[AlbertC]

An American focus on this article, but impact to a certain extent will likely be made towards their Canadian stores:

Nordstrom tells landlords to expect just half their rent until January 2021

July 2, 2020

Dive Brief:

• Nordstrom June 3 notified landlords of its full-line and off-price Rack stores that it will pay only half the occupancy costs for the remainder of the year, according to a letter from President of Stores Jamie Nordstrom to property owners, which was obtained by Retail Dive. A Nordstrom spokesperson didn't immediately respond to Retail Dive's request for more information or comment.
• In the letter, the company also said it will use store comps as the basis for any "true up rent payment, up to a full reconciliation should 2020 sales reach 90% of sales made in that location in 2019." The department store said it "will continue to maintain insurance coverage, pay utilities on which we are the account holder, and maintain your building(s) as required by the lease."
• Separately, Nordstrom on Wednesday confirmed that it's "realigning and reducing our workforce to support our market strategy, including in our corporate support teams." The layoffs are part of a 20% reduction "to non-occupancy related overhead expenses," a spokesperson told Retail Dive in an email, but declined to say how many people are affected. Sourcing Journal last week, citing unnamed sources, said plans are to cut up to 25% of its workforce. Those don't include layoffs at the 16 stores slated for permanent closure, according to that report. In 2019, the retailer employed about 68,000 full- or part-time employees.

Nordstrom tells landlords to expect just half their rent until January 2021

The department store acknowledged that it’s modifying rent payments in order to achieve cost cuts to weather the pandemic crisis.

www.retaildive.com

 

[syn]

Yes but that actual store nordstorm.

Not sure about that actual store, but here are some sales figures:

Nordstrom apparel and accessories sales in Canada 2019 | Statista

This statistic illustrates Nordstrom apparel and accessories sales in Canada in 2015 to 2019, in million Canadian dollars.

www.statista.com

Most Nordstrom's I can recall have always seemed empty.

 

[AlbertC]

After exiting their deal with The Bay last year, Topshop/Topman are coming back in a new partnership with Nordstrom in Canada:

Nordstrom Launching TOPSHOP and TOPMAN Brands in Canada Following Hudson’s Bay Exit

Following Topshop’s bankruptcy last year, a partnership with new owner ASOS and Nordstrom will see the brand relaunch in Canada after parting ways with HBC.

retail-insider.com

 

[Northern Light]

Nordstrom is exiting Canada; completely and totally, mainline and 'Rack' stores all gone.

Nordstrom and Nordstrom Rack to Exit Canada and Shut All Stores

The Seattle-based large format retailer has been in Canada for almost a decade and is said to have never made a profit.

retail-insider.com

R-I speculates, and I concur, that Maison Simons is about to be taking a close look at some newly available real estate.

 

[torontowest91]

No - I love Nordstorm, great service and selection, never overwhelming!!!

 

[ShonTron]

I figured it’d be HBC shutting down Saks in Canada instead. This is a surprise.

 

[picard102]

Jesus, that's going to be rough. Will miss Nordies at Yorkdale. The bar there was top notch.

 

[gabe]

Wow that's going to be a huge chunk of mall retail real estate sitting empty.

I rarely ever shopped at Nordstorm, it was too expensive, if i'm going to spend those prices i will just go to Harry Rosen, better service. Nordstorm in the US are way better stores. You can get some great deals down there.

 

[W. K. Lis]

Should we expect some European department stores (plural) to come in? (We can leave Russia and Belarus out of the mix.)

 

[Northern Light]

Wow that's going to be a huge chunk of mall retail real estate sitting empty.

As noted I expect alot of the space to backfill.

Should we expect some European department stores (plural) to come in? (We can leave Russia and Belarus out of the mix.)

While anything is possible; I would rate that as less likely than Maison Simons.

 

[syn]

This doesn't surprise me. I initially found the stores interesting to walk through (out of curiosity), but I never found the selection very compelling.

 

[Northern Light]

I figured it’d be HBC shutting down Saks in Canada instead. This is a surprise.

Hmm, that draws a conclusion which may not be be proven out.

 

[Amare]

Very sad to hear about Nordstrom shutting down operations in Canada, it's very unfortunate and disappointing. I'm not about to bring out all my previous posts about Nordstrom, but if one wants to get an inside look as to why Nordstrom (in particular Toronto) underperformed, let's just say it was due to their inability to appropriately curate their product offerings to the stores/locations in which they operated in. Now one may argue "oh well they had personal services which aimed to personalize the customers in-store experience", and to that i'd say that's vastly different compared to offering products in which your customer actually wants in-store. The one size fits all/blanket approach model wasnt going to work and they did not do a good job at making adjustments there.

The company put a lot of money into expanding and trying to make things work in Canada so the investment portion was definitely not a dramatic issue early on, but there was some weird disconnect with the company as they didnt want to set up a Canadian Head Office. Which leads me to to the point of understanding the Canadian market; you need management (upper management) who understands what each store market needs, and the company's unwillingness to have permanent management who would spearhead and oversee this just baffles me to this day.

The Rack concept (and I can only speak to the store in Toronto), IMO was just a mess. Whether or not they wanted to admit it, their competition was TJX (Winners/Marshalls) and that store was just not attracting customers like a Winners/Marshalls store does. I cant explain what the problem was there, but something just wasnt working right there from the start.

Overall this is just dissapointeing news. Hopefully that space in Toronto finds a new tenant soon and we dont have another Sears situation which deadens that section of TEC, or else Uniqlo and Samsung's numbers will start taking a hit. Not that i particularily care about those 2 stores there, but this situation wont help either of them unless CF decides to be gracious enough to somehow keep Nordstroms' passageway open after they close.

I figured it’d be HBC shutting down Saks in Canada instead. This is a surprise.

Saks in Canada definitely wouldve been shutdown by now if HBC was still a public company. Going private is saving Saks behinds.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Another US chain that couldn't understand the Canadian market (it doesn't help that it is in a mode of retail that is - for the lack of a better word - moribund).

AoD

 

[Dan416]

I can think only Simons would be interested in the Eaton Centre location. But thinking how busy (or not) the Square One location is, I’m not sure they’ll get the kind of foot traffic they’d need to survive there.