Bloomie’s Advances Its Expansion Agenda
Bloomie’s, the scaled-down format of Bloomingdale’s, plans to open a third unit later this year, which will be in the University Village in the Ravenna neighborhood north of downtown Seattle.
The decision reflects confidence in the fledging Bloomie’s concept, which was introduced in 2021 with the opening of a 22,000-square-foot site in the Mosaic District lifestyle center in Fairfax, Virginia. The second Bloomie’s, a 51,000-square-foot unit, opened in October in the Westfield Old Orchard Mall in Skokie, Illinois.
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“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, Bloomingdale’s director of stores, said in a statement Wednesday.
The smaller concept store will provide “a casual, contemporary, and highly curated experience” featuring an edit of top brands in a broad range of men’s and women’s categories including apparel, accessories, beauty, giftables and more, the company said.
In a past interview, Tony Spring, Bloomingdale’s chief executive officer, told WWD that Bloomie’s is geared to provide “a fresh take” on the shopping experience with a focus on being fun, casual, convenient and tech-enabled.
The 150-year-old Bloomingdale’s, a division of Macy’s Inc., is considered America’s only nationwide, full-line, upscale department store. There are 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. In addition, Bloomingdale’s has licensed stores in Dubai and Kuwait.
However, the upcoming Bloomie’s in the Seattle area will be the company’s first location in the Pacific Northwest, a region that has long been on the company’s radar and where Nordstrom has long held sway. Also on Bloomingdale’s radar is Texas, where there are currently no Bloomingdale’s or Bloomies stores but could be one day although Neiman Marcus is dominant there.
The Bloomie’s specialty store is small compared to Bloomingdale’s department stores, which average 150,000 to 200,000 square feet (excluding the flagship, which is about 600,000 square feet). Bloomingdale’s SoHo, at 78,000 square feet of selling, is the upscale chain’s second smallest store, and Bloomingdales’s outlets average 25,000 square feet.
Bloomie’s, the Bloomingdale’s outlets and the Market by Macy’s format are all part of Macy’s Inc.’s Polaris three-year strategy involving opening smaller-scale off-mall stores, enabling the company to enter new markets and buttress markets that already have Macy’s or Bloomingdale’s department stores. The Polaris strategy also centers on personalization and the loyalty program; expanding assortments; accelerating digital growth; closing 125 department stores representing $1.4 billion in sales, many of which have already closed; boosting certain private brands into billion-dollar businesses, and reducing costs.
