Neiman Marcus

Neiman Marcus

Type	Private
Industry	Retail
Founded	1907
Headquarters	Dallas, Texas, USA
Number of locations	41
Key people	-Carrie Marcus Neiman, Cofounder & chair of board -Herbert Marcus, Cofounder & CEO -Abraham Lincoln "Al" Neiman Cofounder -Minnie Lichtenstein Marcus VP of Horticulture & Emeritus Benefactor -Stanley Marcus, CEO, chair of board & Emeritus Benefactor -Lawrence Marcus, Women's Department VP & Emeritus Benefactor -Joe Allen Hong, Fashion Designer
Products	Clothing, footwear, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, electronics, and housewares.
Owner(s)	TPG Capital Warburg Pincus
Website	www.neimanmarcus.com

Neiman Marcus, formerly Neiman-Marcus, is a luxury specialty retail department store operated by the Neiman Marcus Group in the United States. The company is headquartered in the One Marcus Square building in Downtown Dallas, Texas,^[1] and competes with other department stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue, Barneys New York, Lord & Taylor, Nordstrom, and Bloomingdale's. The Neiman Marcus Group also owns 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.

History

Beginnings

The Neiman Marcus Building is the headquarters and flagship store in Dallas, Texas.

Herbert Marcus, Sr., a former buyer with Dallas' Sanger Brothers 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 and Co.. 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.^[2] 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."^[3] The store, established on September 10, 1907, was lavishly furnished and stocked with clothing of a quality that was not commonly found in Texas. Within a few weeks, the store's initial inventory, mostly acquired on a buying trip to New York made by Carrie, was completely sold out. Oil-rich Texans, welcoming the opportunity to flaunt their wealth in more sophisticated fashion than was previously possible, flocked to the new store. In spite of a nationwide financial panic set off only a few weeks after its opening, Neiman Marcus was instantly successful, and its first several years of operation were quite profitable.^[4]

In 1914 a fire destroyed the Neiman Marcus store and all of its merchandise. A temporary store was set up and opened in 17 days.^[5] By the end of 1914, Neiman Marcus opened in its new, permanent location at the corner of Main Street and Ervay Street. With the opening of the flagship Neiman Marcus Building, the store increased its product selection to include accessories, lingerie, and children's clothing, as well as expanding the women's apparel department. In its first year at the new building, Neiman Marcus recorded a profit of $40,000 on sales of $700,000, nearly twice the totals reached in its last year at the original location.^[4]

In 1927 the store expanded and Neiman Marcus premiered the first weekly retail fashion show in the United States.^[6] The store staged a show called "One Hundred Years of Texas Fashions" in 1936 in honor of the centennial of Texas' independence from Mexico. A later profile of the store, "Neiman Marcus of Texas," described the "grandiose and elaborate" gala, noting, "It was on this occasion that one of the most critical among the store's guests, Mrs. Edna Woolman Chase, editor of Vogue, expressing the sentiment of the store's starry-eyed clientele, told the local press:^[7]

“	I dreamed all my life of the perfect store for women. Then I saw Neiman Marcus, and my dream came true.	”
—Edna Woolman Chase, editor of Vogue (1936), quoted in Commentary 1957

In 1929 the store began offering menswear. During the 1930s and 1940s Neiman Marcus began to include less expensive clothing lines along with its high-end items, in response to the Great Depression and following war years. Between 1942 and 1944, sales at Neiman Marcus grew from $6 million to $11 million.^[4] Despite a major fire in 1946, the store continued to profit.

1950-1990

Herbert Marcus, Sr., died in 1950, and Carrie Neiman died two years later, leaving Stanley Marcus in charge of the company's operations.^[4][8]

The 1950s saw the addition of a $1.6 million store on Preston Road, a 63,000-square-foot (5,900 m²) plant with decor "inspired by the art and culture of Southwestern Indians" and "colors ... copied from Indian weaving, pottery, and sand paintings"; the themed decor included Kachina figures on colored-glass murals and an Alexander Calder mobile named "Mariposa,"^[9] the Spanish word for butterfly. Art likewise was used as inspiration for Stanley Marcus' seasonal campaigns to solicit new colors in fabrics, as he did the year that he borrowed 20 Paul Gauguin paintings — many of which had never been publicly exhibited — from collectors around the world and had the vivid colors translated into dyes for wool, silk, and leather. Area teachers cited the Gauguin exhibits as spurring a dramatic increase in art study.^[10]

In the 1950s and '60s Gittings operated a portrait studio in Neiman Marcus. Clients included Hope Portocarrero, Lyndon Johnson, Howard Hughes, and the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and his family.

