Nordstrom Rack to take Staples' space in Bay Shore

A Nordstrom Rack store will open in Bay Shore next year as high-end Nordstrom expands its off-price chain to help boost the company's lagging sales.

The Nordstrom Rack will open in a 24,000-square-foot space at Gardiner Manor Mall in the spring, Seattle-based Nordstrom Inc. said in a statement Tuesday.

“We look forward to opening this new Nordstrom Rack location in Bay Shore, strengthening our network of stores and introducing new customers to Nordstrom Rack's unique product offering,” Carl Jenkins, senior vice president of Nordstrom Rack Stores, said in the statement. 

The Rack planned for Bay Shore will be moving into a space that office-supply store Staples will vacate in January, said Daniel Glazer, vice president in the Woodbury office of Ripco Real Estate, the firm that represents the landlord in leasing.

Owned by Kite Realty Group Trust in Indianapolis, Gardiner Manor Mall is a 220,566-square-foot shopping center at 834 Sunrise Hwy. whose tenants include Barnes & Noble, Michaels, King Kullen, Old Navy and HomeGoods. 

There is also a Target in the shopping center but Target owns its building.

A spokeswoman for Nordstrom declined to say how many people will work at the Nordstrom Rack in Bay Shore or whether it will be a relocation of an existing store. She said more details will be disclosed closer to the store’s opening date.

There are two other Rack stores on Long Island — at The Gallery at Westbury Plaza in Garden City and Manhasset Center. 

A Rack in the Huntington Shopping Center on Walt Whitman Road closed in 2021 after nine years there.

There is one full-price Nordstrom on the Island, at Roosevelt Field mall in Garden City.

Nordstrom Inc. had 94 Nordstrom stores and 247 Racks in the United States as of July 29, the end of its fiscal second quarter.

Shifting the Mix

Nordstrom Inc. is opening more Rack stores — 19 this year and about 10 in 2024 — and trying to improve the off-price chain’s sales and profitability by bringing in a better product mix.

The company as a whole has struggled  for several years, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, said Neil Saunders, managing director of retail at Manhattan-based market research firm GlobalData.

Racks are underperforming, but they are doing better than Nordstrom stores and are the biggest source of new customers for the company.

In its fiscal second quarter, Nordstrom Inc.’s net earnings rose 8.7% to $137 million but net sales fell 8.3% to $3.66 billion compared to the same period a year earlier.

Nordstrom stores’ net sales decreased 10.1% compared with the same period a year earlier, while net sales at Rack stores fell 4.1%.

Nordstrom is still betting on Rack, as off-price stores in general are doing well right now while price-sensitive consumers trade down to cheaper goods amid high costs.

“Well, I think they have more confidence in Nordstrom Rack because it’s in a part of the market that’s growing,” Saunders said.

Rack stores are a good investment, with returns that exceed the cost of capital, Nordstrom Chief Executive Officer Erik Nordstrom told analysts during the second-quarter earnings call in August.

“As we shift our assortment mix to include more of the brands we know our customers respond to, we are seeing results improve … and faster inventory turns, giving customers' newness each time they shop at Nordstrom Rack,” he said.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story included incorrect information about Nordstrom Inc.'s earnings.

By Tory N. Parrish

tory.parrish@newsday.comToryParrish1

Tory N. Parrish covers retail and small business for Newsday. She has worked at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and Observer-Dispatch in Utica, N.Y.