Minding the Store: A Memoir - Softcover

Marcus, Stanley

Softcover

ISBN 10: 157441139X ISBN 13: 9781574411393

Verlag: University of North Texas Press,U.S., 2001

Inhaltsangabe

“‘There is never a good sale for Neiman Marcus unless it’s a good buy for the customer.’ That was one of the first declarations of business philosophy I heard my father, Herbert Marcus, make soon after I came to work at Neiman Marcus in 1926.” Thus began the 1974 edition of Minding the Store. Reprinted in hardcover in 1997 to celebrate the 90th anniversary of Neiman Marcus, it is now available for the first time in paperback.

Mr. Marcus spent most of his life not only in helping to create a retailing enterprise renowned throughout the world as the epitome of quality, but also in setting high standards for the level of taste of all who desire “the better things in life.” In doing so he has played a key role in making Dallas itself a success. “Mr. Stanley,” as he was affectionately called by all his Neiman Marcus friends and associates, made The Store a legendary success.

Although he retired from active involvement in Neiman Marcus in 1977, the influences of the philosophies of business he developed remained an important part of the training of Neiman Marcus personnel. Those basic principles—best exemplified by his belief in his father’s business philosophy—are the reasons Neiman Marcus is today recognized as the taste leader of American retailing.

Minding the Store is a warm portrait of a man and an exuberant celebration of the store that has become the best-known landmark in Texas since the Alamo.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

STANLEY MARCUS, Chairman Emeritus of the Neiman Marcus stores, received a B.A. degree from Harvard University and also attended Harvard Business School. A noted lecturer who published fine press miniature books out of The Somesuch Press, he wrote Minding the Store, Viewpoints of Stanley Marcus, and Stanley Marcus from A to Z all from the University of North Texas Press.

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Minding the Store

A Memoir

By Stanley Marcus

University of North Texas Press

Copyright © 1997 Facsimile Edition
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-57441-139-3

Contents

1. Genesis, 
2. Exodus, 
3. Crisis, 
4. Weathering the Depression, 
5. Over the Hump, 
6. The War Years, 
7. Waiting for the War to End, 
8. Taking Over the Reins, 
9. Running a Store with a Split Personality, 
10. Europe and the Fortnights, 
11. The Christmas Catalogue, 
12. Texas under Three Economies, 
13. The Growing of a Family, 
14. Collecting, 
15. Deep in the Heart of Fashion, 
16. Strictly Personal, 
17. Critical Decisions, 
18. Credo, 
Index, 

CHAPTER 1

Genesis

THERE IS NEVER a good sale for Neiman-Marcus unless it's a good buy for the customer."

That was one of the first declarations of business philosophy I heard my father, Herbert Marcus, make soon after I came to work at Neiman-Marcus in 1926. It was reiterated so many times that it became established as an article of faith in my mind, and on numerous occasions he demonstrated his enforcement of this principle even when it meant lost sales and profits. He explained that there was a right customer for every piece of merchandise, and that part of a merchant's job was not only to bring the two together, but also to prevent the customer from making the wrong choice.

Some may regard this as sheer idealism, but having worked with my father for twenty-four years, I consider it a doctrine of idealistic pragmatism. First of all, he enjoyed doing business that way, and second, he recognized that there was no advertisement as potent as a satisfied customer. This was his way of practicing the Golden Rule, and now, almost seventy years since the founding of Neiman-Marcus, the same policy prevails.

Although every new employee goes through an orientation class, I have made it a custom, now carried on by my son, to meet with groups of them at a morning coffee to explain some of the background and ideals of the founders. I start by telling them that Neiman-Marcus was established as a result of the bad judgment of its founders, my father, Herbert Marcus, his younger sister, Carrie Marcus Neiman, and her husband, Al Neiman. This statement usually distracts my listeners from their coffee cups. I go on to explain that my father, who at twenty-five was a buyer of boys' clothing at Sanger Brothers, the leading store of the Southwest, and his sister Carrie, who at the tender age of twenty-one was the blouse buyer and top saleswoman at A. Harris & Company, another local store, were persuaded by her husband Al to leave their jobs and go with him to Atlanta, Georgia, to establish a sales promotion business. I was then six months old and, since my recall doesn't extend back that far, I am forced to rely on hearsay for what happened during the first half-dozen years of my life, and some of that may be apocryphal.