The company continued its extravagant marketing efforts (including the launch of His and Her gifts in the famous Christmas Book) with the inauguration of Fortnight in 1957. The Fortnight was an annual presentation of fashions and culture from a particular country, held in late October and early November of each year, and was one of the most anticipated events in Dallas. It brought fashion, dignitaries, celebrities, exotic food and extravagant celebrations to the downtown store for 29 years.^[4][11]

Neiman Marcus opened its first store outside the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex in downtown Houston in 1957. The freestanding store was later replaced with a new anchor store located in the Houston Galleria in 1970. In 1965 the Preston Center store was closed and a new store, more than twice as big, was opened at NorthPark Center. Another branch in Fort Worth was also opened. By 1967 the four Neiman Marcus stores in operation were generating annual sales of $58.5 million, and the company's profit for that year was in excess of $2 million.^[4] In 1968 the company merged with Broadway-Hale Stores, Inc., which enabled Neiman Marcus to expand at a much faster pace than would have been possible as an independent entity. In 1971, the first Neiman Marcus outside Texas opened in Bal Harbour, Florida. In subsequent years stores opened in over 30 cities across the United States, including Chicago, Atlanta, Beverly Hills, San Francisco, St. Louis, Boston, and Las Vegas.

In 1988 the company's name was officially changed from Neiman-Marcus to Neiman Marcus and the current logo was adopted.

1990-present

Neiman Marcus in Boston's Copley Place

In the late 1990s, the company started a small boutique called the "Galleries of Neiman Marcus" which sold jewelry, gifts, and home accessories. The concept struggled and ultimately all three locations, Seattle, Cleveland, and Phoenix, were shuttered. Some believe the locations were wrong and Neiman Marcus officials have hinted the concept might be resurrected.^{[citation needed]} In 1999, neimanmarcus.com, and the store's online gift registry, debuted under the control of Neiman Marcus Group's Neiman Marcus Direct division.

Stanley Marcus died on January 22, 2002. He had served as president and chairman of the board for the company. Marcus had been the architect behind the fashion shows, New York advertising for a strictly regional chain, in-store art exhibits, and the Christmas catalog with its outlandish His-and-Hers gifts, including vicuña coats, a pair of airplanes, "Noah's Ark" (including pairs of animals), camels, and live tigers.^[3][5][12]

Over the last 20 years, ownership of Neiman Marcus has passed through several hands. In June 1987, the company was spun off from its retail parent, Carter Hawley Hale Stores, and became a publicly listed company. General Cinema, later to become Harcourt General, still had a roughly 60% controlling interest until 1999, when Neiman Marcus was fully spun off from its parent company. On May 2, 2005, Neiman Marcus Group was the subject of a leveraged buyout (LBO), selling itself to two private equity firms, Texas Pacific Group and Warburg Pincus.^[13]

Archives

The "Neiman-Marcus Collection," comprising early account books, advertising and Christmas Catalog layouts, files on charity activities, past awards and presentations, and a collection of Stanley Marcus's personal memorabilia, among many other items, is located in the Texas & Dallas History & Archives Division, 7th Floor, Main Library, Dallas Public Library, where it may be consulted by researchers.

Lloyd E. Lenard (1922–2008) wrote a master's degree thesis on the impact of Neiman Marcus on the American Southwest while he was a student at the University of Missouri at Columbia. Neiman Marcus hired Lenard to its management training program, but he soon returned to his native Louisiana, where he worked, first in advertising, and then insurance.

Neiman Marcus Group

Renaissance Tower is the headquarters of the Neiman Marcus Group, also in Dallas.

