In this economy, students are looking for the best deals to buy their designers duds. With the Thursday, Sept. 13 opening of the second Nordstrom Rack in the St. Louis area, students can find just that.

Previously, there had only been one other store in the St. Louis area, located in Belleville.

“They [Nordstrom] originally only planned to have one store in St. Louis, but it did so well, they decided to build one in West County,” Mark Sedgwick, managing director at Pace Properties, said. “Nordstrom is a big draw.”

Sedgwick said they began building the Rack off Manchester Road in January 2011. The Rack store is a part of the Manchester Highlands commercial center built by Pace Properties, which includes 139,000 square feet of commercial space. Sedgwick said the Nordstrom Rack is valued at about $5 million.

“Basically what we do is build the building, or everything on the outside, and then we turn it to Nordstrom to complete the inside,” Sedgwick said.

Sedgwick said the Rack will be positive for the surrounding businesses and the local economy.

The Rack began in the basement of the flagship downtown Seattle Nordstrom in the early 1970s as a way to move clearance merchandise out of the store to make room for new inventory, Kendall Ault, head of Nordstrom Rack public relations, said. The Rack offers brand name and on trend items at 30 to 70 percent off.

“We’re able to deliver brand name merchandise at a discount through the great relationships we’ve built with top vendors who also sell to our full line stores,” Ault said. “In fact, of the top 50 brands sold at Nordstrom, 49 sell directly to Nordstrom Rack.”

Nordstrom Rack carries clothing, accessories and shoes for men, women and children, along with cosmetics, luggage and items for the home.

“It is designed to be more of a self-service shopping experience that we like to think is the ultimate treasure hunt,” Ault said.
There are currently 114 Racks along with 117 full line department stores in the U.S. Ault said by the end of 2016, they plan to build more than 230 Rack stores.

“Costumers are responding very well to our Rack stores and there are more opportunities to build them than there are our full line stores since they are much smaller in size,” Ault said.

The Rack attracted customers with their opening day activities like the Golden Hanger, Race through the Rack, and complimentary totes given to the first 1,000 customers. Twenty golden hangers were hidden throughout the store, and customers who found those hangers could redeem them for $100 to be spent at the store.

Also, Ault said the Race through the Rack allowed one customer the chance to win a 90 second, $2,000 shopping spree.
Even though Abby Watson, junior, missed out on the opening day festivities, she said she still had a successful shopping trip after going on opening day.  Watson said she purchased jeans, a couple of shirts, and two pairs of earrings that were about 65 percent off.  One of the earrings, Juicy Brand, was originally $65, but at the Rack, it was only $17.

Watson said the Rack had a lot of shoes and accessories, and though it didn’t have much teen clothing, Watson said she was able to find great clothes in the adult section.

“It was cool how the store was more condensed so you don’t have to go up and down multiple floors to find shoes or accessories,” Watson said.  “It was nice and the prices were cheaper because you didn’t have to pay full price.”