Members of the media were given a sneak preview tour of the Nordstrom store at Mayfair Mall in Wauwatosa Monday.
View a photo gallery of the store here.
The high-end department store, which was constructed on the east side of the mall, will officially open on Friday.
The store is 98 percent staffed, and has more than 330 employees hired locally, a spokesperson said. Those employees were busy stocking and putting the finishing touches on the store Monday.
A gala and after hours event will be held on Wednesday to raise money for three nonprofits and give customers an early look. Both of those events are sold out, and the store will receive about 1,800 guests for the gala, at $100 per ticket, followed by 500 guests for the Fashionably Late event, which was $25 per ticket.
“We’re really humbled at the fact that it is a sold out event,” said Elena Mallios, manager of the Mayfair store.
Many shoppers from the Milwaukee area have been traveling down to the Chicago Nordstrom stores for years, so this is a more convenient option, Mallios said.
“We’re really excited now to be able to offer a hometown store for those in the Milwaukee area,” she said.
Seattle-based Nordstrom, which started as a shoe store in 1901, still has a large shoe department. The women’s shoe department alone takes up about one-third of the first floor, and offers a range of styles from size four to size 12, from narrow to wide. The retailer is also known for its high level of customer service.
“Being in shoes really means connecting with the customer—our salesperson is going to get down on one knee and fit the customer with a shoe,” said the spokesperson.
There are also men’s and children’s departments, which each have their own shoe areas. In the children’s department, balloons are handed out to young shoppers and events like shoe tying classes are available each month.
In the juniors department, called BP, the dressing rooms are designed to look like a living room, complete with comfortable couch and TV. The retailer calls it “the apartment.” The dressing room also has a “girlfriends” stall, which is divided by a magnetic curtain so friends can show each other their outfits as they try them on.
Nordstrom’s Mayfair store has five personal shoppers available to help customers at no charge. It also has in-house tailoring.
In the beauty department, there are more than 6,500 tubes of lipstick and lip gloss in 1,500 shades, the spokesperson said.
Across the store, Nordstrom carries high-end brands that are sometimes unavailable at other retailers. One example is Top Shop, a British designer only carried by Nordstrom in the U.S.
An in-store restaurant, Ruscello, offers Italian and Mediterranean fare for famished shoppers, and an e-bar serves espresso drinks and snacks for a pick-me-up.
