Customers, Employees Delighted With Store

What does a Nordstrom buy at a Nordstrom store?

If you’re Pete Nordstrom, not much.

One of the Seattle-based chain’s six co-presidents, Pete Nordstrom clutched a tiny shopping bag as he surveyed the opening day crowd.

All the bag contained was a $7 pair of socks, he admitted sheepishly.

His brother Eric wasn’t doing much better. He had a pair of $28 canvas shoes he bought for his wife.

“I don’t think we’re contributing a lot to the goal today,” Pete Nordstrom said.

That opening-day goal was rumored to be $1.4 million, although store officials did not confirm the number.

Whatever Friday’s proceeds, Pete Nordstrom said he was thrilled with the turnout, particularly the masses who waited outside before the store opened.

The excitement, if not the crowd size, was comparable with Seattle’s store opening last year.

“It was a good door,” he said. “This is a good one.”

It isn’t only Nordstrom owners and customers who are delighted with the new store.

Denise Vill-Wilson, an eight-year employee, said the old store had just gotten tired.

“I was over there yesterday,” she said. “I’m so happy to be here. I just want to cry.”

Nancy Jacques is a new Nordstrom employee, selling skin care products. Formerly a jewelry saleswoman, Jacques said she was thrilled to be with Nordstrom.

After she was hired, the company flew her to Bellevue for training.

“They put me in first class,” she said. “I’ve never been in first class before.”

After several hearty handshakes with the owners, Martin Phillips was the first customer at the new Anderson Emami men’s clothing store.

“I just walked by and the store looked nice,” Phillips said as he paid for his belt. He was tickled with what he found in the new mall. “I like Spokane getting a few classy things around so I don’t have to go to Seattle to buy this stuff.”

Five minutes later, Phillips was in Bag N’ Baggage making a purchase as that store’s first customer as well.

Meanwhile, Massoud Emami - in a gold bow tie his daughter picked out the night before - was greeting customers he hadn’t seen since he and Anderson closed their old store more than a year ago.

He looked alert for someone who had been up until 4 a.m. putting the finishing touches on his shop, which looks like an English library - accented with cherry paneling and brass fixtures.

Protesters and activists were few in number Friday, but remarkable in their diversity.

Bill Johns, the county engineer, silently held a sign that read “Nordstrom Corporate Welfare.”

Dressed in a dapper tie and suspenders, he politely declined to elaborate.

“I really don’t have much to say other than the sign,” he said.

Nearby, Jeffrey Neuhaus, 20, and Travis Martin, 16, handed out leaflets for their fledgling organization, Spokan’t.

“We formed it this morning,” Neuhaus said.

Decked out in studded black leather and with elaborately styled hair reminiscent of the 1970s punk-rock scene, the two engaged in their own brand of anti-authority pamphleteering.

“The People must believe that they are not manipulated in order for them to be manipulated effectively,” one leaflet read.

Outside the River Park Square atrium, Peace and Justice Action League of Spokane members held signs and passed out leaflets protesting The Gap’s labor practices in U.S. Mariana Islands.

While one protester held a sign calling for a boycott, organizer Rusty Nelson described that as just being overzealous. There is no boycott, he said.

Despite their prominent position outside the mall, Nelson said they had been left to demonstrate in peace.

“We have not been troubled at all by security,” he said. “They’re interested in trying to maintain a welcoming atmosphere.”

At Thursday night’s pre-opening party, an invitation-only crowd sipped martinis, wine and margaritas and agreed that downtown hadn’t seen so much excitement since the World’s Fair.

Organizers estimated the evening crowd at 1,600 to 1,800, including more than a few gate crashers who slipped into the gathering.

When the drinks and food ran out, the crowd set down its glasses, picked up bags of free popcorn and headed to one of eight free movies.

Popcorn crumbs were brushed off silk ties as movie-goers chuckled to Albert Brooks jokes. As the shows let out past 10 p.m., couples lugging shopping bags filled sidewalks, turning to gawk once more at the lights glinting off the atrium windows.

Staff writer Jonathan Martin contributed to this report.