Unlike many of its department-store contemporaries, Neiman Marcus is still in operation today under the original name and is still headquartered in the city where it began. The Neiman Marcus Group comprises the Specialty Retail stores division — which includes Neiman Marcus Stores and Bergdorf Goodman — Cusp (a contemporary boutique format) and the Direct Marketing division, Neiman Marcus Direct. These retailers offer upscale assortments of apparel, accessories, jewelry, beauty and decorative home products. The company operates 41 Neiman Marcus stores across the United States and two Bergdorf Goodman stores, in Manhattan. Neiman Marcus' largest market is the South Florida MSA, where they operate five stores. The company also operates 28 Last Call clearance centers and three Horchow Finale Furniture Outlets. These store operations total more than five million square feet (500,000 m²) gross. Competitors in the luxury retail segment include Bloomingdale's, Nordstrom, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Barneys New York, and Lord and Taylor

Neiman Marcus Direct conducts both print catalog and online operations under the Neiman Marcus, Horchow and Bergdorf Goodman brand names. Under the Neiman Marcus brand, Neiman Marcus Direct primarily offers women's apparel, accessories and home furnishings. Horchow offers upscale home furnishings, linens, decorative accessories and tabletop items. They have also launched a new blog [(www.insite.neimanmarcus.com)] outlining the latest news in the fashion world and beyond.

Until recently, The Neiman Marcus Group owned majority interest in Kate Spade LLC, a manufacturer of handbags and accessories. In October 2006, the company purchased all minority interest for approximately $59.4 million, and in November 2006 sold 100% ownership to Liz Claiborne, Inc. for approximately $121.5 million. Another recent divestiture was a majority interest in Gurwitch Products LLC, which manufactures Laura Mercier cosmetics, to Alticor Inc., for approximately $40.8 million.^[14]

The Showroom of Neiman Marcus

In the fall of 2004, Neiman Marcus launched a new store within a store called The Showroom of Neiman Marcus. This department sells furniture and home collections previously only available through the Neiman Marcus catalogues The Horchow Collection and NM by Mail. The eight Neiman Marcus stores that house the collection are located in Plano-Dallas MSA (Willow Bend), San Francisco (Union Square), Scottsdale (Fashion Square), Boston (Back Bay), Chicago (Michigan Avenue), Oak Brook (Oakbrook Center), Miami (Bal Harbour Shops) and Minneapolis (Nicollet Mall).

Horchow Finale Stores

Horchow, a furniture brand owned by Neiman Marcus, is sold in a limited number of Neiman Marcus locations. There are also Horchow Finale Stores, with two locations. Though Horchow items are also found in Neiman Marcus Last Call stores, the Horchow Finale stores focus on furniture & home items. The two remaining Horchow Finale Stores are in the Dallas, Texas area. The original Horchow Finale location closed in 2009 to make way for the George W. Bush Presidential Library. The Inwood Village location of Horchow Finale became a showcase Neiman Marcus Last Call in March 2010.

Neiman Marcus Last Call Clearance Centers

Neiman Marcus Last Call Clearance Center is Neiman Marcus's outlet store. They are located throughout the United States at a number of outlet centers, with many found in outlet centers operated by The Mills Corporation and Chelsea Premium Outlets. They range from 20,000 - 45,000 square feet (4,200 m²) of selling space and sell women's, men's and children's apparel, shoes, jewelry, handbags, furniture, luggage, gifts and home accessories that were previously sold in Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman stores, on NeimanMarcus.com, and in the Horchow catalog at discounts of 30% to 65% off original Neiman Marcus and catalog prices.

Neiman Marcus credit card holders receive an additional 5% discount off their entire purchase at Last Call Clearance Centers when they use their Neiman Marcus credit card (other credit cards including American Express, MasterCard, and Visa are also accepted). Currently, there are 28 Last Call Clearance Centers in the U.S. The newest location opened at Gurnee Mills in Gurnee, Illinois in May 2009.