The partnership they set up was directed towards helping country merchants in Georgia raise cash by staging special sales, with flamboyant signs, banners strung up across the streets, and band music to lure the crowds. They were so successful that at the end of two years they had had two offers to sell out, and here is where the bad judgment came in. One offer was for $25,000 in cash, and the other was the franchise for the state of Missouri or Kansas for a relatively new product called "Coca-Cola." They apparently were too smart to be taken in by this unknown soft drink, so they took the $25,000 in cash instead, returning to Dallas to start a business of their own, to be run in a manner they had dreamed about when they were employees of Sanger Brothers and A. Harris & Company. In retrospect, if their judgment had been better, they would have taken the Coca-Cola franchise and Neiman-Marcus would have become a famous name in Missouri or Kansas as bottlers of Coca-Cola, with a fraction of the effort required to build a fashion institution of world renown.

They came back to Dallas with their $25,000, which, combined with their savings and with funds from the sale of some minority shares to other members of their family, provided them with barely sufficient capital to pay for the fixtures, carpets and merchandise for their new fifty-foot storefront in a building in the heart of the retail district. At that time, Sanger Brothers dominated Texas retail distribution, much as Marshall Field & Company did in the Midwest. Alex Sanger, the president of the Sanger business, had offered my father a raise of $1.87-1/2 a month to keep him from going to Atlanta, and when he heard of the proposed new venture, he urged my father to give up his foolish dream and return to the Sanger fold, where a bright and secure future could be assured.

Nonetheless, the three young hopefuls were determined to go into business for themselves and to run it in the way they felt a fashion store should be operated. It was not unusual for three young people to leave secure positions to go into business for themselves. Young people have been, and still are, venturesome enough to want to try it on their own. Of course, it took courage to come into the same town dominated by Sanger Brothers. But courage they didn't lack, nor were they bashful or overly modest in their evaluation of their own standards of good taste and fashion. On Sunday, September 8, 1907, a full-page advertisement appeared in the Dallas Morning News announcing "the opening of the New and Exclusive Shopping Place for Fashionable Women, devoted to the selling of Ready-to-Wear Apparel" and labeling Neiman-Marcus as "The Outer-Garment Shop." It went on to state that "Tuesday, September tenth, marks the advent of a new shopping place in Dallas—a store of Quality, a Specialty store—the only store in the City whose stocks are strictly confined to Ladies' Outer-Garments and Millinery, and presenting wider varieties and more exclusive lines than any other store in the South." It editorialized,

Our decision to conduct a store in Dallas was not reached on impulse. We studied the field thoroughly and saw there was a real necessity for such a shopping place as ours. Our preparations have not been hasty. We have spent months in planning the interior, which is without equal in the South.

We Will Improve Ready-to-Wear Merchandising. A store can be bettered by specialized attention. Knowledge applied to one thing insures best results. We began our intended innovation at the very foundation; that is to say, with the builders of Women's Garments. We have secured exclusive lines which have never been shown in Texas before, garments that stand in a class alone as to character and fit.

Our Styles. All the pages of all the fashion journals, American and Foreign, can suggest no more than the open book of realism now here, composed of Suits, Dresses and Wraps of every favored style. The selection will meet every taste, every occasion and every price.

Our Qualities and Values. As well as the Store of Fashions we will be known as the Store of Quality and Superior Values. We shall be hypercritical in our selections. Only the finest productions of the best garment makers are good enough for us. Every article of apparel shown will bear evidence, in its touches of exclusiveness, in its chic and grace and splendid finish, to the most skillful and thorough workmanship.

The advertisement concluded with the offer of a gift: "As a memento of the occasion we will present a handsome Souvenir to visitors on...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: University of North Texas Press,U.S.
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2001
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 157441139X
• ISBN 13: 9781574411393
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 432
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar