[LINK] Two links about the arrival of Nordstrom in Canada

[rfmcdonald]

The first article, "Nordstrom ready for business in 'vibrant and diverse' Toronto" by CBC News' Ramna Shahzad touches upon the obvious parallels: Why will Nordstrom's expansion not meet the fate of Target's?

The windows are squeaky clean, the mannequins are draped in fresh-off-the-runway attire and the bar is fully stocked.

Nordstrom has finally opened its doors in Toronto's Eaton Centre.

"Toronto is the fourth largest city in North America. It's an incredibly, vibrant, diverse community. Those are the kind of places you want to do business in," said president of Nordstrom stores, Jamie Nordstrom.

The luxury department store has taken its time testing out its Canadian market and slowly opening up locations around the country.

The slow and deliberate move into the Canadian market is what will help them avoid a Target-sized catastrophe, one expert says.

Target decided to close up shop on all 133 of its stores after it failed to impress Canadian customers who were frustrated over the prices and lack of merchandise in the store.

David Olive's Toronto Star article "Why Nordstrom is likely to succeed where Target failed" goes into more detail.

At a time when Canadian household debt is at near-record levels, the Target Canada post-mortem of analysts that Canadian consumers are skin-flinted would seem to augur poorly for Nordstrom. The same applies to Lowe’s, the U.S. hardware and home furnishings chain, and the venerable Quebec department store chain La Maison Simons, also rolling the dice on Canadian expansions.

But that hasty Target Canada post-mortem was wrong.

A Target struggling with unprecedented problems in its home market failed to do its homework on Canada. It offered prosaic goods available cheaper at Walmart Canada, and was chronically out of stock because of a dysfunctional distribution system. And it over-reached in its first non-U.S. market, starting out with 124 Canadian stores. That included haphazardly retrofitted former Zellers outlets in rundown malls, or hidden behind abandoned warehouses.

So far, Nordstrom has plans for just six Canadian stores, in Calgary, Vancouver, Toronto and Ottawa. Two years passed between the opening of Nordstrom’s first Canadian store, in Calgary, and the GTA store openings this month. Another year will pass before the 2017 opening of a third GTA store, at Sherway Gardens (another MVP mall).

“We have a healthy dose of humility,” co-president Erik Nordstrom told Toronto Star business reporter Francine Kopun ahead of the firm’s Calgary opening. “We will look to respond to customer comments right off the bat.”

In fact, Target’s loss of its entire investment in Canada, some $2.6 billion, said little about Canadian consumers, and a great deal about a Target coping badly with the first major reversals in its then 49-year history.