Credit cards

Neiman Marcus sold its store credit card business to HSBC in mid-2005; however, Neiman Marcus sued HSBC over fees and interest rates in March 2008.^[15] The lawsuit was settled in May 2008.^[16] Fifty percent of Neiman's transactions are conducted using their private-label cards because Neiman Marcus only accepted its proprietary store credit cards until late 2011. Neiman Marcus now also accepts Master Card, American Express cards, cash or check in their stores.

According to the April 26, 2007 issue of The Wall Street Journal, Neiman Marcus is testing a co-branded credit card issued by HSBC with some of their top customers. The card, which runs on the American Express network, was expected to have been issued in 2008. The settled lawsuit between Neiman Marcus and HSBC may have delayed the new co-branded card's full launch.

On October 27, 2011, the company announced that it would begin accepting MasterCard and Visa credit cards at its stores beginning November 1, 2011.^[17]

Store locations

Neiman Marcus

There are 41 Neiman Marcus stores in Arizona, California, Colorado, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Virginia. The newest opened in Bellevue, Washington, in September 2009.

Horchow Finale

The two Horchow Finale stores are located in the Dallas – Fort Worth Metroplex in Grapevine, Texas and Plano.

Last Call

The 28 Last Call stores are in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Virginia.

The Christmas Catalog

"His and Hers" & "Fantasy" gifts

100th Anniversary Edition Christmas catalog 2007

In 1969 customers could buy a $10,600 kitchen computer to help with recipes

Since 1939, Neiman Marcus has issued an annual Christmas catalog, which gets much free publicity from the national media for a tradition of unusual and extravagant gifts not sold in its stores. Some have included the 'his and hers' themed item, trips and cars (see below).

In 1952, Stanley Marcus introduced a new tradition of having extravagant and unusual gifts in each year's Christmas catalog, The Christmas Book; the idea was sparked when journalist Edward R. Murrow contacted Marcus to ask if the store would be offering anything unusual that might interest his radio listeners; Marcus invented on the spot an offering of a live Black Angus bull accompanied by a sterling silver barbecue cart, subsequently altering the catalog to include his new idea, priced at $1,925.^[18][19][20] At one point, the Neiman Marcus Christmas catalog carried the distinction of being the item most stolen from recipients' mailboxes, prompting a Chicago postmaster to suggest the company switch to enclosing the catalogs in plain brown wrappers.^[21]

Other Fantasy Gifts:

pre-1965^[20]

• Toy tiger draped and decorated with diamonds and other precious stones — $1 million
• Ermine bathrobe, $6,975
• His and Her airplanes, matched pair — $176,000
• Chinese junk (advertised as "Junk for Christmas") — $11,700 shipped to the Port of Houston

1964

• His and hers hot air balloons — $6,850

1965^[20]

• A gold toilet seat advertised as "a 24 kt. Gold plated throne"— $250
• Handspun lace handkerchief -- $300
• Empress Chinchilla coat — $8,975
• His and Her para-sails — $361 each
• "The Pets' Cookbook" and chocolate scented rubber bone — $10.
• Man's western style hat — $250
• Pine wood play wagon for children — $145
• Video tape recorder and camera — $1,345
• One 14-ounce tin of fresh caviar — $130 (flown fresh to customer on request)

1970^[22]

• Pleasure cruise along the Florida coast — $35,000 (sold to a Miami charitable organization that then offered tickets for $200–$1,000 donations)
• Lucite bathtub with aquarium — $5,000
• His and Her Thunderbird autos
• "For optimists": $10 live oak trees
• "For pessimists": a Noah's ark with all endangered species aboard — $588,247

(No arks were sold, but over 1,000 trees were purchased.)

pre-1972^[23]

• a truckload of pink air
• His and her mummy cases, $16,000 and guaranteed to be about 2,000 years old
• a "Freeway Fortress" combination car and tank, $845,300 (or 10% down and 36 installments of $24,192.49 per month)

1972^[23]

• $5 of candy pebbles in a jar
• an $8 set of worry beads
• a $250,000 bag of uncut diamonds
• a "privacy egg," 12' x 15', built by N-M in the area of the buyer's choice and stocked as the buyer prefers, $80,000

