Nordstrom Rack — Local services in Atlanta

I love shopping at Nordstrom Rack in general. You can find amazing deals, great customer service, and pop-up sales “clear the rack” where you take an additional _% off red tag clearance items. I’ve been shopping at Rack for 8 years or so and am originally from NY; the locations I frequented often were Long Island, Upstate NY, NYC, and Bergen County NJ. Now that I’ve moved down South, I go to this location as well as NC & SC locations.

I visited the Buckhead location several times and no problems until recently. This morning, I was interested in purchasing a “refinished” bag they had and the “clear the rack” sale was happening. For those who don’t know…some items are indicated as “refinished”, which are store display models/returns that are refurbished by Nordstrom so that they are in a sellable condition and may contain some defects. These items are at amazing discounts and always have a red clearance tag that say “worn/altered or refinished”. Sometimes they may have an additional purple tag OR zip tie meaning it’s not-returnable if it’s a high-end designer item at a “high-traffic” location. An Asian man like myself (he said he was the manager) said it was excluded from the sale because it was a transfer item (essentially saying…because it’s a “refinished” item). That’s OUTRAGEOUS! It had the red tag with “clearance” written on it and a purple zip tie.

As a Nordstrom Icon rewards member, I shop at Rack MANY times…I know what I’m doing. My go-to sales associate during my time in Upstate NY even told me I know more about Rack than she does and she’s worked there for a few years. My brother even worked at his local Rack for a brief time too so we should know more than others. I love Clear the Rack when it comes around because when combined with “refinished” items…that’s when you score the BEST deals (if you don’t mind defects). Almost all my Clear the Rack purchases had at least 1 “refinished” item in it, designer or not. Although Buckhead says red tag, my local Rack in SC says the sale includes red & purple tag items…but the high-end refinished items that qualify to be purple AREN’T purple (b/c not a “high-traffic” location). Anyways, purple tags should only be different from red-tag “refinished” as they are final sale and nothing more. During my previous Buckhead visit, the cashiers were questioning if the red tag (not purple) “refinished” items were included in the sale and after they questioned, they APPLIED the discount…so what the manager told me today is not correct! It was kind of rude that they questioned it since no other locations would question this scenario, not even the Bergen NJ and NYC locations which are “high-traffic” locations like Buckhead that carry purple tag/zip-tie items. Refinished items (regardless red or purple) are usually treated like any other CLEARANCE item so my experience @ Buckhead is completely disappointing. Will I return? Maybe, but not without a side-eye...

A decent selection on men's running shoes however, loss prevention needs to do a better job of trying not to be captain obvious. I came into the store on 10/11/25 with a bag from the bloomingdales outlet a small backpack and my purse. I even sat in the men's section in front of one of the mirrors. I put my stuff down and grabbed a few pair of shoes to try on. I tried on about 11 shoes and after awhile: I kept seeing someone check out a shoe tree several times. Also, at least 2 people would look at a pair of shoes and then back at me. The shoes I walked in with were more expensive than what I had tried on. You can't miss me as a 5'7 280lb woman that had on multicolored leggings, orange shoes, orange top, braids a purse and a backpack. What makes it more disturbing is that they tried to be inconspicuous but i could hear their loud earpiece. Or the cord from their earpiece was displaying for all to see the culture needs to change. I'm a former employee of Nordstrom from 2013 to 2020 from Md, Va to Ga and its sad that the same profiling practices are still going on. I just wanted some walking shoes and the experience just made me uncomfortable. One young lady was pleasant answering my questions however, by that time the 3 to 4 Loss prevention agents had already conducted their profiling about me. Yet, this young family with 4 kids, came over there and they allowed their kids to climb the shoe rack. The shoe rack was above the seated areas at the end of the aisle but no loss prevention people in sight. Which tells me that its more important give extra attention (profile) to what looks like a suspect who is trying on shoes, rather than address a family allows theis kids to climb the shoes rackike the monkey bars outside at a park. I even put back all my shoes which most people don't do. I know this all too well from previous work experience at the rack and seeing shoes all over the place. I guess that location doesn't want foot traffic sales because of poor profiling tactics. Until i feel comfortable shopping there without being profiled? I won't...

I went to Nordstrom Rack to pick up an item that arrived at 8 PM, and the store closes at 9 PM. By 9 PM, I was in line with the rest of the customers, and there were two cashiers working. I was called to Willis's register. I approached, and before I even fully got in front of the register he immediately asked for my number without a greeting. There was another customer to the right of the register that Willis was still interacting with, and because the request came abruptly, I asked, "Are you asking me or her?" Willis responded, "You, your number, miss." As I began to provide my number, Willis kept saying "uh huh" in a condescending tone after each set of digits, which I found very demeaning.

After I finished giving my number, Willis said "Good job" in the same condescending tone, which felt belittling, the same tone someone would tell a dog good job after a trick. It seemed that Willis was going out of his way to demean me. I asked him, "What is going on? Is something wrong?" He said no and explained that he was saying "Good job" in response to me getting my number being correct, but the tone made it clear that his intent was to be unpleasant.

I asked why he was treating me as if I were bothersome or unintelligent. Willis responded, increasingly condescendingly, "Never call yourself dumb, oh no, don’t ever say that about yourself," purposefully avoiding the point of my question entirely. I clarified that I wasn’t calling myself dumb but rather expressing how his treatment was making me feel. He proceeded to ring up my item and asked me to insert my card.

Willis should not be representing Nordstrom in any customer-facing capacity. I have never been spoken to in such a manner while attempting to make a purchase.

I worked at the Nordstrom South Park store in Charlotte, NC, in designer shoes for about three years during my college summers, so I'm familiar with the brand and how to interact with customers according to Nordstrom’s standards. This makes me even more disappointed in how I was treated during my...