If you live in the suburbs of any major city, you probably have a Nordstrom Rack near you. I know I did. There was one about 30 minutes from my house near the two big outdoor shopping malls about a half hour outside Chicago. Aside from all the terrible traffic, it was shopping mecca, especially for high schoolers with little to no taste level. I distinctly remember going to Nordstrom Rack to find some good shoes and dress clothes. Everything was still a bit out of my price range, but a lot cheaper than what it normally was. It all seemed like a pretty sweet deal at the time, which is apparently part of why Nordstrom Rack is fucking crushing it, according to Racked.
Granted, this comes down to a sheer numbers game. Nordstrom has 116 main stores in the U.S. and 167 Rack locations, with plans to up that to 300 by 2020. If you compare Nordstrom to other comparable retailers like Barneys, Saks and Neiman Marcus, they look like flecks of dust: Barneys has just 16 main stores and 13 Warehouse locations, Saks with 38 main stores and 82 Off Fifth locations, and Neiman Marcus with 41 main stores and 43 Last Call locations. Nordstrom dwarfs them all and Rack makes up nearly half the company's total sales. Not only does Nordstrom have Rack locations moving tons of discounted gear, but it also launched a Rack online shop last May to bring the deals online. And because Racks are standalone, they aren't fighting the losing battle of the main Nordstrom locations found in our country's failing malls. Also of note is that 80% of Rack's stock is coming directly from vendors, which is pretty impressive when compared against the outlet model of pushing a store's own castoffs from the previous season that clearly no customers wanted. So, while you and I wouldn't be caught dead in a Nordstom Rack shopping for some Rockport or Geox steals, it still means lower prices and accessible clothing and we're okay with that.