1974^[19]

• the "N-Bar-M Christmas Book Mouse Ranch," 12 square feet (1.1 m²), "for anyone who ever dreamed of being a cattle baron in miniature": acrylic corrals and fences, silverplated "roundup tweezers," mesa, cacti, pastures, feed barn, watering tanks, feed bins, and a windmill (but no mice) — $3,500
• 106 carats (21 g) polished black boulder opal — $150,000, not eligible for charge purchases
• Russian natural sable jacket, $12,000
• Nickel-plated penguin ice bucket handmade in Italy, $450 (UPI noted: "To make the bird feel at home, Neiman-Marcus will fill it with custom-chipped Antarctic ice, hand carried from the South Pole. Travel arrangements for the courier, including row boat and ice pick only $3,450.")
• A pair of 18th century wooden horse heads from India — $7,500
• An imperial sacrificial robe worn by a Chinese emperor, circa 1770 — $6,000
• A sterling silver thermometer case for doctors — $28 plus 4 weeks for monogramming
• Bronze spearheads from the Persian Wars (1500 to 700 B.C.E.) — $35

1975^[24]

• In honor of the United States Bicentennial, autographed letters from George and Martha Washington, $8,500 for the set

1978

• Solid milk chocolate Monopoly set, $600^[25]

1979^[26]

• Dirigible — $50,000

1986

• California Spangled Cat - Cover item - price included personal delivery of your new cat with a week of training provided by breed originator, Paul A. Casey, Jr. — $2,500

1998

• Aston Martin DB7 — 10 special black cars for the 1998 Neiman Marcus Christmas catalog

1999^[26]

• Preserve a section of endangered land, including naming rights — $200,000

2002

• Collection of paintings by Andy Warhol, "The Athlete's Series," $3,000,000
• Neiman Marcus Limited Edition 2004 Cadillac XLR, $85,000
• NM Limited Edition Burberry Taxi, $58,900
• "His and Her" Personalized Action Figures, $7,500

2003

• His and Hers Robots, $400,000
• NM Limited-Edition BMW 645Ci Coupe, $75,170
• Luxury Ice Fishing House, starts at $27,000
• Mermaid suit, comes with a mermaid tail, faux pearl top, and swimming lessons, $10,000
• 44 carats (8.8 g) diamond ring, yellow diamond, can be inscribed with up to 2,000 characters, $800,000
• Bombardier Learjets, $7,737,000 to $12,743-000

2004

• Limited-Edition Maserati Quattroporte, $125,000
• Custom suit of armor, $20,000
• Modern Zeppelin NT, $10,000,000
• Grand Ole Opry Experience, $25,000
• NM "Las Vegas" Trike, $65,000
• Underwater Aviator, $1,700,000
• Haute Couture Valentino Gown, $325,000

2005

• Private concert with Elton John, $1.5 million
• IndyCar Series Simulator, $65,000 to $75,000
• Collection of Jewels with eight significant pieces of jewelry spanning the last three centuries, $1.2 million
• Dreamboat Limited-Edition Levitating Sculpture, $18,000 to $90,000
• NM Limited-Edition 2007 Lexus GS 450h, $65,000
• His & Hers Custom Photobooth, $20,000
• Grand Empire Railroad, $200,000
• Skycar Prototype, $3.5 million
• Tree Sculpture (an adult treehouse), $50,000

2006

• Virgin Galactic Charter to Space, $1.7 million
• Pencil Skyscraper by The Art Guys, $6,000 or $40,000
• His and Hers Twike Communicator Vehicle (Zero emission electric car system), $40,000
• GC Quad, $56,465
• Membership at The Club at Castiglion del Bosco, $3.8 million
• Jacques Fath Archives, $3.5 million
• Limited edition pet homes, $5,000 and $7,000
• Backyard Water Park, starts at $100,000
• All-Star Sports Celebrity Dream Package: Charity Auction, starts at $250,000
• Limited-Edition 2007 BMW M6 Convertible, $139,000

