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Q&A: Al Cook on the Lab-Grown ‘Bubble,’ Dwindling Diamond Supply The De Beers Group CEO also discussed tariffs, Desert Diamonds, and the pending sale of De Beers in an interview with Michelle Graff.
TechnologyMar 29, 2016
Oregon Named as Site for Next Blue Nile ‘Webroom’
The brick-and-mortar location is slated to open this summer at the Washington Square Mall in Portland and will be the e-tailer’s fourth physical location.
This shot provided by Blue Nile shows the company’s “webroom” inside the Roosevelt Field Mall in Garden City, N.Y. Plans call for the e-tailer to open at least three more physical locations this year.
Seattle--Blue Nile is taking its “webrooms” West.
The e-tailer announced Monday that it plans to open another physical location--its fourth overall and third to open this year--this summer at the Washington Square Mall in Portland, Ore.
Like its already existing brick-and-mortar location at the Roosevelt Field Mall in Garden City, N.Y., the Portland webroom will be a place where customers can see and try on diamond engagement rings but still have to buy them online, via either in-store tablets or later on their own devices.
Blue Nile’s store in the Washington Square Mall will be located about three hours south of company headquarters in Seattle and will join the already opened Garden City location along with planned webrooms at The Westchester mall in White Plains, N.Y. and Tysons Corner Center mall in Virginia.
The Westchester location is slated to open in early summer while opening of the Tysons Corner webroom is expected to come in the middle of the season.
Having a physical presence in Oregon will not make any difference in Blue Nile’s sales tax collection structure, as Oregon is one of five U.S. states that does not collect sales tax. (The others are Alaska, Montana, New Hampshire and Delaware.)
Currently, Blue Nile collects sales tax only in Washington state (where it is headquartered) and New York, where it collected sales tax long before its webroom opened. It will have to collect sales tax in Virginia after it opens its webroom there.
The e-tailer has said it plans to open three to four webrooms in 2016; the Portland store will be the third new one for the year. A company spokesman said he could not comment further on any more possible openings.
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