124-year-old retail chain announces rare store closure

The emergence of online buying has wholly reshaped user behavior, offering much convenience and entree to astir immoderate merchandise without the request to measurement wrong a store. As e-commerce grows, accepted section stores proceed to vanish, raising the question of whether the retail manufacture is moving person to a aboriginal wherever brick-and-mortar buying becomes extinct.

Ongoing economical uncertainty has besides made shoppers much cautious of their spending, starring to weakening income and reduced ft postulation for galore retailers. Even long-established brands person been forced to adjacent stores arsenic they set their operations to amended conscionable consumers' needs.

This displacement is opening to widen the spread betwixt store closures and openings nationwide. Now, different iconic section store is preparing to permission a assemblage with conscionable a azygous store of this concept, and different whose aboriginal has been called into question.

Nordstrom has confirmed that it volition adjacent its Nordstrom Rack store astatine 245 SW Morrison St. successful Portland, Oregon, connected January 31, 2026. The closure volition impact 37 store-level employees, according to the WARN announcement filed connected December 1.

"We've made the hard determination to adjacent our Nordstrom Rack store located astatine 245 SW Morrison St. successful Portland," said a Nordstrom spokesperson successful a connection to The Street. "Closing a store is ne'er an casual decision, and we recognize the interaction these changes person connected our squad members. We're committed to taking attraction of our employees done this transition, including supporting those who are funny successful uncovering different relation wrong Nordstrom."

The institution says the determination volition let it to amended service Portland shoppers by focusing connected its remaining locations and e-commerce business. Nordstrom volition proceed to run its adjacent downtown flagship and Portland's lone remaining Nordstrom Rack determination astatine 10159 NE Cascades Parkway.

Nordstrom Rack, the company's off-price retail division, has go a cardinal differentiator and the largest root of caller customers crossed each Nordstrom brands. While the downtown Rack store is permanently closing, the institution remains committed to expanding the conception nationally.

In 2025, the institution opened 22 caller Nordstrom Rack locations, aligning with its plans to unfastened 20 to 25 caller stores per year.

Still, rumors person been circulating astir the aboriginal of Nordstrom's flagship determination successful Portland. During an August assemblage meeting, Portland Mayor Keith Wilson addressed the city's precocious retail vacancy rate. He claimed that Nordstrom CEO Erik Nordstrom expressed uncertainty astir however agelong the institution could proceed operating successful the city.