Sears Stores’ Post

Once again a (very) delayed celebratory post! In 2023 we launched on Nordstrom and it was truly one of the best moments of founding and running BONBONWHIMS. ❤️ 2024 will be full of ups & downs, highs & lows -- and let's be real, tons of humbling challenges ahead as we've all been seeing in retail across the board. But I've personally learned that in times of crisis, there's almost always a corner to turn. As usual, would love to connect with any fellow founders out there. My inbox is open! #entrepreneurship #startup #nycbusiness

What did Stephen learn this week? This week I learned that a brand can live on after the physical company is gone. I’ve had a series of posts on Tuesdays that are reflections on my career. A couple of weeks ago the spotlight was on Sears Canada. The result, 6000 impressions, countless likes, shares and comments. In fact the post is still getting some love. Why? Because the Sears Canada brand lives on! Long after they left Canada. A powerful reminder that a brand is strong and can live past the company that called it their own. What did you learn this week? #brandpower #sears #reflections #whatdidilearnthisweek

Department stores are dead 💀 many pundits here on LinkedIn say day in and day out. Words like "dinosaur," "redundant," etc trip casually off their posts. They pile on in comments. Not towards the big box mass merchant department stores like Target or Walmart but the Macy's, Nordstrom, and Dillard's Inc. of the world. I was in Santa Fe this past weekend with members of the National Speakers Association. After dinner, Cara Brookins shared her love for a luxury purse she had purchased. Hammitt in Manhattan Beach made it. Tony Drockton, my friend and SalesRX client, is the CEO, so we made a video and sent it to him (below.) 👉 Cara Brookins discovered his luxury brand 2000 miles away from his California boutiques at Dillard's Inc. in Little Rock, AK. She never would have found it otherwise. That is what department stores do and the important place they hold. And when the discovery experience is met in a department store – it is memorable. She never would have gone online to buy that item. Full stop. Re-read that. Oh and Hammitt doesn't market by discount but quality. Can we please stop with the charts and graphs and piling on? Department stores are an important link in the retail chain. Let's give credit where credit is due and recognize the vital role department stores continue to play in connecting consumers with unique brands and fostering moments of serendipitous discovery that leave lasting impressions. #retail #customerservice #luxurygoods

I went to the Walmart museum a couple of years ago and one of the things that stuck out was Sam Walton’s truck. He was known for never really “upgrading” when he obviously could have driven the nicest or fanciest vehicle out there. Having nice things isn’t a bad thing, but staying grounded is important too. At some point, you might consider if you are driven more by things or by impact. Will I get more cool things? Money, cars, clothes? Or Will I impact more lives, families, organizations. I want to focus on that impact. What kind of #impact are you having on the world? #checkcover3 #recruiting #transportationindustry

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗛𝗼𝘁 𝗦𝗮𝗹𝗲 𝗚𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝗻 𝗮𝘁 𝗗𝗲𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗲𝘀: 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗦𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗲𝘀 "One thing potential acquirers do have working for them, though, is just how cheap department stores are today. Shares of Macy’s and Nordstrom trade around a fifth of their respective forward-12-month revenues, while Kohl’s shares are valued at about a sixth of its forward revenues. Back in 2017, Macy’s shares were valued at about a third of forward-12-month revenues on average, while Nordstrom was commanding about a half of its forward-12-month revenues...Over the last decade, shares of Macy’s and Nordstrom have lost about 70% of their value." https://lnkd.in/eATXjavi

It is no secret that over the past few years Nordstrom has struggled. The department store chain has seen sales shrink, has ceded market share, and has lost a lot of its retail mojo. Operations in Canada have been closed. Over at the off-price division, Nordstrom Rack has chronically underperformed in a rapidly expanding market.   Against this backdrop, the company value has been depleted, and Nordstrom has come under more pressure from investors. This will have caused pain to the founding family, many of whom still run the company, and seems to have rekindled their desire to take the chain private where they can operate away from the daily scrutiny of markets. With the bid for Macy's heating up, there will also be a nagging doubt in the mind of the Nordstrom family that a similar fate could await their firm if activist investors decide to swoop. This would be an anathema to their general ethos of doing business and by taking the company private they can safeguard its legacy. The last time the family tried to take control of the business they struggled to raise the capital needed and their offer was rejected as too low. This time the company valuation is lower, but capital markets are tighter and the cost of capital far greater. So, many obstacles remain to a successful execution of a deal. A change in ownership will not remedy all of Nordstrom’s issues; especially as many of the same people will remain in charge of the business. However, it may give the firm more breathing space to make investments and take a longer view on how to evolve the proposition. At the same time, the company needs to take care not to laden itself with debt as this will hamper any recovery. #retail #retailnews #departmentstores

