‘Nordstrom selects for style and fit, not just performance. You don’t make
it here if you badmouth people or succeed by climbing over the backs of
others. It’s a youthful, success-oriented, do-what-it-takes-for-the-customer
culture. You need to be a team player, friendly and upbeat. It sounds con-
trived and plastic, but when you’re in it, it really works.’^31
Nordstrom’s social system ‘is so thick you can cut it with a knife,’ says
one former employee.^32 Weekly pep rallies at stores find some personnel
dressed up as raisins leading cheers: ‘Vol-ume – vol-ume’, ‘We’re No. 1’,
‘You Want To Do It’. Stores run smile contests and hang candid shots of
winning smiles in the lunchroom. Monthly, there are ‘Who Looks The Most
Nordstrom’ contests, awarding those wearing store merchandise. Signs on
stockroom walls feature such slogans as ‘Make Your Goal’, ‘Be A Top Dog
Pacesetter’, ‘Go For The Golden Milkbone’, and ‘Don’t Let Us Down’. (See
Figure 5.3.6.) Free dinners are given to sales personnel with the most ‘mul-
tiples’ (i.e. cross-departmental sales). Elective motivational seminars teach
a technique called affirmations, in which participants are encouraged to
silently repeat a mantra such as ‘I only sell multiples’, ‘I enjoy being a store
manager’, or ‘I feel proud being a pacesetter’.^33
Is it a cult? Some say so. In a 1989 dispute with its only union, The
United Food and Commercial Workers (which represents 2000 of its 30000
employees), some complained that Nordstrom was a coercive employer
that placed unreasonable demands on its sales force. The dispute was trig-
gered when management, in response to employee requests, proposed to
the union that dues be made optional. Nordstrom alsoincreasedemployee
The recruitment and internal market domains 397
Figure 5.3.6 Signs in Nordstrom stockrooms.YOU HAVE 169,000 CUSTOMERS
WORKING DOWNTOWN TODAY WHY
NOT CALL AND INVITE ONE INREMEMBER:THE CUSTOMER IS BOSSWHAT DID YOU DO FOR
NORDSTROM TODAYTHE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE
ORDINARY AND EXTRAORDINARY IS
THAT LITTLE BIT EXTRA