2008

• A backyard golf course custom-designed by Jack Nicklaus.
• $10 million Kentucky horse farm, complete with a stable of up to 15 thoroughbreds.
• Life-size Lego replicas of you and your beloved for $60,000
• $250,000 authentic Guinness pub
• $110,000 for a chance to shoot some hoops with the Harlem Globetrotters.
• $110,000 fighter motorcycle
• 35-year collection of every 45 rpm record listed on the Billboard Top 100 Rock and Pop charts through the end of 1990
• A Dallas Cowboys end zone in your backyard for $500,000.
• Limited-Edition 2009 BMW Individual 7 Series Sedan, $160,000
• "Lions Rouge" Precious Rebel art guitar by Amanda Dunbar for $22,500

2009

• A customizable cupcake car for $25,000

The Christmas Book is available at stores for $15. However, the $15 will be credited back to customers with their first purchase from the catalog.

Other Christmas gifts

In 1961 Neiman-Marcus in Dallas was one of two stores in the nation — the other being Wanamaker's in Philadelphia — to offer computer-based assistance in selecting Christmas gifts. The process worked by comparing information on the recipient to a computerized list of the 2,200 items available at Neiman-Marcus, then providing a printout of the 10 best suggestions. One person testing the computer filled out the questionnaire as if he were President John F. Kennedy shopping for gifts in excess of $1,000 for his wife; the computer suggested a yacht.^[27]

During the Apollo 8 mission in December 1968, Marilyn Lovell, wife of astronaut Jim Lovell, who was the Command Module Pilot, received, as a Christmas present, a mink coat that was delivered to her by a Neiman Marcus driver in a Rolls-Royce car. The coat was wrapped in royal blue wrapping paper with two Styrofoam balls — one for the Earth and the other for the Moon — and had a card that read, "To Marilyn, from the Man in the Moon."^[28]

Vehicles

Neiman Marcus has often offered automobiles in its holiday catalogs. These are usually coordinated with manufacturers as a publicity tool, though the cars themselves are normally special versions unavailable from other sources and produced in limited numbers.^{[citation needed]}

1970 "His and Hers" Ford Thunderbird

1995 BMW Z3 James Bond edition (at $35,000)

1996 GMC Suburban Sony edition

1997 Audi TT

1997 Ducati 748L

1998 BMW X5

1998 Aston Martin DB7

2000 Lexus SC 430

2001 Ford Thunderbird (200)

2002 Cadillac XLR (101)Exclusive color was Ultra-Violet with Sand leather.

2003 BMW 645Ci

2004 Maserati Quattroporte (at $125,000)

2005 Lexus GS 450h (75 at $65,000)Crystalline Ice Exclusive Exterior color.

2006 BMW M6 Convertible only, Exclusive color was Ruby Black Exterior with Piano Black accents.

2007 Lexus LS600hL (100 to commemorate the Centennial of Neiman Marcus. Exclusive exterior color is Truffle Mica.)

2008 BMW 7-Series (new 2009 completely redesigned 7 series, Exclusive Color was Diopside Black with Champagne Merino leather.)

2009 Jaguar XJL

2010 Chevrolet Camaro Convertible (Exclusive color is Deep Bordeaux.)

2011 Ferrari FF (exclusive color is Grigio Caldo).

Neiman Marcus in popular culture

Neiman Marcus' international fame has led to its inclusion in many popular media. Television sitcoms can quickly convey someone's wealth by making the character a Neiman Marcus shopper, as was done with Blair Warner of the 1980s sitcom The Facts of Life.^{[citation needed]} Similarly, in an episode of A Different World in which the well-to-do Whitley Gilbert must return all her credit cards to her father, she is especially loath to give up her Neiman's card and reminisces wistfully over past N-M purchases.^[29] The store was mentioned widely on the show Dharma and Greg as being a source for the upscale mother's clothes; moreover, the family's pair of Rottweilers are named Neiman and Marcus. A character on the TV series Gilmore Girls compares his ordinary measuring tape to that of the haughty matriarch, Emily Gilmore, telling her daughter: "Your mother got hers at Neiman Marcus. It’s platinum with gold leaf — it costs more than my car!".^[30] Hilary Banks in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air also frequented Neiman's. In an episode of Frasier, Niles's wife Maris is said to be en route to Dallas which she regards as her holy land because of it being the site of the first Neiman Marcus. It is also mentioned in the first episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer when Buffy says that Sunnydale is "two hours on the freeway from Neiman Marcus."

