Retailers see better times ahead

Nordstrom and the owners of Coach and Michael Kors are hopeful about near-term improvements in their financial performance as the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines brings about a gradual return to something approximate normal life. “We don’t think normal is going back to pre-pandemic levels,” said Nordstrom CEO Erik Nordstrom. “But this is a strange time, particularly [in] big urban centers, you don’t have office workers. ... For what we sell, there’s headwinds that the pandemic has brought for a lot of fashion.”