Neiman Marcus is an upscale, specialty retail department store, operated by the Neiman
Marcus Group in the United States. The company is headquartered in Dallas,
Texas, and competes with such establishments as Bloomingdale's, and Saks Fifth
Avenue. The Neiman Marcus Group also operates the exclusive Bergdorf Goodman
specialty retail department stores on Fifth Avenue in New York City and a direct
marketing division, Neiman Marcus Direct, which operates catalogue and online
operations under the Horchow, Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman names.
Herbert
Marcus, Sr., a former buyer with Dallas' Sanger Bros. department store,
had left his previous job to found a new business with his sister Carrie
Marcus Neiman and her husband, A. L. Neiman, then employees of Sanger Brothers
competitor A. Harris. In 1907 the trio found themselves with $25,000 from the successful
sales-promotion firm they had built in Atlanta, Georgia, and two potential
investments into which to invest the funds. Opting to reject the unknown
"sugary soda pop business," the three entrepreneurs chose instead to return to
Dallas to found a retail business rather than take a chance on the fledgling Coca-Cola
company. For this reason, early company CEO Stanley Marcus was quoted in
1957 as saying in jest that Neiman Marcus was "founded on bad business judgment."
Thus the store was established on September 10, 1907. |
