How’s that for foreshadowing? Just yesterday in our post about Jason Wu’s new contemporary line, Miss Wu, we lamented the lack of Nordstrom locations north of the border. Mere hours later, The Globe and Mail reported that Nordstrom is finalizing plans to open its first department stores in Canada in the next few years – not one, not two or even three, but four of them! This, my dear fellow Nordstrom fans, is a shopaholic’s dream come true.
According to “industry sources”, Nordstrom will be launching at Sherway Gardens in Toronto, Pacific Centre in Vancouver, Chinook Centre in Calgary and Rideau Centre in Ottawa, three of which are former Sears sites. The Seattle-based retailer is said to be awaiting approval of the expansion from its board of directors. The news has yet to be confirmed by either Nordstrom or Cadillac Fairview, but I’m already celebrating.
Rumour has it that Nordstrom is, not surprisingly, also keen to set up shop in both Toronto Eaton Centre and Yorkdale Shopping Centre in Toronto. However, with Sears uninterested in letting go of its TEC store and Yorkdale’s owners Oxford Properties reportedly insisting on a package deal with a Square One Shopping Centre location, this may not happen in the near term.
Nevertheless, the department store that recently topped a consumer survey of American luxury retailers – beating out Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue and even Bergdorf Goodman, I might add – is coming to a Canadian city (hopefully) near you.
With it, Nordstrom brings a stellar designer list that at its U.S. locations includes everything from Gucci to Alexander Wang to Kensie; their incredibly generous Half-Yearly Sales and legendary Anniversary Sale featuring products exclusive to Nordstrom; a price matching policy I’ve had the pleasure of taking advantage of in the past (on a pair of Christian Louboutins, no less); and an unparalleled return policy with no time limit (seriously!). Essentially, Nordstrom is customer service at its finest, which will be a breath of fresh air in Canada’s luxury market. The Bay and Holt Renfrew, who will be directly affected by Nordstrom’s arrival, should take note.
I’ve been patiently waiting for years for a U.S. luxury department store chain to come north of the border, but suddenly Nordstrom can’t come soon enough. How excited are you, Canada? Because yours truly is on a high right now that’s usually only reserved for new shoe acquisitions.
UPDATE (Sept. 13, 2012):
The news has finally been confirmed! Read all the details of the new Nordstrom store openings in Canada here.
xx, S
Image via Retail Week
Oh my !! This is great shopping news and not so good news for my wallet! I wonder where they will go in Sherway Gardens?
As an aside, did you manage to snag the flash sale for The Room on the thebay.com site? I was pleasantly surprised to see this pop in my email and see items like Jason Wu on there. I did grab 2 items and I’m thrilled with them.
Since none of this is confirmed, we’re not yet sure where in Sherway Gardens Nordstrom will be located.
Happy to hear you did well at The Room’s online flash sale! You should drop by the store – still lots of fab deals to be had.
oh this is exciting!! do you know where it will be located in sherway gardens??
We don’t yet since the news is yet to be confirmed, but stay tuned!
I guess it’ll make Sherway more of a destination spot, but I think it’s bad news for their Holts and Bay stores.
If a little competition from Nordstrom will encourage The Bay and Holt Renfrew at Sherway Gardens to step up their games, then we’re all for it!
I am SO excited for this!!! I just hope the prices won’t be jacked up like with other American stores that come to Canada.
You can already purchase in Canadian dollars at Nordstrom.com, and the prices aren’t overly inflated. That’s a good sign!
This is quite exciting – I hope the customer service will not suffer and I agree with Jessy I hope they don’t jack up the prices.
Incredible customer service seems to be in Nordstrom’s DNA, so we’re very optimistic!
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