Some thoughts on the Downtown Macy's and Nordstom visits

Heather Anderson~

Nordstrom DT Anniversary Sale visit
Women’s Apparel
*ANN product was hard to find, it was not up front but scattered in the middle
*the presentation was not great, not many displays
*little ANN product-2 4-ways and a rounder of misc Nike mixed with other brands
*mannequins were dressed in Nike apparel, but had on Adidas shoes (not good to mix brands)

Women’s Footwear
*Nike product was at the back of the BP shoe dept on a table mixed with other brands
*limited styles to choose from
* DT Portland store doesn’t carry many styles as Nike Town is a few blocks away


Nordstrom Washington Square Anniversary Sale visit
Women’s Apparel
*Nike product was up front as you entered the store
*lots of product, 2 4-ways and a rounder of Misc. pieces (Nike only) by size-neat and clean
*Displays were nice and mannequins dressed head to toe in Nike
*Sales people were wearing Nike apparel


** Women’s Apparel overall ANN sales
-14% sales
-5% units
Sell thru 74%


Women’s Footwear
*ANN product was in 2 key locations-right in front of BP shoe dept and also on a table in the back of the dept right of the cashier.
*Nice presentation-Nike displayed by itself not with other brands
*Nice selection of styles to choose from

**Women’s Footwear overall ANN sales
-5% sales
-2% units
Sell thru 55.9%


Richard Boaz~

Thursday July 23rd, the Premium Department stores visited Nordstrom and Macy’s Stores at Pioneer Square. We first visited Nordstrom and saw that it was pretty easy to find Men’s Women’s and Kids footwear out on the floor. There were fewer Men’s shoes displayed, but Women’s and Kids had great style assortments. Our group then looked at apparel and didn’t find large assortments for kids, but found some for Women’s and Men’s.
The second store visited was Macy’s. Riding the escalators up floors reminded me of the original Macy’s in New York. Footwear was easy to find for Women’s but didn’t see any for Men’s and Kids. Apparel assortments were setup well for Men’s, Women’s and Kids. We could easily find the Nike Swoosh and plenty of availability with the stories that went with the product.

Erin Dineen~

Macy’s has a list of Policies that they as a company try to abide by. In many ways, these policies are very similar to those that were on display during the past Customer Love challenge. Their list is a follows:
• We subscribe to ethical business practices in every facet of out business
• We will protect the interests of our shareholders
• We will provide quality and value to our customers in all dealings.
• We will obey all laws.
• We will treat others as we want them to treat us.
• We will respect the rights and property of others.
• We will be good corporate citizens.
The two that stand out to me as being the most similar to our own are the statement in regards to the ethical business practices because this deals with our Customer Service department as vendors and the statement about providing quality and value to our customers.

As a vendor of the Macy’s organization, I have seen them adhering to this policy. I feel that at this point in our business relationship, I trust those at Macy’s to be honest with me and to help me get the product to them. For example, they understand the need for extensions and are almost always willing to grant them because I feel that they trust that I am doing what I can to get them as much product within the original shipping window as I can. If we can work together as a team, trust one another and follow ethical business practices, we can all get what we want out of this relationship.

From a customer stand point, I didn’t experience too much eagerness to meet or exceed our expectations during our group visit to the downtown store but that could have been because we didn’t look like we needed too much help and in this particular situation, we didn’t exactly need any assistance. We tended to bee-line for any wall that had a swoosh to take a look at the product. I think there were sales associates in a few of the departments who were trying to assess our needs, being such a large and diverse group, but for the most part, they let us do our thing, take pictures and try on clothes. There were definitely a few associates who tried to point us in the right direction as we would read the signs and discuss our next move.

I think the policies that Macy’s Inc. lays out for their employees to follow are well written and cover all of the people their business touches and beyond.

Joyceann Windham~

The Macy's Downtown Store is unique due to its 8 floors of merchandise. Men's, women's and kids apparel are on separate floors. Being unfamiliar with the floor plan, I needed to refer to The Directory to find each department. I found them colorful and attractive in layout. Nike athletics' pictures were posted in both men's and women's. The variety of product was good with color pops.

Brooke Weltzin~

During our trip to Nordstrom and Macy’s in Pioneer Square, I was able to check out different stores than where I normally go. Being that I live on the west side of town, I normally do my shopping at Washington Square. I know from experience in shopping there, that both Nordstrom and Macy’s at Washington Square have a large selection of Nike product regularly. It was nice (being someone who likes to find what I’m looking for pretty quickly) to be able to walk into a new store and see what the setup was and where everything was located. When we asked the sales associates upon entering the stores, where to find the Nike product, at both stores they knew exactly what floor and department to send us to. We were able to find Nike product pretty quickly in most departments as it was marked with our Nike story and a large enough display to where it stood out amongst the others. We had a little trouble finding Men’s footwear in Nordstrom’s, but were quickly reminded that with a Niketown right down the street, the competition was pretty thick. That being said, all other departments (women’s, kids, apparel and footwear) seemed to have a decent selection of our product. You can see by the pictures illustrating our trip. I would be more than happy to head into both Nordstrom and Macy’s in Pioneer Square to do my shopping as I would be able to run in and find exactly what I’m looking for. The sales associates were great at assisting us and were incredibly friendly and seemed happy to help. It was an overall good experience.