Nordstrom, Macy's see benefits from keeping their discount stores close - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Off-price retailing owes a nod to the basement below Filene’s, a Boston department store that figured out a way in the early 1900s to get rid of excess inventory at a discount in a stripped-down space below the fancy sales floors upstairs. In the first decade of the last century, few customers would have had cars to drive to an outlet mall in the middle of a corn field somewhere. That’s the thinking behind the announcement last week that a Nordstrom Rack off-price store will open next year just up McKnight Road from the Nordstrom store at Ross Park Mall. Earlier this year, Macy’s revealed plans to expand its growing Bloomingdale’s Outlet chain into Manhattan, putting the 14 location for the 4-year-old chain in the midst of the same urban market served by the flagship Bloomingdale’s department store. Macy’s executives also revealed they’re piloting an off-price concept for Macy’s. “One of the things we’ve found with the Bloomingdale’s Outlet business — initially we were nervous about putting one of the Bloomingdale’s Outlets too close to a Bloomingdale’s store,” said Karen M. Hoguet, Macy’s CFO told analysts on a February... And instead of taking business away from the base Bloomingdale’s store, we actually brought new customers who learned and got comfortable with Bloomingdale’s from the outlet experience. Source: www.post-gazette.com
