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John Nordstrom
Due to the fact that the Nordstrom family, along with other notable
Seattle figures, made up the original Seahawks ownership group,
I figured the ball would not be complete without some representation
of the original group. John Nordstrom, former Co-President of Nordstrom,
is recognized as that representation by the Seahawks. So, in September
2007, shortly after Paul Allen and Jody Patton signed the ball,
I thought, why not just send him a letter in the mail? So I did!
I took some nice pictures of the ball, wrote a short and concise
letter, letting him know exactly what I was hoping for, and told
him that I would eventually be donating the ball to charity. When
I was finished and putting the address on the envelope, I really
didn’t even know if I had the correct address. I was fairly
confident that I did, but I didn’t know for sure. What did
I have to lose? I remember when I wrote the letter, toward the
end I put, “If you have any questions, please have your
assistant contact me. Of course, you can contact me yourself,
too, if you want.” I thought I was so funny. What were the
chances that he would actually just call me direct, himself!?
Lol!
Fast forward a couple weeks. I was driving north on Interurban
in Tukwila, around 4:00 pm, and my phone rang. It was a “425”
area code. I thought to myself, and my gut just felt like this
was “the call” I was hoping for. I answered: "This
is Jerry”. On the other end, the caller said, “Yeah,
this is John Nordstrom”. I swear, I just laughed inside
and chuckled out loud a little bit. You know that kind of cocky
chuckle when things are just going your way. Yeah, that was what
I did when he said "This is John Nordstrom”.
I really didn’t expect him to call me himself. But he did,
and without freaking out or skipping a beat, I just rolled right
along with it. I said, “Hey, how’s it going? Thanks
for calling!” There really wasn’t a lot of small talk.
He had read my letter. We both knew what he was calling about.
It really was just about figuring out how to coordinate him signing
the ball. |
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He said, “So,
you live in West Seattle?” I said, “Yeah, but I have
no problem coming to the eastside”. He said, “Well,
I am probably going to be going to Boeing Field within the next
couple weeks. How about I give you a call and we meet near there?”
I said, “Sure!” Really, I was pleasantly surprised that
he was so accommodating. I mean, I was supposed to be the one willing
to go to any lengths. Finally, just before we hung up with a tentative
plan in place, he said, “Alright, I will call you.”
I really couldn’t believe it. You know, I realize that no
matter who you are, rich or poor, we are all the same. John Nordstrom
definitely understood that too. He was so down to earth.
So, a couple weeks go by. He hadn’t called, and I was starting
to get nervous that he would forget. Then just like the first
time, I got that phone call again. He said, “I'm going to
be in West Seattle today.” I didn’t really know what
he was alluding to. I said, “Great! So, do you still want
to meet at Boeing Field?” He said, “No, how about
I just come to your office?” At this point, I was completely
blown away. John Nordstrom, the former Co-President of Nordstrom
was going to come to my office.
I had no clue what he looked like. I went home, got the football,
and changed into a nice suit. One that I bought at Nordstrom,
I should say. I can’t remember exactly what time he came
by, but I was there, ready for him.
When he got there, he was in blue jeans and a Kenmore Air (the
seaplane company) coat. I must admit, he completely reminded me
of my grandpa. On any given day you could catch my grandpa in
the same outfit, except his coat says, Ketchikan Air, the seaplane
company he uses up in Alaska.
This story may not sound all that exciting. Really, it was just
a guy coming to my office to sign the football. I guess for me
it was so great because he was willing to come to me. Whereas
every other person I had to go to them. Not that I minded going
to them. The experience just really made me feel good.
I walked away from that believing more than ever that what you
hear about the Nordstrom customer service policy is true. All-in-all,
it was just a really nice experience. |
