Thomson Reuters
Nordstrom as we know it is changing.The Nordstrom family - at the helm of this luxury, century-old department store - announced Thursday that they are considering buying out shareholders and going private.
"They are taking the company back to its roots," Kathy Gersch, a former vice president at Nordstrom and now executive vice president at management consultancy firm Kotter International, told Business Insider.
"[Being family-owned] allows them to focus on the vision of success for the long-term and not be influenced by public market pressure," said Gersch.
The brand has struggled recently. Same-store sales numbers have steadily declined since 2014 in its full-line stores. In 2016, the brand reported a 0.4% decrease in comparable sales overall, compared to the 4% growth it saw two years before.
Increasingly, the brand has leaned on its off-price chain, Nordstrom Rack, for growth. These stores now outnumber Nordstrom's full-price locations. Given the success of Rack stores, it's likely we can expect to see more of them in the coming years.
We went to a Nordstrom Rack store to see if this truly is the future of the brand.