Largest Green Fleet in the Country

COMPANY FINANCES In 1997 women’s apparel and accessories accounted for 55 percent of Nordstrom’s total sales. Twenty-three percent of sales came from shoes, 18 percent from men’s apparel and furnishings, and 4 percent from children’s apparel and accessories. Over the three years from 1995 to 1997, Nordstrom’s net revenues grew from $4.11 to $4.45 to $4.85 billion, but from 1995 to 1996, net earnings slipped from $165.0 to $147.5 million. Some say this was due to Nordstrom’s failure to recognize Americans’ enthusiasm for brand names and logos. This enthusiasm apparently caused some consumers to shop elsewhere while Nordstrom scrambled to obtain the latest most popular labels.

The slide in earnings caused a fall in stock price, from almost $53.00 in May 1996 to less than $38.00 a share in March 1997. Nonetheless, in 1997 Nordstrom rallied, with net earnings reaching $186 million. From 1996 to 1997, Nordstrom stock had an earnings per share (EPS) increase of 32 percent from $1.82 to $2.40 on a 9-percent increase in sales. From April 1997 to April 1998, stock prices steadily increased from $39.25 to $65.44 with an annual dividend increase from $.50 to $.53 per share.

HISTORY In 1887, 16-year-old John Nordstrom arrived in Minnesota from Sweden with $5 and almost no ability to speak English. Nordstrom worked his way across the United States as a lumberjack, a miner, and a general laborer, until he reached Seattle where he resided until 1897. After reading a newspaper headline proclaiming a gold strike in Alaska, Nordstrom decided to head north and try his luck mining for gold. Two years later, he returned to Seattle with $13,000 from gold mining, and in 1901 he opened a shoe store with Carl Wallin, a shoemaker he had met in Alaska. Appropriately, the store was called Wallin & Nordstrom.

The first day, the store had $12.50 in sales. But business quickly grew and, by 1923, Wallin and Nordstrom opened a second store in Seattle. Five years later, at the age of 57, Nordstrom retired and passed along his half of the business to his sons Everett and Elmer. At this time there was also a second store in operation. The following year, Wallin sold his portion to the Nordstrom sons. In 1930, the two Seattle stores made $250,000 in shoe sales, in spite of the onset of the Depression, and in 1933, a third son, Lloyd, joined the company. Due to leather rationing in World War II, however, the Nordstroms were forced to expand nationwide in search of supplies of shoes. In 1946, Wallin & Nordstrom was incorporated as Nordstrom, Inc., and in the decades following World War II, the Nordstroms built their company and it thrived. In 1961 Nordstrom employed 600 workers and grossed $12 million in sales in its 8 shoe stores and 13 leased shoe departments in California, Oregon, and Washington. By 1963 the company was the largest independent shoe store chain in the country. website nordstrom coupon code

At this time, the Nordstrom brothers decided it was time to expand their business and decided to diversify. In 1963, they acquired Seattle-based women’s clothing store, Best Apparel, which had locations in Seattle and Portland. In 1965, the Nordstroms opened another Best Apparel adjacent to one of their shoe stores in the suburbs of Seattle. The following year, Nordstrom purchased Nicholas Ungar, a Portland fashion outlet, and merged it with its Portland shoe store. This was the beginning of the modern Nordstrom department store of the late twentieth century. Between 1965 and 1968, Nordstrom opened five apparel-and-shoe stores. In 1967, the company changed its name to Nordstrom Best and, at about this time, also began selling men’s and children’s clothing.

In 1968, the three Nordstrom brothers then running the company?ˆ”Everett, Elmer, and Lloyd?ˆ”decided to pass the company along to the next generation of Nordstrom men. In 1970 one of Everett’s sons, two of Elmer’s sons, Lloyd’s son-in-law, and a family friend, took control of the business. The following year the company went public, offering Nordstrom Best stock on the over-the-counter market. In 1973, when Nordstrom Best’s sales first exceeded $100 million, the company changed its name again to Nordstrom, Inc.