The store is mentioned in a number of minor ways in other media. It is said that the shopping scenes from Blu Cantrell's "Hit 'Em Up Style (Oops!)" were filmed at a Neiman Marcus store, and the lyrics mention shopping at Neiman-Marcus after discovering her boyfriend/husband cheating on her. The computer game NetHack involves a buried joke in which the player is told, "You hear Neiman and Marcus arguing" while hallucinating on a game level that includes a shop. American parodist "Weird Al" Yankovic released a song entitled "I'll Sue Ya" on his album Straight Outta Lynwood that satirizes America's fame for frivolous lawsuits; in the song, the singer jokes about various lawsuits he has filed, including suing Neiman Marcus because they "put up their Christmas decorations way out of season."

The chain is also mentioned in the Steve Martin and John Candy comedy film "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles". When Martin's character is going over his credit cards, after he and Candy's character have been robbed, he remarks "And, I've got a Neiman-Marcus card in case we want to buy a gift for somebody."

The chain is mentioned numerous times in the series The Golden Girls by the women; for example in one episode the character of Sophia explains that her Christmas present can be found on the second floor, petite section of their local Neiman Marcus.

In the song "Emotionless" on rapper Jim Jones' album, Hustler's P.O.M.E. (Product of My Environment) mentions Neiman Marcus in his line: "Maserati lookin' like a shark on land, Neiman Marcus Edition, contraband, Neiman Marcus I'm in it, shoppin' and, $5,000 spent on pants, man."

In the Dennis the Menace cartoon strip, the store appears occasionally under the caricature "Deiman-Harcus."

In a dig at 2008 Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin's expensive campaign wardrobe, the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee referred to Palin in a pun as "Neiman Marxist" in promoting a web site called www.DressLikePalin.org, where visitors were shown the approximate price of items in the candidate's wardrobe and comparisons to what health care or work-clothing costs the same money could have paid.^[31] The same week, humorist Steve Young posted a satirical fake press-release claiming that Neiman Marcus was in talks to develop a Palinwear clothing line for its stores following the November 4 elections, including various fictitious clothing lines that spoofed the candidate's outdoorsman husband, their unmarried and pregnant daughter, and her assertion that Russia's proximity to her home state of Alaska gave her foreign-relations experience.^[32]

The "Neiman Marcus $250 Cookie Recipe" story

The store is featured in an urban legend involving a supposed recipe for its popular chocolate chip cookie.^[33] In the legend, a woman and her daughter enjoy a cookie while shopping at Neiman Marcus in Dallas, Texas, and ask for the recipe. The waiter informs her there will be a "two-fifty" charge, which the woman interprets as $2.50. Upon receiving her VISA statement, she is shocked to discover she has been charged $250.00 instead. In revenge, she photocopies the recipe and urges her friends to distribute it for free to everyone they know so that the store will make no further profit on its sale. Because the story typically was passed along as a photocopy, it falls in the legend subcategory of Xeroxlore. Later, with the advent of the Internet, it reemerged as an infamous chain e-mail, "Cookie revenge".

Folklorists have pointed out three chief holes in the story:

• Prior to the emergence of the legend, the store did not have a chocolate chip cookie;^[34]
• A similar story has been around since the 1940s, originally involving a red velvet cake recipe from the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. It wasn't until the 1980s that the story's focus shifted to cookies. The cookie version of the story originally was attached to Mrs. Fields cookies, causing that company eventually to post disavowals of the notices at all its stores.
• Neiman-Marcus for most of its history only accepted its own card and American Express

Although the story is untrue, Neiman Marcus published a cookie recipe to quell rumors. There is also another cookie recipe that is also published on the company's website that is slightly different than the above. Kevin Garvin wrote the recipe in 1995. It is featured on the company's website for free. It also is in the Neiman Marcus Cookbook (Clarkson Potter, $45) by Mr. Garvin and John Harrisson.

