Improved store

Olwyn.Mary · 2010-04-09T21:49:57+00:00

I went to my local Hancock Fabrics the other day, and discovered it empty, and a sign on the door reading "We have moved acros the street." Now, the old place was in a decidedly run-down strip mall, so we looked around. Way across the street, across two streets actually, there is another discount store type strip mall, but several degrees better than the one where we were standing. Went across there, and the new store is just beautiful. Bigger, bright, clean, easy to see (the former one was an L shape inside, not easy to navigate) and the merchandise was much more upscale. For instance, I had gone to see if by chance they had any of my favorite rayon challis, which I wanted in pale colors to line some other stuff. Not only did they have the solids, they also had a whole bunch of prints, more, in fact, than I saw on line the day before.The store used to have tables on tables of clearance merchandise, obviously brought in, and most of it sheer junk. Now they have just one clearance counter, and the regular fashion fabric seems to be a much better quality than before. DH was with me, so I didn't want to spend too much time browsing, but as well as 10 yards of white rayon challis I also bought three lengths of print for summer pants plus a bunch of notions. After the sale price on some stuff plus the discount with my ASG card I got out of there just under $120. I am going to be very good and get this made up before I go back for more, but it would seem that more people are doing garment sewing these days, if the shop was able to justify the move plus the improved merchandise. (Either that, or I am not the only one who pointedly told the manager that I am buying a lot on line these days.)Olwyn Mary in New Orleans

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BEI Design 16 years ago

HUH??? Nordstrom was started in Seattle, and as far as I can tell they are still independent. Publicly traded on the NYSE as JWN:

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"Nordstrom, Inc. is a fashion specialty retailer. As of March 19, 2010, the Company operated 187 stores located in 28 states in the United States. The Company operates in four segments: Retail Stores, Direct, Credit and Other. The Retail Stores segment includes its 112 Nordstrom full-line stores, 72 off-price Nordstrom Rack stores, two Jeffrey boutiques, and one clearance store that operates under the name Last Chance. The Direct segment's merchandise is primarily shipped from its fulfillment center in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Its Credit segment includes its wholly owned federal savings bank, Nordstrom fsb, through which it offers a private label card, two Nordstrom VISA credit cards and a debit card for Nordstrom purchases. Its Other segment includes its product development team, called Nordstrom Product Group, which designs and contracts to manufacture private label merchandise sold in its Retail Stores and Direct segments."

Nordstrom family members are still officers.

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" In 1935 the Allied Stores Corporation was founded as a successor to Hahn. In the decades to follow, Allied continued to grow through sales and more acquisitions, until in 1986 it was acquired by the Campeau Corporation. Allied and Federated Department Stores, another Campeau subsidiary, were merged in 1988 to form Federated Stores, Inc. In 1990 Federated filed for reorganization under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, from which it emerged in 1992. In 1994 Federated and R.H. Macy & Co. merged, creating the largest department store chain in the United States."

Unless management is unusually innovative, the need to grow often means acquiring other going successful operations. I regret the many, many, local start-ups which were later swallowed up by other larger companies with no local roots or interest. My husband worked for 42 years at Tektronix, Inc.

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a division of Danaher Corp. Beverly

Who, me bitter? Nah, I loved losing my health benefit after the take-over.

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Pogonip 16 years ago

That's one. I think Nieman-Marcus may be another.

It's been a few years *cough* since I worked in department stores (store detective-type, me) but I remember when Allied and Federated were buying up all the local department stores. It goes on, I see, and even with bankruptcy proceedings, lots of times that's just to get out from under debt, to "reorganize." The "need to grow" is Wall Street driven. The stock market is killing business in this country. It's no longer a matter of building a company, brand loyalty, improving product -- it's "get the money and run." I found it fascinating that when the Soviet government fell, the U.S. sent people to teach them how to set up a stock market. Not how to set up businesses, how to manufacture, how to sell, but how to float stock and gamble on it.

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Claire Owen 16 years ago

Heaven can't be far from that description.

Claire in Montréal France. http:// snipped-for-privacy@free.fr

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IEZ 16 years ago

This sounds like a cross between the Globe Store, associated with Wanamaker's, in Scranton, PA, sadly also defunct in the mid-1990's, and the Boston Store (aka Fowler, Dick and Walker) a few miles south in Wilkes-Barre PA, which still exists as a branch of the Boscov's Department Stores. I remember going into the Globe Store to pay my bill sometime in the early

1990's and they still used the old-fashioned huge ledgers, with hand entries. The Boston Store had a lunch counter on the lower level. This persisted into the twenty-first century, I believe, but I'm pretty sure they don't serve food anymore. I think both stores had the vacuum tube system.

Oh, and the fabric slide and measure thingies? They were in the basement (huge) fabric department at Lazarus's Department Store in Wilkes-Barre, which is now a parking lot.

Iris

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