The NY Times wrote yesterday about upscale department store Nordstrom’s move into New York City.
Many retailers view NY as a key market and a window to the world. So they launch here with extravagant concept stores that seem to be more about getting attention than profits. At the other end of the spcectrum, some launch with pop-up stores that are here today and gone tomorrow.
However Nordstrom is going a different route altogether. As the NY Times wrote:
After flirting for years with a move into New York City, Nordstrom is opening a full-priced store in Manhattan. But the store will not have Nordstrom in its name, or even feel like a Nordstrom. Called Treasure & Bond, the new store will open Friday in SoHo and will be less than a tenth the size of a typical Nordstrom department store. In fact, it is a big experiment that will not even contribute to Nordstrom’s bottom line, as the profits have been committed to charity.
Is their move good business, good charity, good PR or just plain confusing? Although fashion is not my forte (please hold sarcastic comments), I am a PR specialist and have written about and helped clients with corporate social responsibility and cause marketing campaigns – I must say they have me stunped.
A top executive explained their thinking (from the article):
“[the] Treasure & Bond name gave Nordstrom leeway, he said. “It allows us to be way more nimble and to learn,” he said. “If we opened something like this, and had it be Nordstrom in some way, it would end up disappointing – people would show up and say, ‘What’s this?’ ” He said the company viewed it as an incubator – if a T-shirt line sold well, Nordstrom might sell it in regular stores. “While our name isn’t all over it, I think people are going to know that we helped hatch it,” he said. “That would create a glow, not only for this store but for Nordstrom, that’s positive in Manhattan.”
As the article pointed out, another potential area of confusion is that flash sale website Gilt Group launched a men’s fashion site earlier this month called Park & Bond.
Come to Brooklyn for Gilt-free Women Fashion Bargains
Speaking of novel retail concepts, and Gilt, the company that put the flash in flash sale websites, I recently learned about a new store called Juniper Galaxy in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn. It seems to be a Gilt-like concept at the retail store level. Juniper Galaxy offers great prices on top name women’s (and soon children’s) brands as owner Sine Hjort explained to me. If you are in Brooklyn you should stop by and check it out (see store window photo above).
