Nordstrom May Go Private

With the consumer paradigm rapidly shifting away from the in-store experience, Nordstrom is looking for ways to restructure in order to remain relevant. According to Chain Store Age, the Nordstrom family has been considering the option of taking the company private. They believe the overhaul the company needs to go through in order to maintain its status will be impossible to achieve as a public company. Thus, the move to be made is to go private.

Vivaldi CEO and Founder Erich Joachimsthaler supported this position, saying, “The department store business is in plain disruption and it is a highly asset intensive business, and one with rather razor-thin margins. Either you disrupt or you are the disrupted. Nordstrom going private would allow it to massively restructure its business, which is impossible to do as a public company. It is the right move.” Nordstrom has 354 brick-and-mortar locations as well as an online store, so it will be interesting to see if the company moves forward with the privatization and what that means for its future.