Inside Nordstrom’s CF Sherway Gardens Store [Photos]

Seattle-based Nordstrom opens its CF Sherway Gardens location to the public today, and we toured and photographed the new 140,000 square foot space ahead of its grand opening. The new store reflects the architectural style of Nordstrom’s other Canadian stores, featuring ample natural light, modern interiors, and fashions for women, men, children, and for the home. 

It’s also the final planned full-line location for Nordstrom in Canada for the time being — Nordstrom’s CF Sherway Gardens store is the retailer’s sixth in Canada, and third for Toronto. Nordstrom opened its first Canadian store in September of 2014 at Calgary’s CF Chinook Centre, followed by the March 2015 opening of a store at Ottawa’s CF Rideau Centre, and then a flagship in Vancouver at CF Pacific Centre. In the fall of 2016, Nordstrom opened two Toronto stores — one at CF Toronto Eaton Centre in September, followed by Yorkdale Shopping Centre in October. 

CF Sherway is the second Nordstrom store in Canada to be built from the ground up — all other stores, except for the Yorkdale store, were carved out of former Sears Canada locations. CF Sherway’s Nordstrom anchors a new south wing in the mall, which we toured and profiled last month. Building Nordstrom involved demolishing a 48,000 square foot retail building that housed Sporting Life, which relocated in the mall. 

The CF Sherway Nordstrom is also smaller than its other two Toronto locations — the CF Toronto Eaton Centre store is about 220,000 square feet and the Yorkdale store is almost 200,000 square feet. 

The two-level CF Sherway store features a ground floor with departments for shoes, beauty, accessories and menswear, and a second floor with fashions for women, children and for the home. There’s also a Bazille restaurant upstairs, with coffee concept Ebar anchoring the mall entrance on the ground floor. 

Many of Nordstrom’s typical departments are included in the new CF Sherway Gardens store. Women’s fashions range from the conservative to the emerging brands found in its ‘Via C’ department — and there are thousands of pairs of shoes, which Nordstrom is particularly known for. Men’s fashions range from the casual to dressy, and there’s a children’s department that includes a playhouse and pinball machine. 

The store also features a ‘Nordstrom at Home’ department — the second in Canada. Nordstrom’s CF Toronto Eaton Centre will be the second to feature such a department when it’s unveiled next month.

CF Sherway Garden’s Nordstrom is also the first in the entire company to feature a KBeauty section, which includes a number of popular Korean brands. 

The store stocks a considerable number of contemporary brands, as well as a few luxury brands, such as Canali suits for men. Overall, the store is less luxury brand-heavy when compared to Nordstrom’s CF Toronto Eaton Centre and Yorkdale units. The company’s Vancouver flagship features the most extensive luxury offerings of any Nordstrom store in the country, helping make it the top performer in the entire Nordstrom chain. 

CF Sherway’s Nordstrom features a number of amenities, including: Personal Stylists, Beauty Concierge, Service Bar, Free Wi-Fi, Certified Shoe Fitters, Alterations & Tailoring, Family Restroom, Nordstrom To You (home/office delivery), Beauty Stylists, Cell Phone Charging, Certified Bra & Prosthesis Fitters, Complimentary Gift Boxes and a Mother’s Lounge. The store also accepts the China UnionPay card — a necessity in multicultural Toronto. 

Single-surface flooring spans much of Nordstrom’s CF Sherway store, allowing departments to change their size and configuration by adding new carpeting and moving displays and shelving. The purpose-built store features ample natural light from exterior facing windows, as well as attractive interior lighting that highlights the store’s warm wood ceilings in various departments. The store also houses one of Nordstrom’s trademark escalator atriums that acts as a centrepiece to both of the store’s two retail levels. 

Nordstrom is the third major anchor to be added to CF Sherway Gardens, joining a large Saks Fifth Avenue location as well as a fully renovated Hudson’s Bay department store. CF Sherway Gardens is considered to be one of Canada’s top malls in terms of productivity — last year’s Retail Council of Canada Shopping Centre Study ranked it as the country’s 11th most productive centre with sales just shy of $1,000 per square foot annually. Retail Council of Canada will be releasing its 2017 Canadian Shopping Centre study this fall, and there are opportunities to advertise/sponsor it — for more information, contact Craig Patterson at: cpatterson@retailcouncil.org. 

And while CF Sherway’s Nordstrom marks the end of the company’s full-line store expansion in Canada for now, off-price concept Nordstrom Rack will debut its first Canadian stores in the spring of 2018. First up will be a unit at Toronto’s Vaughan Mills that will open in March, followed by stores at Deerfoot Meadows in Calgary, and at One Bloor Street East in Toronto. In the fall of 2018, Nordstrom has confirmed that it will open three stores, including at Ottawa Train Yards, South Edmonton Common, and at Heartland Town Centre in Mississauga. Nordstrom plans to eventually operate between 10 and 15 Nordstrom Rack stores in Canada, competing with the likes of Winners, Marshalls, and Saks OFF 5TH.

See below for more photos of Nordstrom’s CF Sherway Gardens store.