Is Nordstrom Immune To Department Store Malaise?

Department stores were once magnificent fixtures of downtown America, then strong anchor tenants of malls. Now they can’t seem to catch a break. Many experienced tough holiday seasons and their Q4 earnings reports reflected that, missing expectations and leading Kohl’s and Macy’s to tell their investors that they’d be closing stores.

For a while there, Seattle-based Nordstrom—co-founded in 1887 by a Swedish immigrant as a shoe store and still counting Nordstrom family members in its top ranks—seemed to have shrugged off the troubles plaguing other department stores. But its last two quarters, which saw muted sales and weak store traffic, show that it may not be immune after all. In a conference call with investors last month, co-president Blake Nordstrom acknowledged the trouble and said the retailer would be reducing expenses to boost profits.

Yet many experts tell Retail Dive that there is something different about Nordstrom—and that those differentiators give it a good chance of thriving, even within the embattled department store niche. Read more at Retail Dive.