In a recent essay, I deplored the fact that the tags were missing from the backs of my recently purchased tee shirts. This resulted in my putting the shirts on backwards about 35 to 40% of the time. So I wrote to the president of the Nordstrom company and told him that whoever made the decision to remove the tags from the backs of the shirts should simmer endlessly in hell.
My daughter, who is a Texas lawyer and should know about such things, assured me unequivocally that when that letter arrived in the Nordstrom headquarters in Seattle, it would be dispatched immediately to the wastebasket or to the furnace that heats the headquarters building. But my daughter was completely wrong, which takes her out of the running for a seat on the Supreme Court to succeed David Souter or even Antonin Scalia or Clarence Thomas, if they decide to do the proper thing and retire.
After a wait of a few weeks, I received a reply from Blake Nordstrom, the head man at that company. In effect, he said that they had not given much thought to this when they took the tags out of the backs of the shirts. But more than that, Mr. Nordstrom promised that if I took my tee shirts to his manager here at the Mall at Short Hills, New Jersey, they would be fixed.
This essay, then, is to tell all of my readers that the Nordstrom organization is an honorable one. They have always stood by their products, which is a notable attribute these days. So if any of you are intending to buy a complete ensemble of clothing, I would recommend that you give the fashions at Nordstrom a close look. They stand behind the items they sell. They seem to be honorable people.
Here is the letter that Mr. Nordstrom sent to me.
What this all boils down to is that I have been a customer of the Nordstrom organization for 25 years or so and, based on this experience, it looks like I will continue being such a customer. Perhaps if our banks, the stock market, and our automobile companies had the outlook on life that the Nordstrom corporation has, we would not be in the difficulties that embrace us today. And so a robust salute goes from this corner to the standup people in the Nordstrom organization.
E. E. CARR
April 19, 2009
Essay 377
Postscript: Shortly after this essay was dictated, my wife went to our local Nordstrom’s store to return the tee shirts as well as to buy three more. She was treated with great courtesy by everyone. Those people include Glenn Bellman, manager of the Short Hills store; Cathy Catuogno, manager of Men’s Furnishings; Clarence Digamber, an associate in men’s clothing and finally, the most important one of all, Nadio Gritsai, the seamstress. All six shirts now have tags, but given my current disability, I am unable to read what they have to say. But that is not the point. They tell me where the back of the tee shirt is located, for which I am very grateful to all the people in the Nordstrom organization.
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Kevin’s commentary: Pop was born in the wrong age. He is a natural Tweeter or Yelper, just too late to know it. He’s the kind of guy who writes to companies who do well AND companies who do poorly.
As for the t-shirts, clearly the solution is just for Pop to start wearing V-neck shirts. In serious I’m glad Nordstrom was so willing to fix Pop’s problem, and that they took the time to respond to him. For the record, almost all of my t-shirts are now tagless and I much prefer them this way.