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    Fashion

    Nordstrom’s Biggest Bet Ever

    As the internet turns fashion retail upside down, Nordstrom is going big on brick-and-mortar stores in New York City. Will the century-old family-run company succeed?

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    IN A RENTED warehouse in the Seattle suburbs, Nordstrom Inc. executives have built a life-size mock-up of each floor of their latest men’s department store. It is furnished with a blend of actual shelving and dummy plywood tables, creating a surreal retail theater 45 minutes from Nordstrom’s downtown headquarters. The real thing is set to open in New York City in April, on Broadway between 57th and 58th streets.

    On a tour of the mock-up store in January, merchandising teams puzzled over what customers should encounter at...