom's or Nordstrom? There's actually
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Erik Nordstrom13:36
There's actually not an apostrophe s.
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Interviewer13:39
No, no apostrophe s. Yeah, I think that's a test of particularly of I think Pacific Northwesterners that they've been around hopefully that that just doesn't sit right much like Pikes Place Market like you know you got to have it's got to sit right.
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Erik Nordstrom13:58
Yeah, you know, we've been Nordstrom since early '70s. Go back in time. It was Nordstrom's Nordstrom shoe store, but I think it was my dad's generation and yeah, they dropped the apostrophe s.
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Interviewer14:11
Thanks for doing this.
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Erik Nordstrom14:12
Yeah, of course. Thanks.