How Nordstrom Bests Its Retail Rivals

At 10 a.m. on the morning of Apr. 8, the doors opened to the 116th Nordstrom department store, at Christiana Mall in Newark, Del. A crowd‚ consisting mostly of smartly dressed women in their 30s and 40s, ran inside. There was screaming. They jogged through a gauntlet of more than 300 employees, and clapping along with all the store managers, salespeople, and security guards were four tall men. These were the Nordstroms of Nordstrom, brothers Blake W., Peter (Pete) E., and Erik B., and second cousin James (Jamie) F. Jr.

This was the 43rd new department store to open since the fourth generation of Nordstroms retook control of the company in 2000, a run that has had investors screaming, too, or at least looking over their portfolios with approval. Last year revenue at the company grew 12 percent, to a record $9.7 billion, and while the Great Recession slowed rivals Neiman Marcus and Saks, Nordstrom gained market share. Nordstrom, it seems, is that rarity in American business: an enterprise run by a founding family that hasn’t wrecked it.