References

1. ^ "Company Information." Neiman Marcus. Retrieved on December 7, 2009.
2. ^ Neiman, Abraham Lincoln from the Handbook of Texas Online
3. ^ ^{a b} William Schack, "Neiman-Marcus of Texas" (article), Commentary 24:3, 213, September 1957.
4. ^ ^{a b c d e f} http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/The-Neiman-Marcus-Group-Inc-Company-History.html
5. ^ ^{a b} Historical timeline, from Neiman Marcus Online
6. ^ Stanley Marcus Timeline Texas Monthly, March 2002
7. ^ Schack, p. 216.
8. ^ http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,890689,00.html
9. ^ Frank X. Tolbert. Neiman-Marcus, Texas, New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1953, page 5.
10. ^ Tolbert, 1953, page 11.
11. ^ http://smu.edu/newsinfo/excerpts/fortnight-annotations-spring2007.asp
12. ^ Stanley Marcus, Advertising Hall of Fame
13. ^ Neiman Marcus in $5.1B buyout CNN Money, May 2, 2005
14. ^ Form 10-Q, from Neiman Marcus website March 8, 2007
15. ^ Neiman Marcus files lawsuit against credit card issuer, Dallas Business Journal, February 29, 2008
16. ^ Neiman Marcus, HSBC settle credit card lawsuit, Dallas Business Journal, May 5, 2008
17. ^ Mattioli, Dana (October 27, 2011). "Hoity-Toity to Hoi Polloi: Neiman Takes More Plastic". The Wall Street Journal. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204505304577000103355671444.html. Retrieved October 27, 2011. 
18. ^ Rick Ratliff, Knight News Service, "The ultimate present: 2 Texas firms take pride in unusual gift offerings," The Lima News (Lima, Ohio), November 24, 1977
19. ^ ^{a b} "Mouse ranch — perfect Christmas gift," UPI story, The News (Port Arthur, Texas), October 6, 1974 — gives 1955 as date of introduction
20. ^ ^{a b c} Tom Johnson, "Junk for Xmas At $11,700," The Gettysburg Times (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania), December 23, 1966
21. ^ Murray Raphel. "An interview with Stanley Marcus," Direct Marketing, Vol. 58, No. 6, October 1995, pp. 22-25.
22. ^ Hope Strong, "Where's There's Life" (column), The Lima News (Lima, Ohio), April 4, 1971
23. ^ ^{a b} Jack Webb, Copley News Service,"Gifts for Millionaires," Iowa City Press-Citizen, November 22, 1972
24. ^ Patrick J. Killen, United Press International, "Don't look a gift mule in the mouth," The Herald (Arlington Heights, Illinois), December 25, 1975
25. ^ William K. Stevens. "New era for Neiman Marcus: Can mystique survive amid expansion?" The New York Times, February 19, 1979.
26. ^ ^{a b} "Gift of the Century," Texas Monthly, Vol. 27, Issue 12, December 1999, p230.
27. ^ "Santa Claus Has a New Helper", Parade, December 24, 1961
28. ^ Jim Lovell with Jeffrey Kluger. Apollo 13 (previously published as Lost Moon), 2000, pages 50-51.
29. ^ "Whitley's Last Supper," season four, episode 73 of A Different World, aired October 11, 1990.
30. ^ Transcript of "Dead Uncles and Vegetables," Gilmore Girls, Season 2, episode 17, first aired April 16, 2002
31. ^ Rose Ann DeMoro. "Hockey Mom or Neiman Marxist?," The Huffington Post, October 29, 2008.
32. ^ Steve Young. "Neiman Marcus and Sarah Palin Set Deal For Clothing Line After Election," October 24, 2008. (Note that the author designated the post's satirical nature by marking it "Filed Under: 2008 Election, John McCain, Kind of Satire, Sarah Palin."
33. ^ Cookie Legend, Snopes.com, Last accessed January 16, 2007.
34. ^ That's One Expensive Cookie, at breakthechain.org

External links

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