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 other exclusive department stores such as Barneys New York, Saks Fifth Avenue, Nordstrom, Lord & Taylor, and Bloomingdale's. 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.

History

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."William Schack, "Neiman-Marcus of Texas" (article), Commentary 24:3, 213, September 1957. Thus the store was established on September 10 1907.

In 1913, a fire destroyed the Neiman Marcus store and its merchandise. A temporary store was set up and opened in just 17 days.Historical timeline, from Neiman Marcus Online By 1914, Neiman Marcus reopened in its new, permanent location, on Main Street at Ervay Street. With the opening of this flagship store, Neiman Marcus increased its product selection to include accessories, lingerie, and children's clothing, as well as expanding the women's apparel department. In 1929, it began offering menswear. (The Main Street building, which many now call the 'original' Neiman Marcus, was given state historic landmark status by the Texas Historical Commission in 1982.)

In 1927, Neiman Marcus premiered the first weekly retail fashion show in the United States.Stanley Marcus Timeline Texas Monthly, March 2002 The store staged a special show, "One Hundred Years of Texas Fashions," in 1936 in honor of the centennial of Texas' independence from Mexico. A 1957 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 came true.'"Schack, p. 216.