The opening of Nordstrom at Irvine Spectrum Center is in sight. The 125,000-square-foot store is set to open Sept. 30.
May Koby, former assistant manager at Nordstrom’s South Coast Plaza store, is manager of the Irvine store.
Koby started with Nordstrom in 1990 as a cashier at what’s now Shoppingtown MainPlace in Santa Ana.
For new stores, Nordstrom hires 40 to 50 managers from within the company and about 150 salespeople and other workers from the area, said Deniz Anders, a Nordstrom spokeswoman.
Except for the chief financial officer, all of Seattle-based Nordstrom Inc.’s top management comes from within the company.
The president, Blake Nordstrom, and chairman, Bruce Nordstrom, both relatives of founder John W. Nordstrom, worked their way up.
Anders said she gets a lot of questions about the Target also opening at the Spectrum. It will be the first time Nordstrom will be in the same center as a Target.
“We actually see Target as our competition,” she said. “They invented style at a good price.”
Anders said being near Target raises the prospect of “cross shopping.”
Nordstrom doesn’t carry toilet paper and other household items. And Target doesn’t carry Manolo Blahniks.
Next year, Nordstrom is set to share another center with Target at the Topanga Plaza in Canoga Park.
Nordstrom’s Irvine store will be Orange County’s sixth. Nordstrom’s first OC store opened at the South Coast Plaza in 1978.
The Costa Mesa store was the company’s first venture out of the Pacific Northwest. Today, the South Coast store has the highest sales volume of any of the retailer’s 95 stores. The last one to open in OC was in Mission Viejo, which opened in 1999.
The Irvine store is set to have an espresso bar and a Caf & #233; Bistro.
Nordstrom, started in 1901 as a shoe store, could look to buy stores cast off in Federated Department Stores Inc.’s pending buy of May Department Stores Co., officials said.
Here’s something you might not know about Nordstrom: About 60 salespeople in the company are millionaires.
Nordstrom has an interesting salary structure. All salespeople earn commission,6.75% of sales. That can add up if you’re a super salesperson.
The average salesperson makes about $34,000 a year, Anders said.
Each department is run like a business, according to Anders.
Department managers hire their own people. Salespeople can develop their own client base.
“We foster career salespeople,” she said.
The company, known for its legendary service, matches up to 4% on company 401(k) contributions.
Nordstrom also has profit sharing. Last year, on top of the usual profit sharing, workers got some extra cash.
Those with the company five years or more got $900.
“In Dubuque, Iowa, $900 goes a long way,” Anders said.
That may never happen again, she said. But it was a way to say “thank you” for the good year,$7.1 billion in sales and an 8.6% increase in same-store store sales in 2004.
Discounts? Salespeople get 20% off and “pacesetters”,the top sales people,get 33% off, along with managers.
Here’s another perk of sorts: Nordstrom doesn’t have an employee handbook, only an index card that says something along the lines of use good judgment in all situations.
Another twist is that the company offers no formal training. There’s no Nordstrom University, no two weeks of training.
Employees train new hires, Anders said.
“We’re not looking for retail people, necessarily,” she said.
The goal is to hire “nice” people, according to Anders. The idea is you can train people how to use a cash register but you can’t train them to be nice, she said.
But niceness only gets you so far.
“You can be the nicest person in the world, but if you’re not selling anything you’re not going to last very long,” Anders said.
Idol In Store
“American Idol” star Kimberley Locke signed her latest CD at Lane Bryant at South Coast Plaza and modeled the store’s new jeans.
Borders handled sales of the CD for the plus-size women’s clothing store. Lane Bryant recently signed Locke as spokeswoman for its Seven7 jeans, designed in Paris. Lane Bryant is part of the Reynoldsburg, Ohio-based Charming Shoppes Inc. chain, which also includes Fashion Bug and Catherines Plus Sizes.
As Seen in House of Design
Designer Furniture Warehouse held its grand opening in Irvine last week. The store at 30 Maxwell sells discount luxury furniture. It’s also selling furniture from the Philharmonic House of Design, a 7,000-square-foot showcase home designed by the Orange County Chapter of the American Society of Interior Designers.
Used Luxury Dealer Sells
Tilo’s European Autohaus, a used luxury auto dealer, has changed hands.
Until recently, Fred Armendariz was the happy owner of Tilo’s on Pacific Coast Highway in Newport Beach. The dealership sells used autos including Porsche, Mercedes-Benz, Cadillac, Lexus and BMW.
Now Motorcars Direct Inc., based in Irvine, is the new owner. Motorcars has two used luxury dealerships in Irvine and San Diego.
Checking Blue Book
Irvine-based Kelley Blue Book named Honda Motor Co.’s Accord as its most researched vehicle on kbb.com for the first half of the year.
Rounding out the top five: Honda Civic, Toyota Camry, Ford Mustang and Honda Odyssey. The Mazda3, Acura TL and Ford Mustang were new to the most-researched list.
