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Wall Street is raining on Nordstrom's parade.

On Oct. 24, the upscale, Seattle-based fashion retailer opens its first-ever Pittsburgh area store at Ross Park Mall. It will join Tiffany & Co., the legendary jeweler whose name is virtually synonymous with Park Avenue plenty.

But both local debuts come in the midst of a bruising credit crisis that has convulsed Wall Street, rattled global markets and squeezed consumer budgets.

Audrey Guskey, professor of marketing at Duquesne University, said the outlook isn't necessarily grim for Nordstrom.

"I think it's good news for the Pittsburgh area, obviously, because it's suggesting we are able to financially support some of these large, upscale department stores and specialty stores," she said. The question everyone has on their mind is how successful are they going to be with the economy being as bad."

"There's no question that these are tough times," Nordstrom spokeswoman Brooke White said. "Much like everyone else, we didn't have a crystal ball and did not see the gravity of the situation coming. However, we've always been fiscally conservative. We believe we'll weather the economic downturn in the long run."

Sales figures reported Thursday in the Wall Street Journal showed Nordstrom's sales for September declined 9.6 percent from a year ago. J.C. Penney, Dillards's, Neiman Marcus and Saks all suffered even bigger declines for the month. The sales figures were based on comparable stores, which are locations that have been open for at least a year.

Nordstrom's third-quarter sales, which will be released Nov. 13, are expected to show an 11 percent decrease, White said. But when it comes to Pittsburgh, the glass still is half full.

"This has been a market where we've been actively trying to open a store for more than 10 years," White said. "We're thrilled that it's finally here, despite what's going on. "

Mall manager Lisa Earl bristled at the notion that the timing was bad for opening an upscale department store. She said the addition of Nordstrom, along with handbag designer Kate Spade and eminent English haberdasher Burberry, gives Ross Park Mall the retail trifecta, since they already offer consumers low and medium price-point stores.

"We are serving such a wide range of customers and income levels that I think are kind of unique now," Earl said. "You can get a $20 pair of jeans and a $300 pair of jeans. There are a lot of options under one umbrella that, frankly, never existed in the Pittsburgh market before."

Until the second quarter of this year, the luxury retailers had managed to avoid the worsening economy that bedeviled many mainstream retailers, according to Brett Whitfield, senior vice president at TNS Retail Forward, an analyst firm in Columbus, Ohio. The pain is now spreading upward, she said.

But there is safety in numbers, Whitfield said. Upmarket retailers Louis Vuitton and Juicy Couture might technically be competitors of Nordstrom, but they add to the variety and offer greater appeal to shoppers.

"Historically, when you have a group of luxury retailers that locate in the same mall or same area of the city, it does create a destination draw," Whitfield said "I think it's better for all these retailers that there are a group of them there instead of individual stores opening. "

Even before the credit crisis, retailers found the going tough. In August, Boscov's department store chain filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and closed two of its department stores in Monroeville Mall and South Hills Village in Upper St. Clair. The family-owned department store chain, based in Reading, closed a total of 10 stores in Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey and Virginia.

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