It's not, apparently, very tough going these days if you're a Nordstrom shopper.
And that's one reason, apparently, why Nordstrom has been able to do what conventional department stores stopped doing years ago: continue to expand in the Philadelphia area.
Capitalizing on the consolidation that emptied out mall anchors such as Strawbridge & Clothier and John Wanamaker over the last decade, and seizing on other available real estate and the recession-proof purchasing power of higher-end shoppers, Nordstrom Inc. is adding two more stores to the region this spring.
Two weeks ago, the Seattle-based corporation opened a newly built department store at the former site of a Strawbridge's at Christiana Mall in Newark, Del. In May, it will open one of its lower-price Nordstrom Rack stores at the old Garden State Racetrack site in Cherry Hill.
The 123,000-square-foot Delaware Nordstrom and the 36,000-square-foot Nordstrom Rack are arriving just two years after the company opened a Nordstrom at Cherry Hill Mall. That March 2009 debut, which coincided with spiking unemployment in the wake of the global financial crisis, marked the arrival of only the second full-line Nordstrom store in the region.
But by this summer, the retailer that built its first full department store at King of Prussia Mall in 1996, then waited six years before adding a Nordstrom Rack nearby, will have five stores in the region, with the three newest opening within a period of about two years.
"We just ended 2010 with the highest sales result we've ever had in our 110-year history: $9.3 billion," said spokesman Colin Johnson.
In 2009 and 2010, as other retailers trimmed store counts, declared bankruptcy, or went out of business entirely amid rising unemployment and declining consumer fortunes, the company opened 30 Nordstrom Racks and seven department stores nationwide.
This year, the corporation is adding 17 Racks and three department stores, Johnson said. In the last decade, the company has opened 41 department stores and more than doubled the number of Racks, from 34 to 91.
Other retailers' misfortune is among the reasons Nordstrom has been able to expand its presence in recent years.
Bankruptcies and store shutdowns have created ample available real estate in locations full of shoppers who fit Nordstrom's desired-customer profile: those who live in densely populated areas, and who have an appetite and income for higher-priced luxury apparel and accessories.
More than its gargantuan sister department stores, Nordstrom Rack, which sells clearance and discount designer merchandise in smaller stores, has been able to seize on commercial vacancies.
"What really has happened here," Johnson said, "is there's been a lot of great real estate opportunities that have become available over the past few years, and they've been in locations that have a great retail mix that fits well with the Rack. They're in areas where we know we have lots of customers."
The company's cachet stems largely from the reputation of its department stores, highly regarded for their to-the-person customer service, massive shoe collections, and upscale designer apparel and accessories, including a variety of handbags that, on the higher end, can run into the thousands of dollars.
"Our customer tends to be a fairly affluent customer," Johnson said. "But we try not to focus on the demographic and focus more on really just taking care of the customer in front of us."
Among industry watchers, Nordstrom also is known for taking great care in choosing locations for its department stores.
A suitable zip code would be where household incomes are ample enough for well-heeled shoppers, as well as aspirational middle-income shoppers who occasionally spend on luxury offerings unavailable in, say, a Macy's, but that are more affordable than what is found at Neiman Marcus or Saks Fifth Avenue.
Those criteria were met, observers say, at Nordstrom's newest location in Delaware.
That store, part of a more extensive mall renovation and redevelopment project, is just a few miles from the borders of Pennsylvania, Maryland and New Jersey, surrounded by lucrative pharmaceutical and banking-sector jobs in Wilmington and the Philadelphia suburbs.
"We have a very broad range, from the kind of moderate, very practical customer, to the middle-range, and to - I wouldn't say we go all the way up to a Tiffany's-level customer - but definitely Nordstrom's customer is strong," said Steve Chambliss, general manager of Christiana Mall, which is owned by national real estate giant General Growth Properties Inc.
The new Nordstrom is on a lot unused since 2006. That year, the company that owns Macy's acquired and shut a Strawbridge's and a Lord & Taylor at Christiana Mall. The Lord & Taylor site has since become a Target.
Christiana officials thought Nordstrom would be a good fit for the Strawbridge's, and even added a newly constructed wing of higher-end luxury stores that connects the Nordstrom to the existing mall. The approach is similar to what was done at Cherry Hill Mall when Nordstrom was built, Chambliss said.
"I wouldn't put a Neiman Marcus here," he said, referring to the premium-priced luxury department store, "but Nordstrom's is definitely our customer."
The Nordstrom's customer, it would seem, is spending more than the recession-weary consumer whose troubles have hurt middle-of-the-road retailers such as Gap, said analyst Jonathan D. Miniman, of ING Clarion Real Estate Securities in suburban Philadelphia.
Just Thursday, Miniman said, Taubman Centers Inc., a real estate company known for its shopping malls in Beverly Hills and other highly affluent communities, reported in a quarterly earnings call that business was booming for its luxury tenants.
"My guess is your average consumer shopping at Nordstrom probably makes $100,000, $150,000 a year; I would think they're generally college-educated and [with] low unemployment in that type of demographic," Miniman said. "They've seen the stock market come back, and they're feeling like they have more disposable income to spend."
Even with 8.8 percent unemployment in March, they were spending.
"What you've seen in the last year, year and a half: The luxury, the higher-end has clearly come back much more quickly than the lower-income, lower price points," Miniman said.
Nordstrom's imperative to expand also stems from the fact that it is traded on Wall Street, he said: There is pressure to grow.
With Nordstrom Rack, it can tap into a slightly less affluent customer, and with Nordstrom, it can aim right for the disposable income of the higher-end one, he said.
"At the end of the day, there's a lot of money in this area," Miniman said.