Great analysis and Interesting inflection point. I grew up in the Pacific northwest so have a long standing personal memory and relationship with Nordstrom. As I actually built my career in retail I’ve always watched nordstroms moves with interest and a level of loyalist scrutiny. So my take is that in their bid to be a dominant premium player in those key high street cities they shifted focus and capital decisions away from their core loyal consumer and their brand strengths. 1. Mixed results and experience from their digital investments; their awards program was leading and innovative at the start, but their engineering and account experience was plagued with complicated security and unintuitive site design. 2. Their investments in Omni pooled retail was a brilliant stroke to increase their turn and keep OTB freshness and minimize clearance in their non-rack stores, but it came at a price. The in store discovery shopping experience became boring and disappointing from lack of inventory and newness. Especially in B doors where all of their suburban loyalists wanted fun weekend shopping with their moms, sisters and besties. They also devalued their once amazing anniversary sale by simply not flexing seasonal cash into the OTB for boosted average inventory to fill all of their stores with everything from the catalog. 3. They pivoted their buying team to trend and youth chasing; which not only shrunk the OTB for classics and known fors, but made the older generation feel Nordstrom had gotten “cheap” and stopped caring about quality. Ultimately the strategic question that seemed to get skipped early on - do high streets in key cities need us? And if yes, why? They could have honed in on differentiation; old school Nordstrom CRM would have felt sooooo different from the saks experience, anniversary sale and “suburban” holiday events instead of playbook influencer marketing would have stood out. They should have used their strengths to turn city customers. Not chased what was already there in cities.

This time next year, both Macy's and Nordstrom might be private companies. Of course, there's a big difference between these two 'privatizations'.   The Nordstrom family want to take their business private so they can run it with a long-term vision away from the scrutiny and short-termism of public markets. This makes some sense and, despite recent issues at Nordstrom, will probably strengthen the retailer.   The groups trying to take Macy’s private want to do so in order to monetize assets and generate cash. By definition, this is a short-term play that will leave Macy’s in a weakened state and, in fact, will probably be the beginning of the end of the brand.   The commonality between the two potential deals is that they focus on a challenged part of the retail market that is ripe for some form of disruption. However, that's where the similarities end. #retail #retailnews #departmentstores

Truly a leader in the off price sector...their buyers and management teams are best in class and able to pivot based on consumer needs....

Back in my 20s, I worked at Nordstrom. Started as a stock boy in downtown Portland, then moved up to working at Nordstrom Rack, and eventually became one of the top salespeople in ladies' shoes. By '99, I was raking in nearly $75k a year and chucking 15% of that into my 401k. We called ourselves "shoe dogs" because our job was to fetch whatever shoe the customer wanted fast. The quicker you moved, the more shoes you sold, the fatter your wallet got. I knew I had to sell over $5000 a day to keep winning. And even when returns hit us hard, making some days start in the negative, we didn’t get discouraged. We pushed harder. All of this was possible because of Bruce Nordstrom’s system. He was the big boss, started working in his family's shoe store when he was just nine, and climbed his way up to president by 30. Man loved his job and his family fiercely. Even though he's gone now, his work ethic lives on. I gave back too – helped my mom buy a house, and traveled a bit with Nordstrom, which eventually brought me to Las Vegas to open a new store. Opened a lot of doors for me in luxury retail. Here's the take: When life gives you a chance, you run with it. Work hard, save up, and push through the tough days. The reward? It’s more than just money. It's about opening doors to new opportunities and doing things you never thought possible. Keep moving, keep selling, and don't let setbacks stop you. That's how you win. #nordstrom #shoedogs #workhardplayhard #luxuryretail #opportunityknocks