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Strategies & Market Trends : Paint The Table -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Carolyn who wrote (11033)	1/23/2002 10:16:25 AM
From: Lost1	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 23786

Pioneer retailer gave Dallas style Chairman emeritus of Neiman Marcus was icon of fashion, elegance Compiled from wire reports Wednesday, January 23, 2002 DALLAS -- For most of the 20th century, Stanley Marcus was Texas' merchant prince, an international icon of high-dollar retailing and extravagant gifts, the man who put Dallas on the world fashion map. Marcus, chairman emeritus of the Neiman Marcus stores, died Tuesday. He was 96. Marcus was hospitalized Sunday and died with family members at his side, a spokeswoman for Stanley Marcus Consultancy said. Funeral arrangements were incomplete. The philosophy that made Marcus' stores a symbol of Texas wealth was simple: "I do believe the best is discernible to the observant eye," he said. Walter Loeb, publisher of the Loeb Retail Letter, said Marcus created a standard for quality and dignity that still exists for Neiman Marcus shoppers who expect the highest level of service and couture. "He had such an eye for fashion. In many ways, Neiman Marcus was the estimation point for the elite in Dallas," Loeb said. "Today we've lost an icon and patriarch in the business." Marcus was enormously influential in the cultural and economic development of Dallas -- perhaps more than any other single person, said Leonard L. Berry, retired director of retailing studies at Texas A&M University. Berry credited Marcus with transforming Dallas' "early rough-and-tumble prairie image into one of an international shopping destination." Marcus' father, aunt and uncle founded Neiman Marcus in 1907 in downtown Dallas. Marcus received his master's degree in business administration from Harvard University in 1926 and, at age 21, took over as the company's secretary, treasurer and director. He went on to become executive vice president, president, chairman of the board, chief executive officer and chairman of the executive committee. Marcus retired from the company in 1975 with the title chairman emeritus. Over the years, the store became a pioneer in the high-end market. In the 1920s, it was the first to offer personalized gift wrapping for customers and created the first weekly retail fashion show in the country. In 1960, it started a Christmas tradition of exotic "his and hers" gifts, such items as submarines, camels, Egyptian mummy cases and ermine bathrobes. Neiman Marcus became the first retail apparel store outside New York to advertise in national fashion magazines. Vogue magazine in 1953 described the store as "Texas with a French accent." Marcus once said there is a fine line between making a good sale and a bad sale. "If you sell a person an article beyond his financial capacity, you've made a bad sale; if you sell him something not as good as he should have, you've also made a bad sale." There was more to Marcus than retail, however. He was a staunch defender of the Bill of Rights and took unpopular stands, sometimes at the expense of business. Even as a young man he challenged the Dallas establishment. In 1929, he joined forces with what was considered a Bohemian element to found the Book Club of Texas. He later led a successful campaign to shame Southern Methodist University into reinstating an English professor who had offended administrators by writing the preface to William Faulkner's "Miss Zilphia Gant," which was published by the book club in 1932. The story was built around a young, secluded, masturbating woman. After World War II, when price controls were about to be dropped, Marcus stood up at a meeting of local merchants and made the suggestion that area retailers should raise prices slowly. When Marcus supported John F. Kennedy's presidential campaign in 1960, letters poured in from customers who wanted to close their Neiman Marcus charge accounts. He answered each personally, pointing out that it was his privilege to vote for the candidate of his choice. After the Kennedy assassination, he published a controversial letter to the city in a full-page newspaper advertisement, suggesting that the city needed to become more tolerant of differing points of view. In 1974, Marcus wrote the best seller "Minding the Store: A Memoir." When he retired in 1975, his son, Richard C. Marcus, took over as chairman and chief executive officer.