Through the 1970s Nordstrom continued to grow by opening new stores, increasing sales, and continuing to diversify their merchandise. Annual sales reached $130 million in 1974 and the following year, the company acquired three stores in Alaska. In 1976, Nordstrom launched Place Two, a series of smaller stores offering select men’s and women’s apparel and shoes. In 1978 Nordstrom opened an outlet in Orange County, California, and that year, sales reached almost $300 million and the company netted $13.5 million in earnings. At that time executives began planning an aggressive expansion that would call for adding 25 stores during the 1980s. By 1980 Nordstrom was the third-largest specialty retailer in the United States, operating 31 stores in 6 states, with sales of $407.0 million and earnings of $19.7 million. Between 1980 and 1983, sales rose to $787.0 million and earnings more than doubled, reaching $40.2 million. Nordstrom began a third division in 1982?ˆ”a series of outlet stores the company could use to move old merchandise at discounted prices; the company called the stores Nordstrom Rack. At this time, the company grew most rapidly in California, where by 1984, Nordstrom had 7 stores. Before 1990 that number would reach 22.

It was in the 1980s that Nordstrom’s customer service became famous, almost mythical. Tales were spread about Nordstrom’s clerks?ˆ”some loaned money to strapped customers, accepted receipt-less returns without question, paid parking tickets customers unwittingly incurred while shopping, and sent tailors to customers’ homes. Nordstrom’s sales force worked on commission and received constant pep talks and motivational reinforcement from management. In 1985, Nordstrom’s sales first exceeded $1 billion. Two years later, the company’s sales reached almost $2 billion ($1.92 billion) with profits of $92.7 million. In the late 1980s, Nordstrom began developing the reputation of being a top-of-the-line, full-service department store. go to website nordstrom coupon code

In 1986 Nordstrom had 53 stores in 6 western states and the company began to look eastward; two years later, in March 1988, Nordstrom opened its first East Coast store just outside Washington, D.C. in McLean, Virginia. Opening day sales at the store reached more than $1 million, a record for opening-day sales in the company’s history. That year, the Virginia store accumulated $100 million in sales. The same year, Nordstrom opened its largest store yet, a luxurious 350,000 square-foot facility in San Francisco. By 1988, Nordstrom had 58 stores and 21,000 employees. At the end of decade, the company’s expansion continued: Nordstrom opened another store in the Washington, D.C. area and two outlets in California.

Settlements from employee lawsuits regarding under compensation for their services in the late 1980s and the early 1990s cost the company tens of millions of dollars. The company was also hurt by the San Francisco earthquake in 1989, which significantly deflated retail sales in that area, and by a general decline in sales nationwide. Earnings in 1989 fell 7 percent from the previous year, from $123.3 million in 1988 to $115.0 million in 1989, despite a 15 percent sales increase. In September 1990, the company announced it would trim costs by 3 to 12 percent and it promptly laid off personnel.

FAST FACTS: About Nordstrom, Inc.

Ownership: Nordstrom is a publicly owned company traded on NASDAQ.

Officers: John J. Whitacre, Chmn., 45, 1997 pay $350,000; Blake W. Nordstrom, 37, Co-Pres.; Erik B. Nordstrom, 34, Co-Pres.; J. Daniel Nordstrom, 35, Co-Pres.; James A. Nordstrom, 36, Co-Pres.; Peter E. Nordstrom, 35, Co-Pres.; William E. Nordstrom, 34, Co-Pres.

Employees: 39,600 Principal Subsidiary Companies: Nordstrom’s subsidiary companies include: Faconnable New York, Nordstrom Credit Inc., Nordstrom Inc., Nordstrom Factory Direct, and Nordstrom Rack.

Chief Competitors: As an upscale independent fashion specialty department store, Nordstrom’s competitors include: Saks; Neiman Marcus; May Department Stores; Lord & Taylor; Foley’s; Robinsons-May; Federated Department Stores; Bloomingdale’s; Bon Marche; and Macy’s.