Carolyn Black's List: Article anlysis 4

• new discount Rack store in downtown Seattle earlier this month, it was an increasingly familiar ritual for a retail company known for its luxury merchandise and stellar customer service.
• Nordstrom plans to open 11 new Rack stores by the end of the year
• That follows 2011, when the Seattle-based retailer known for its luxury inventory and customer service opened 18 rack stores.
• Nordstrom is set to open only one full-line department store this year. Last year it opened three.
• If it follows its plan, Nordstrom by the end of the year will have more discount Rack stores than full-line department stores for the first time ever.
• interpreted as Nordstrom’s response to the Great Recession, when all shoppers — affluent or not — were hungry for a bargain.
• planning for the Rack push began years ago.
• percentage of shoppers going to the full-line stores has not dropped off,
• thanks to the company’s e-commerce business, Nordstrom Direct, which grew nearly 30 percent in 2011.
• outlet for Nordstrom to keep inventory fresh in its full-line stores. It also allows the company to take advantage of some specialty buys from clothing designers eager to unload over-produced items.

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• Saks and Neiman Marcus also have expanded their outlet stores.
• Dennis, president of SageBerry Consulting and a former senior executive at Neiman Marcus, said he remembers when Nordstrom opened a Rack store close to its big department store in Chicago, and some in the industry were scratching their heads.
• “People were saying either these guys were really stupid, or they understand that the two stores could be complementary,” Dennis said.
• Rack stores play an important role in building brand loyalty with “aspirational” shoppers who can’t yet afford to shop all the time at Nordstrom’s full-line stores, but hope to one day.
• Nordstrom has emerged from the recession with strong sales. Total sales for Rack, full-line and e-commerce Direct increased 12.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011, compared to a year ago. Same-store sales for Nordstrom’s full-line stores also increased, as did average selling price and the number of items sold.
• Groupon and Living Social        Living Social  Latest from The Business Journals  Mob rules: Independent retail campaigns swarm Washington-area storesDBJ Tech Watch for Thursday: Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter and moreLivingSocial needs to hire to get tax breaks    Follow this company          also have increased the competition for stores like Nordstrom Rack.
• Nordstorm has shown it is willing to cover the landscape, including its full-line and Rack stores as well as e-commerce.

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• “If you are coming from the point of view that the customer is first and not the channel or the product, then I believe that you are going to get in the position that Nordstrom has been for a long time,” Dennis said.