Luxury retailer Bloomingdale's is going far west with its new smaller-format Bloomie's stores, with plans to open one in Seattle this year — the stronghold of its rival Nordstrom.
Bloomingdale's, the department-store chain that's part of Macy's, on Wednesday said it will enter the Seattle market with the debut of a Bloomie's at University Village at 2623 NE University Village St., which will be its third new smaller brick-and-mortar site.
Bloomingdale's opened its first Bloomie's in 2021 at the Mosaic District in Fairfax, Virginia, followed by a second one in November last year at the Westfield Old Orchard mall in Skokie, Illinois. The Virginia Bloomie's is 22,000 square feet, while the one in Illinois is 50,000 square feet.
A wide array of U.S. retailers have been rolling out smaller versions of their stores — including Target, Kohl's, Ulta Beauty, Burlington Stores and Macy's — for a number of reasons. In some cases, the strategy allows companies to get a foothold in urban markets where large retail space isn't available or is expensive to lease. And retailers are enabled to more easily expand their physical footprint, even in the suburbs outside of malls, to get closer to shoppers with smaller stores.
Bloomingdale's currently has 34 Bloomingdale's stores and 20 Bloomingdale's The Outlet stores in California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas and Virginia. The latest Bloomie's will be its first foray into Seattle, where Nordstrom has its headquarters and a large downtown flagship store.
"The new flexible store experience has been well-received in other cities as it remains authentic to the Bloomingdale's brand yet brings a new and exciting energy to our shoppers," Charles Anderson, director of stores for Bloomingdale's, said in a statement. "We can't wait to be a part of the community and for the people of Seattle to be a part of the Bloomie's story."
The smaller-concept store aims to provide a shoppers with a casual, curated experience, featuring an edit of top brands in a broad range of men and women's categories including apparel, accessories, beauty and more. University Village is in the northern half of Seattle, on the border between the Ravenna neighborhood and the University District, the area surrounding the University of Washington's flagship campus.