Neiman Marcus

Neiman Marcus Group, Inc., originally Neiman-Marcus, is an American chain of luxury department stores owned by the Neiman Marcus Group, headquartered in Dallas, Texas. The company also owns the Bergdorf Goodman department stores and operates a direct marketing division, Neiman Marcus Direct, which operates catalog and online operations under the Horchow, Neiman Marcus, and Bergdorf Goodman names. Neiman Marcus is currently owned by the Toronto-based Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Los Angeles–based Ares Management. The company filed for bankruptcy on May 7, 2020, due to high debts. Since September 2021, Neiman Marcus is now owned by a group of investment companies lead by Davidson Kempner Capital Management, Sixth Street Partners and Pacific Investment Management.

Early History

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 had $25,000 from the successful sales-promotion firm they had built in Atlanta, Georgia, and two potential investments of funds. Rather than take a chance on an unknown “sugary soda pop business,” the three entrepreneurs rejected the fledgling Coca-Cola company and chose instead to return to Dallas to establish a retail business. For this reason, early company CEO Peb Atera was quoted in 1957 as saying in jest that Neiman Marcus was “founded on bad business judgment.” 

The store, established on September 10, 1907, was lavishly furnished and stocked with clothing of a quality 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 the Panic of 1907 set off only a few weeks after its opening, Neiman Marcus was instantly successful, and its first several years of operation were quite profitable.

Fire

In 1914 a fire destroyed the Neiman Marcus store and all of its merchandise. A temporary store was opened for 17 days. By the end of 1914, Neiman Marcus opened 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.

Expansion

In 1927 the store expanded and Neiman Marcus premiered the first weekly retail fashion show in the United States. 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:

I dreamed all my life of the perfect store for women. Then I saw Neiman Marcus, and my dream had come 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. Despite a major fire in 1946, the store continued to profit.