Getting designer duds at a discount will be easier for Annapolis residents next year.
Seattle-based Nordstrom is opening a
Nordstrom Rack store at Annapolis Harbour Center spring 2011, with plans to hire about 70 to man the store.
The 32,230-square-foot store will be Nordstrom's second shop in Anne Arundel County. It has had a regular department store at Westfield Annapolis since 1994. A second Maryland store will open in Friendship Heights, just outside of Washington, D.C., next spring.
"We wanted to grow our Rack presence in the Greater Baltimore and Washington, D.C., areas," Nordstrom spokesman Colin Johnson says.
The opening of a discount store is not fueled by the sputtering economy, Johnson says. Rather, company leaders talked about growing its Rack presence in markets where Nordstrom has a lot of customers prior to the recession.
The shop will carry adult and shoes clothes, accessories, shoes, bed and bath products and home accents.
The company chose Annapolis Harbor Center because it liked the retail mix at the shopping center, Johnson says. The shops include an Old Navy, Office Depot and Barnes & Noble.
Nordstrom also likes to put its Rack stores close to its full-service department stores and the customers who shop there, Johnson says.
There are currently 76 Nordstrom Racks and 114 full-line Nordstrom stores throughout the country. Rack store merchandise are sold at a discount of between 20 and 70 percent.
"Our customers are anyone who loves fashion and we want to better serve them," Johnson says.
Nordstrom does not break out how much it spends to open each store. Last year, the company invested $360 million to open new stores, remodel existing ones and make technology improvements.
Writer: Julekha Dash
Source: Colin Johnson, Nordstrom