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Monday, June 15, 2009

Dallas-based Neiman Marcus to start selling lower-priced shtuff

by PegNews wire

After experiencing a decline of 24% in sales, Dallas-based Neiman Marcus says it will start selling lower-priced goods. The store's management is sensing a shift in its customer's "mindset." The place won't become a cheapskate palace overnight, but meanwhile they'll be doing lots of promotions to boost sales.

Posted by T.G.

Staff
Verified User
Anonymous

oh boo, does this mean I can't call it needless markups anymore?

Laura Evans Staff

5 months, 1 week ago
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Nope, I think that's definitely still fair game.

Sarah Blaskovich Staff

5 months, 1 week ago
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An old New York saying on Broadway and with any fine clothing store's..."If you had a fire and it is over with .....get what you can for a buck so you can have a bed to sleep on"....A/T..Sometime's it hard and ruff for a reason...save a buck and help someone else....

alexander troup Verified

5 months, 1 week ago
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Now if we can only get Barney's to go back to it's successful roots - selling only men's clothes at reasonable prices.

CitizenKane Anonymous

5 months, 1 week ago
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What no more $100k motorcycles in the Christmas catalog? Maybe the mindset has shifted to zirconia encrusted Harleys..

Travis Bush Verified

5 months, 1 week ago
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NM has always been an easy target and in this century, arguably deserved. But for the rare few who are actually from Dallas, and old enough to know the role Neiman Marcus played in key eras of this city's history past, I wish to say: Neiman Marcus never set out to be the elitist 'let them eat cake' object of ridicule. Rather, the Neiman and Marcus families 101 years ago set out to represent the finest in quality, style and value and service. In doing so, in the second half of last century, NM pioneered racial relations with advancements for minorities and support for civil rights issues. They advanced women in ways previously unthinkable. Their current CEO and President, Karen Katz being a Dallas native exhibit A; my boss for 6 years where I learned more than all the men I ever worked for combined..........

NM was never meant to be so 'exclusive' that it excluded everyone but the wealthiest. Rather, if you read any of Stanley Marcus' books, he speaks of the value of detail, etc. I have always suspected that when I see people pile on Neiman Marcus with knee-jerk glee contempt, they are telling more about themselves than about the Dallas-born-and-bred retailer. I do however believe that after I left the company 10 years ago, NM Group CEO Burt Tansky led the company in a direction that left no room for moderate customers to find and afford the value and quality and style of Neiman Marcus goods. By recommitting themselves to that original goal, it is not a reversal for the company so much as it is a homecoming. A 'no exit' policy of catering to solely the top 1-3% of the nation's income earners is anathema to those who grew up aware of what NM stood for historically; something to aspire to, where all were welcome. Where simply being there was an education.

Rawlins Gilliland Verified

5 months, 1 week ago
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"I have always suspected that when I see people pile on Neiman Marcus with knee-jerk glee contempt, they are telling more about themselves than about the Dallas-born-and-bred retailer."

Sorry, but as a born-and-bred Dallasite, I have to take exception to this. NM hasn't been a place for regular folks to shop since I was born, at least. It isn't now and will never be a place for the common Dallas citizen to frequent. The closest thing most of us ever got was passing by the windows on our way to H.L. Green's. And I'll pass on the "education" in avarice, thank you very much.

Travis Bush Verified

5 months, 1 week ago
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Well Travis, 'regular folks' is a very subjective term. I bought my high school graduation outfit there and I grew up in a very modest East Dallas neighborhood (that is now unaffordable...Manett Street off of Henderson.) I paid for the outfit as a bag boy at the Kroger's Groceries and as a paper boy. The outfit was reasonable for its value (along the lines of what I would have paid at let's say a Culwell and Sons) and lasted for years and years. I was very proud of it. I still use the belt 40 years later. On a thin day.

It is not an otherwise pointed point that I make when I share how no few who have expressed to me... before and after my stint at NM...their being less than comfortable with Neiman Marcus in the 60s-90s... many times acknowledged they never really had been there. I learned that over and over again when in fact I rose from stock boy in college and later through the sales ranks in tyhe Reagan years to become national Director of Sales and Product in the Clinton years. It always made me feel rather sad, knowing how Stanley Marcus had always felt and what his company offered me as my second career.

But during the Bush years I believe with good reason it strayed. I know I grew to feel as if it was no longer a company that offered items I could routinely consider. Where there had been private label ties that were affordable, for instance, there became only the most exclusive. And expensive. In fairness part of the problem became the devaluation of the dollar which made an import $175 shirt now cost $300 plus. But that was merely part of what went wrong.

Rawlins Gilliland Verified

5 months, 1 week ago
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Interesting history you have there, Rawlins.

Travis Bush Verified

5 months, 1 week ago
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Bush Derangement......

Linking the extravagance of NM to the "Bush Years"....

Stanley Marcus would puke over such silliness and nievete'.

CitizenKane Anonymous

5 months, 1 week ago
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I think that when most people mock NM, they're mocking the people who shop there more so than the actual company itself.

Pavel Lishin Verified

5 months, 1 week ago
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Customers make the company, Pavel - can't exactly have one without the other.

Scott Doyle Verified

5 months, 1 week ago
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I've seen the future of Neiman's!

Travis Bush Verified

5 months, 1 week ago
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Neiman Marcus has been doing a superb job being a style leader, and obviously is not for everybody. Don't forget the last call; you can find some amazing things at a very reasonable price :)

jonaspark Anonymous

5 months, 1 week ago
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You mean, obviously not everyone can afford it..I'm sure there are plenty of people who would love to wear their clothing lines or have their own submarine.

Travis Bush Verified

5 months, 1 week ago
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I once had a girlfriend who asked me to go get her coat, a real nice one she wore a lot. When I spotted the Neiman Marcus label inside I ragged her about it a little.

She said, "Oh please, I got it at a yard sale."

Scott Miller Verified

5 months, 1 week ago
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No one really rags Ferrari, Rolex, or Lear Jet. There's not a thing wrong with offering expensive items. If you can't afford them, don't buy them. The funny thing is that even folks that can't afford them feel socially pressed to own these things. We're a society greatly driven by appearances.
If people would stop gawking at stretch-limos, they'd disappear.

Rick Yost Verified

5 months, 1 week ago
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I have no problem with your view, Rick, but just like I have said before..as long as there is no pretense about the pretense, I don't care. But when there are stories about overpriced restaurants and businesses closing, I don't feel sorry one bit. It is equally funny when I hear stories about the management at Neiman's sensing a shift in its customer's "mindset." That really means that their regular customers are running out of money, and or their lifestyles are catching up with them. No pity from the proletariat..

Travis Bush Verified

5 months, 1 week ago
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Mmmm.... I wouldn't mind a nice expensive watch right about now. :(

Jesus Valadez Verified

5 months, 1 week ago
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Jesus..while yer out stealin' watches and stuff can you pick me up a Citizen Eco-Drive?

Travis Bush Verified

5 months, 1 week ago
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Travis- I agree. No pity, please! If you spend money you don't have, and have problems because of it...it's your life. Overpriced restaurants going out of business...that's their choice.
You are responsible for your own choices. Of course GM and AIG would grin at that last sentence. And my $40 Timex works quite well.