NORDSTROM EXPANDING BUYER REGIONS TO BOOST SHARE VALUE.

Byline: Constance Sommer Seattle Post-Intelligencer 

In what could be a pivotal move for customers and shareholders, Nordstrom - the store known for its keen focus on local trends and tastes - is concentrating buying power in the hands of fewer regionally focused employees.

The changes, which Nordstrom calls ``value-based management,'' could bring greater efficiency and profitability to a company that is expanding at a rapid clip and outgrowing past business models, analysts say.

But these new methods also could mean less sensitivity to local trends, as one buyer takes on a region formerly covered by two or more people, other analysts and some of the company's apparel suppliers say.

One stock brokerage firm characterized the move as potentially monumental.

``Although ambitious, we believe VBM has the makings of a shift in operating philosophy of such magnitude that its success or failure may well define the current generation of Nordstrom management,'' said a report by Dain Rauscher Inc.

The shift begins almost at the top. In a move Nordstrom describes as decentralizing its management, the company is dividing into nine sections, each with a general manager who will report to the six Nordstrom family co-presidents.

Retail stores in Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Colorado and Utah, for instance, will all be the responsibility of one general manager, while all the Rack stores will fall under another person's jurisdiction.

In an additional new move, each manager will be accountable for the financial success of his or her section - another step away from centralized control, the company says.

``We're trying to create more value for the shareholders,'' said company spokeswoman Brooke White.

The significance was not lost on stock analysts, who learned of the changes in a conference call Monday with Nordstrom executives.

``I'm very intrigued,'' said analyst Laura Richardson. ``It sounds generally good from a Wall Street perspective.''

If customers see any effect of the changes - and Nordstrom is betting they won't - it might be because coverage of the company's buyers also are being consolidated. A buyer is the person who selects merchandise for a particular section of the store, like the Brass Plum (otherwise known as juniors) or Individualist (women's) sections.

Most Nordstrom buyers already serve several stores in a region, but under the new system, some of those regions will grow substantially.

In fact, the regions will become so big that the company no longer will require each buyer to visit each store at least once a week.

``We feel our customers don't care if we have one or a thousand buyers buying for them,'' White said.

``What matters is do we have the merchandise they want and are they served in a manner that they appreciate?

``If someone likes what you are wearing,'' she continued, ``does it really matter who organized your closet?''

Perhaps it does, say some store suppliers who remember earlier times.

``Before, every time they had a new store, they put a buyer in that region,'' said one supplier of women's clothes, who requested anonymity.

``That's one of the reasons they were successful: because the buyer was right there and could buy individually.''

In Savvy, a section of the store set aside for cutting-edge fashion and lesser-known labels, one buyer used to purchase for the Washington and Alaska stores. Now that buyer has added Oregon, Utah and Colorado.

That way, Nordstrom can select the best buyers of its crop and count on them to purchase wisely for a greater number of stores, said J'Amy Owens, president of the Seattle-based Retail Group consulting firm, who sees only good in the new arrangement.

``Nordstrom is a national company,'' she said. ``They have a national brand. And now they are going to manage themselves that way. . . . It seems like a natural step to me.''

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PHOTO Nordstrom officials say shoppers heading to their stores, like this one in Topanga Plaza, won't see any changes from consolidation.

Tina Gershon/Daily News