I drove to Park and Preston last night to shop at Nordstrom Rack, the outlet version of the upscale department store. Editor Christina Hughes Babb highly suggested I make a visit, and also told me to plan on spending some time there.

Right now, it’s the only Nordstrom Rack in Texas, so that’s where any of the un-purchased merchandise from the stores at NorthPark, the Galleria, Stonebriar, etc. ends up — at prices 50-75 percent lower than what the items originally cost in the store.

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It’s kind-of like Marshall’s or TJ Maxx, but bigger and with lots of designer labels. You have to wade and dig so you won’t miss the finds, but the treasures you uncover are usually well worth it.

While I was in line waiting for my shoe matches (they put only right shoes on the floor, that way you don’t have to search in the madness for the matches), I overheard one of the employees telling a customer that a new Nordstom Rack would be opening near NorthPark in spring 2009. I asked if it was headed to Park Lane, and the employees didn’t seem familiar with the name of the new development, but mentioned that it would be connected to NorthPark with a bridge over the highway, so that’s my best guess. (I have a call in to Park Lane to confirm.)

No matter where exactly around NorthPark it lands, the new Nordstrom Rack will be the recipient of all cleared merchandise from the NorthPark Nordstrom, the employees said, adding that the clothes, shoes, jewelry, etc. in the new store would be the prime "rejects" because of the NorthPark’s store’s caliber of merchandise.