wow..............VON MAUR, now open. (Birmingham, Tuscaloosa: 2014, credit card, buy)

[sanjuan13]

Not sure if they vary much location to location, but I've been to the one in Overland Park KS, and it is by far the worst department store I've ever been to.

[atler8]

I think that the new Von Maur store will put the Belk stores to shame.
I personally have found the Belk chain stores to be wannabe players in various markets; stores that are seriously lacking in much that is substantive once you pick beneath the thin veneer of their attempted yuppie glitz.
Has anyone else been to the new Von Maur? That's the topic of the thread.

[raj kapoor]

Thanks Tourian.

Charlotte's South Park store was the first suburban location and evolved into the chains flagship. Crabtree at Raleigh became the second. The Phipps store in Atlanta became one by default of the location. They did nothing to upgrade the building. (disappointing) At the same time, Bayer Properties took Belk to court over the fact that the lease they purchased along with the Parisian chain did not allow a mainstream store. It had to be upscale. They settled and the size of the store was increased by almost fifty percent with a total redo of the whole store.

They had announced that the Bridgestreet store in Madison County would be a flagship and then backed out of that before the store was even under construction. It will be a nice store for the county and I think will eventually displace the Parkway Place store in sales.

All retail stores use similar guidelines for what they call a flagship. Size of store, sales volume, product lines, size of market area, and then the facility itself is brought to a level that stands above the other stores.

Belk has three regional divisions. North, based in Raleigh, South, based in Charlotte, and West, based in Birmingham. (the western division was created in response to buying Parisian with the subsequent management people already here) A new West division store is being opened in Dallas in about a year and a half and it will be a flagship. (there are quite a few northeast Texas stores surrounding Dallas already but none could take on the role of flag. According to Tim Belk, Galleria Belk already had the sales and is second in size in the chain. The center draws seventeen million people a year, so it has the draw of a large four state market area. They consider it a flag internally, but to make it official it is going to receive a complete make-over starting in January and last about ten months. The product lines will begin to change even as the construction is ongoing.

Basically, retail hope that flags will define how they want their companies perceived , especially by visitors to a market area. People seek out the nicest of a chain when traveling and shopping out of town. It is like going to Fifth Avenue when in N.Y. instead of Brooklyn.

raj

[raj kapoor]

Not to be off topic on my own thread. lol
But I do want to take the opportunity to respond to a statement up a few posts on this thread.

I have read now in many places for about two years that Nordstrom backed out of coming to the Galleria. This is simply not the truth. GGP who owns half interest in the shopping part of the Galleria called off the expansion with Nordstrom. It was the result of GGP (another victim of the financial collapse) filing for reorganization to take care of creditors and to secure its vast holdings. The judge in the case would not approve the one hundred million dollars to be spent on the Nordstrom expansion. They had no choice.

They are one of the two largest landlords for Nordstrom in the nation. Just since they came out of reorganization they have replaced four Sears store in their malls including the new Nordstrom being built in Ala Moana Center in Honolulu.

As we all know , Sears is on the edge. I would not be surprised if they take that space at the Galleria. I do know that GGP announced that the current work at the Galleria is the beginning with more to come in 2015.
But I also know that Bayer property will probably fight tooth and nail to get that contract as well. Bayer did bring the Rack here. And they usually put the Rack near the location of the full store.

Time will tell on all this.

raj


To the fellow about Overland Park Von Maur. That is a perfect example of how flagships help companies. You were turned off to the company by what you found in a small market store.

Although, I will also point out that most people under twenty-five would hate Von Maur . (period) It is a very traditional company selling quality and understatement along with incredible customer service. For a young man, the Concepts department would be about all you need to see in Von Maur.

Having said all that , I will point out that they are the only Department store company in the country that is growing rapidly right through the financial crisis, and without acquiring debt. They must be doing something right for an awful lot of people.

raj

[pennquaker09]

I live in Raleigh now and the store here is definitely nicer than the run of the mill Belk. Because I lived up North for a couple of years, I just find it to be a bit underwhelming. I really prefer Nordstrom if I am going to shop at a Department Store.

[cpg35223]

If the real-deal Nordstrom's came to Birmingham, my wife would perform acts of public indecency two minutes after walking in the doors there. She still has a Nordstrom's card from our vacation to Seattle 20 years ago.

[Austincool]

The Nordstrom at the Galleria was never a 100% get-go. Nordstrom and Dillard's were competing for the site. I worked for a Nordstrom corporate office a while ago when this conversation came up.

If Nordstrom were to locate to Alabama, it would go to The Summit.

[raj kapoor]

Originally Posted by Austincool

The Nordstrom at the Galleria was never a 100% get-go. Nordstrom and Dillard's were competing for the site. I worked for a Nordstrom corporate office a while ago when this conversation came up.

If Nordstrom were to locate to Alabama, it would go to The Summit.

This last comment of yours doesn't hold to be so true because GGP is one of Nordstrom's two largest landlords. They have far more pull than Bayer; but granted Nordstrom does have more choices now than in 2007.

You are misinformed completely, regardless of whatever office in which you may have been working. There are plenty of news records everywhere that were released by Nordstrom concerning THEIR disappointment in the project being canceled. Dillard's has not made a serious attempt at coming into Birmingham because of an agreement with Parisian, and since then the economy has stopped their growth here. In fact they even closed Tuscaloosa.



raj


aside; you are correct that Jeffrey Bayer will fight tooth and nail to get Nordstrom to the Summit, but the lack of land would make it a very expensive project and might even hamper the quality of the center due to over-development. He did bring the Rack in near the Summit , so , yes he may have a deal. At any rate, the history is written,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, Nordstrom had made their formal announcement at the Galleria, and if you know anything about them, you know that they don't make formal announcements lightly.

raj

[raj kapoor]

Originally Posted by Austincool

Belk will do fine. Not everyone likes Von Maur and Belk obviously isn't going to upgrade the Riverchase store into a flagship.

I am almost hesitant to bring this post forward, but after your post of this morning I have to ask if you even read newspaper or online news accounts. If not, you should before posting.

The Belk re-do was announced in August by Tim Belk. (WHILE HE WAS TOURING THE STORE AT THE GALLERIA)
And then the story was re-written to update their accelerated plans and increased costs for the Belk Galleria during September.

If you don't keep up with news, posting on C-D as fact can make one look , well, uninformed.

raj

[gsupstate]

Originally Posted by raj kapoor

To the fellow about Overland Park Von Maur. That is a perfect example of how flagships help companies. You were turned off to the company by what you found in a small market store.

raj

I had to chuckle at the above statement. Overland Park is in one of the highest income, fastest growing areas of the Kansas City metro.....a metro that has almost a million more people than Birmingham. Hardly a "small" market as stated above. LOL.