Nordstrom Courts Texans With Glitzy Dallas Store Fashion Retailer’s First Deep South Store Will Feature Concierge, Special Room For Makeovers

Nordstrom will give its reputation for fashion and service the ultimate test Friday, when the Seattle-based fashion retailer opens it first Texas store.

The 225,000-square-foot store will fill an addition at the Dallas Galleria, the premiere retail location in a city where shopping is a way of life.

“There is not a better market in the country for shopping,” Darrel Hume, general manager of the Dallas Nordstrom, said this week. “That consumerism - this is the place to be.”

The store is the first in the Deep South for Nordstrom, which since 1988 has moved from the West Coast to the Washington, New York, Chicago and Minneapolis areas. The chain now has 80 stores in 16 states.

Dallas is known for its appetite for retail and its ability to draw shoppers from miles away. The city has about 24 square feet of store space for about every resident, the highest ratio of any of the country’s 10 biggest metropolitan areas.

“It’s important that we are in the No. 1 cities, that we are in the No. 1 malls and mostly important that we are competing with the best,” co-president Blake Nordstrom said. “If you want to be the best, you’ve got to go head-to-head with the best.”

The chain’s reputation for service could be tested in Dallas, home of Neiman Marcus, another retailer with legendary service standards.

At the Dallas Nordstrom store, a concierge will check shoppers’ packages and coats. The store will offer shoe shines, diaper-changing areas and a special room for complimentary makeovers. Prosthesis coordinators are available for customers who need professional assistance with fittings following breast surgery.

At least one analyst thinks Nordstrom and Dallas are a good fit.

“Any market where you’ve got high spendable income … is usually good for them,” said Jeffrey Edelman, a retail analyst with Deutsche Morgan Grenfell-C.J. Lawrence in New York. “There (is) high spendable income in Dallas. It would appear a right market for them.”

But not all retailers succeed in Dallas. About a decade ago, Sakowitz closed. Bloomingdale’s followed in 1990. And Nordstrom is now squarely on the home turf of another upscale retailer with a focus on service, Neiman Marcus.

Executives at Neiman Marcus are not terribly concerned about the new competition, said Holly Hands, vice president of corporate public relations.

“We feel relatively confident in the Dallas market because we’ve already established ourselves as a service organization,” Hands said. “We’re just going to keep doing it as well as we can.”