Construction on the second Nordstrom at South Coast Plaza was completed in 1986. / File photo, The Orange County Register
The first Nordstrom at Fashion Island is under construction for a 2010 opening now. But two had been built at South Coast Plaza by 1986.
Nordstrom expanded for the first time outside the Pacific Northwest when it opened at South Coast Plaza in 1978.
According to a 1986 South Coast Plaza newsletter:
“We thought we made a good offering when we came in 1978,” explains Betsy Sanders, Nordstrom vice president, California division, “but we’ve learned a lot - both about ourselves as merchandisers and about our customers in Orange County and Southern California - and we now know which ways in which we can improve.”
Apparently, customers liked what they saw. That South Coast Plaza store “did two and a half times the expected volume from the very beginning and now handles at least three times the business for which it was physically designed,” the 1986 newsletter said.
Nordstrom’s first tentative step outside its original geographic area was clearly a success. And it followed by building a new store that was twice as big as its first one near its original location. The second Nordstrom at South Coast Plaza opened in May 1986.
Among the additions to the new 237,000-square-foot space were the Collectors, Gallery, and Savvy departments for women; the men’s department; three departments for shoes; couture department; fine jewelry salon; expanded fur gallery; and new gift boutique.
“Special services, including a shoe shine stop in the men’s area, an expanded Cafe Express - complete with a terrace for dining alfresco - a full-range personal shopper program, and a multi-purpose room designed specifically for fashion shows, seminars and other special events, make this store unique,” the newsletter said.
Bruce Nordstrom, a co-chairman of Nordstrom at the time, said in the newsletter that South Coast Plaza “provided a launching pad for us. I don’t think (our success) would have come as quickly or as successfully anywhere else. We were so fortunate to have that first store at South Coast Plaza.”
Click here for a Seattle Post-Intelligencer story on Nordstrom’s decision to come to California.
Thanks to the Costa Mesa Conference and Visitor Bureau for access to its archives.
More on History from the South Coast Plaza blog:
For more on South Coast Plaza, see list of links on right-hand side of this blog.
