SEATTLE >> Nordstrom will open its first Nordstrom Local store next month in Los Angeles, testing a new model for the fashion retailer: a small, neighborhood hub that will have no clothing in stock and will focus instead on digital sales, customer service and tailoring.
Nordstrom has managed to ride a rough decade for full-line department stores by responding to the trends that are disrupting the retail market — developing its e-commerce capabilities and expanding its off-price Nordstrom Rack stores.
The Local effort, if successful, could add another element. It’s “the first downscaling of the department store concept,” said Neil Saunders, managing director at GlobalData Retail.
The company says customers will be able to come to the 3,000-square-foot store in West Hollywood to meet with personal stylists while drinking wine or beer, try on clothes the stylist ordered in advance for them, and pick up online orders the same day. They also can get a manicure or have clothes tailored.
Most department stores haven’t bounced back from the recession. Besieged by superstores, fast-fashion retailers like Zara, off-price retailers like T.J. Maxx and Marshalls, as well as e-commerce, department stores like J.C. Penney and Kohl’s have been in a tailspin. Nordstrom, while also suffering declines at its big, classic stores, has managed a 3.8 percent increase in total sales in the latest quarter.
ID fraud hit 15 million Americans in 2016
NEW YORK >> The Equifax breach didn’t just expose sensitive personal information of 143 million Americans; it underscored the huge vulnerabilities that make widespread identity theft possible.
More than 15 million Americans were victims of ID fraud last year, a record high; fraudsters stole about $16 billion, according to an annual survey by Javelin Strategy & Research. The theft of personal information can turn people’s lives inside out, damage their finances, eat away at their time and cause tremendous anxiety and emotional distress.
The Equifax attack was particularly damaging. Intruders made off with precisely the information needed to pose as ordinary citizens and defraud them — and did so with data for roughly 44 percent of the U.S. population.
Experts have warned for years that the widespread use of Social Security numbers, lax corporate security and even looser individual password practices could lead to an identity theft apocalypse.
ON THE MOVE
Kuakini Medical Center has announced the following:
>> Joy Yadao has been hired as KMC’s infection prevention specialist. She has more than 25 years of experience in nursing leadership while specializing in oncology, pediatrics, case management, advanced care planning, health care quality and infection control. Yadao was previously a project manager for Mountain-Pacific Quality Health as well as an executive director of St. Francis Hospice and Palliative Care Program.
>> Wayne Becker has been appointed KMC’s new manager of the Quality and Patient Outcomes department. He first joined KMC as a member of the Nursing Services Management Team in 2007. While working as a patient care coordinator for KMC’s Emergency Services in 2016, Becker also served as an interim manager for Quality and Patient Outcomes.
HiAccounting has announced that Sheri Miyashiro, CPA, has assumed the company’s tax senior position. Miyashiro was previously a tax senior associate at Grant Thornton, the world’s fifth-largest international accounting firm, as well as a client accountant at Hoffman Lewis.
