For Nordstrom, Boston area will be worth the wait

For his first job, Blake Nordstrom worked in the stockroom of his family's shoe business in downtown Seattle. Today, he serves as president of that company, Nordstrom, a high-end national department store. Last week, Nordstrom visited Massachusetts to talk about his company's entrance into the Boston market with three new stores opening at malls in Braintree, Burlington, and Peabody by 2010. Nordstrom spoke to Globe reporter Jenn Abelson.

Q: How long has Nordstrom wanted to open stores in Massachusetts?

A: Roughly 25 years ago, my father and his relatives that worked together as a team came to Boston and made a few trips after that. But there just wasn't any opportunities for a store.

Q: You've tried many times to open in malls and other rivals have blocked you out. Are we tougher than other markets?

A: Oh yes. In each mall, anchor tenants have a number of rights of refusal. The bottom line is we have not been able to open a store here and compete. And we believe competition is good. Ultimately, the customer benefits from the most competitive environments.

Q: It seems unusual for a president of the company to attend a press conference announcing store openings at some malls. Why is this such a big deal?

A: We've never done this before. But we've been trying so hard to get into Boston. We have some loyal customers here, and when Simon Property called us two weeks ago and asked if we'd come, I just thought as partners, it was the right thing to do.

Q: What can Nordstrom bring to Massachusetts shoppers that they don't already have?

A: What we do is fairly unique. We're a specialty retailer. Sometimes we're called a department store because we're an anchor tenant, but we're not in the purest sense. We go from designer business down. We're not everything to everyone, but we try to provide a shopping environment that has fashionable, quality merchandise with a high level of service.

Q: What are the major changes Nordstrom is going through right now?

A: We're putting more emphasis on enhancing our designer offerings. It's a halo of sorts. As a specialty retailer, it's important to have some leading manufacturers and brands throughout the store. Our ability to provide fresh product literally on a daily basis is an emphasis.

Globally now, there is a recognition of what's hot. As a retailer you have to be quicker, have to work more closely with manufacturers, and have to have flexibility. One analogy I've heard my dad say is it's like fruit in a market. Fashion is perishable if it sits too long on the rack.

Q: Your first job was in the shoe stockroom. How has that influenced the way you run the company?

A: I started in the stockroom sweeping, the broom was bigger than I was. Over the years, my brothers and I all spent a lot of time in the shoe division, in the stockroom, on fitting stools helping customers, talking with managers and buyers.

We believe we can be successful by selling our merchandise through great product and people. We are not going to beat the competition by outnumbering them. We are going to beat them hopefully by outselling them.

When we make decisions every day, it goes back to the experiences and time we had on the selling floor. We spend the bulk of our time in the stores on the floor, talking to our people, talking to our customers. This is a hands on business.

Q: Are your brothers still involved in the company?

A: We work together as a team. There's not a lot of examples like that. My brother Pete is in charge of merchandising. My brother Eric oversees store and store operations.

Q: Is it worrisome to see that many family-run department stores are no longer run by families?

A: We are part of the fourth generation. There aren't a lot of fourth-generation businesses of our size. We are not a private company.

We are a public company. Our number-one responsibility is to our shareholders. Nepotism is not a factor. All of us had to work our way up and so we recognize how fragile it is and we work very hard to ensure that, at least on our watch, this thing isn't going south.