Published in the Puget Sound Business Journal
By Joey Thompson – Reporter
Oct 7, 2024
King County has earned the unfortunate distinction as Nordstrom Inc.’s (NYSE: JWN) worst market for retail theft nationwide.
That’s what CEO Erik Nordstrom told a room oflaw enforcement officers, politicians and prosecutors at a summit on retail crime held on Microsoft‘s campus in Redmond last week. Nordstrom’s King County stores make up about 3% of the luxury department store retailer’s global footprint and account for 10% of its companywide losses due to theft.
“We’re born and raised here and huge homers when it comes to anything local,” Nordstrom said. “Unfortunately, King County is our worst area for this. It’s a big financial headwind.”
Across the country, retailers have reported sharp increases in theft since the onset of the pandemic, with organized groups often taking tens of thousands of dollars of goods from a string of stores at once. Such theft totaled nearly $3 billion of merchandise in Washington state in 2021, per the Retail Industry Leaders Association, a national retail trade group.
Some retailers, such as Target and Goodwill, have cited losses from theft when closing stores in Seattle.
The summit in Redmond was organized by Challenge Seattle, the civic-minded coalition of private companies in the area led by former Gov. Chris Gregoire, in addition to the Washington Retail Association, Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, Bellevue Chamber and Sound Cities Association.
The event aimed to highlight ways to bring law enforcement, retailers and prosecutors together to better tackle organized retail crime. That includes a pilot program with King County and city of Seattle prosecuting attorneys, more than 10 local police departments and brands like Nordstrom, REI, Target, Macy’s, Lululemon, Best Buy and Home Depot.
Founded in 1901, Seattle-based Nordstrom has more than 360 Nordstrom and discount Rack stores.
Active shoes, designer handbags and sunglasses have become key targets for organized retail theft, Nordstrom said, given their high resale values. It was different when Nordstrom was starting his career selling shoes for the department store, when sales associates would chase down a single shoplifter taking a few items.
“We could wrestle around with someone, not the smartest thing, but it was the individual shoplifter, and that’s changed,” he said. “I think brazen is the right word, and with that is acts of violence – the amount of shoplifters who are weaponized. It could be a gun, knife, pepper spray a lot of times, but also just using their fists.”
While organized theft is being seen around the country, at Nordstrom, it’s most prevalent on the West Coast. In King County, the problem is widespread.
In response, the chain has upped its spending by 65% nationwide since 2019 to thwart theft, Nordstrom said.
“Having trained security guards, there is more that they can do, but we don’t want bullets flying around,” Nordstrom said. “If the bad guys are willing to push it past a level that the retailer or the security guard is willing to go, that’s tough. It’s hard to know what to do with that.”
In some instances, guards will apprehend a shoplifter but can only hold the individual for a matter of hours. If police don’t respond in time, the guards let them go.
Looking ahead, Nordstrom said the company saw a slight improvement on retail theft in its last fiscal quarter, a possible sign that the industry could be turning a corner. But losses from such crime are still near historic highs, he said.
In Redmond, other speakers at the summit included Attorney General Bob Ferguson and Seattle City Attorney Ann Davison, as well as federal prosecutors and investigators.
