Should Neiman Marcus Exist?
Texas Monthly,
by
Jason Reid
Original Article
Posted By: StormCnter,
4/25/2020 12:18:37 PM
Known for his cinema verité explorations of American institutions, the documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman trained his camera on Dallas’s flagship Neiman Marcus location in 1982. To watch the resulting work, The Store, now is to travel back to a far less troubled age for the retailer that for more than a century has sold the trappings of a luxurious lifestyle to Texans of means.
The staff in the film talk up the life-affirming virtues of sable coats and diamond bracelets costing more than $100,000 in today’s money. During one early scene, a manager in the women’s fashions department assembles her team before the store has opened for the day.
Reply 1 - Posted by:
DVC 4/25/2020 12:30:35 PM (No. 391241)
I have never even seen an actual store. I get their catalogs in the mail, filled with ultra expensive foolishness and frippery, mostly. Good for a couple of minutes, a few 'Hah, did you see this one!?" with the wife and then tossed.
7 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
StormCnter 4/25/2020 12:38:07 PM (No. 391255)
I've never been in the Dallas flagship store, but I once got a warning from a Dallas cop for making an illegal turn down that street. I have had a Neiman's card for forty years, but mostly use it at Christmas. I did buy a mother-of-the-bride dress in the Fort Worth store many years ago, too. Maybe it's just a "Texas thang".
8 people like this.
I sashayed into their store at the Galleria in Dallas one time and slunk right back out again after checking the prices on some high heeled shoes. $900.00.
Thought I was gonna die!
10 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
Rumblehog 4/25/2020 12:45:25 PM (No. 391266)
aka "Needless Markup"
11 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
Newtsche 4/25/2020 1:14:42 PM (No. 391304)
What, four decades back -- jeez -- I bought five seemingly high quality sweat shirts on sale at NM in Houston. Some colors lasted longer than others, I wore them more, but I still have them all. Some tattered and used for work, others still in excellent shape. Back in those days, we'd pass through NM at Christmas just because.
7 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
texaspast 4/25/2020 1:48:45 PM (No. 391346)
It won't be the same Northpark Mall without Neiman Marcus.
5 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
earlybird 4/25/2020 1:54:28 PM (No. 391352)
Luxury stores were where women went to spend their money. I. Magnin in California was one of the best, if not the largest. Every saleswoman had her “book”. Her customers. Their sizes, measurements, and notes on their tastes. And a saleswoman could shop with and for her customer throughout the store, not in just one department. I started as a Christmas wrapper at I. Magnin when I was a teenager. One regular customer came in to buy his wife’s Christmas gifts. Her salesperson, whom he knew as well, walked him through the store, helping him pick out entire outfits - from the skin out - ending up with outerwear that included an elegant matching ostrich skin bag and shoes and a full-length fur coat. I ended up wrapping all of it in gorgeous foil-covered boxes with satin ribbon… Unforgettable. Years later I was hired as a manager. There are no places like this anymore...
29 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
earlybird 4/25/2020 1:55:35 PM (No. 391354)
where wealthy women went to spend their money
8 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
JHHolliday 4/25/2020 1:58:48 PM (No. 391358)
Never bought anything from NM. I did make the cookie recipe that became some sort of urban legend.
1 person likes this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
NorthernDog 4/25/2020 2:19:35 PM (No. 391372)
Sounds like the store will live on - although at a much-reduced level. I don't think the management wants to bleed the stores dry like Sears has done.
4 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
stablemoney 4/25/2020 2:27:12 PM (No. 391381)
I only passed through the store once, that 20 years ago. A shirt for $150, then. It was well made and would have lasted forever----but I didn't want to wear the same shirt forever. Personally, I prefer a shirt that lasts a year, then find something different next year.
5 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
Shells 4/25/2020 2:30:06 PM (No. 391389)
A week and a half ago I ordered a La Mer lip balm from them. Crazy expensive stuff but it’s amazing, and was on sale which rarely happens. I just got an email fro them stating that their ‘looking for my merchandise.’ I don’t even know what that means and it cracked me up.
For online ordering Nordstrom seems to be really good.
2 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
TJ54 4/25/2020 2:32:43 PM (No. 391391)
Let's not go the class envy route. These stores employ PEOPLE and products made by PEOPLE
12 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
Jethro bo 4/25/2020 2:43:54 PM (No. 391402)
I have lived in Dallas and shopped at NM and loved it. Service is first class and products are undoubtedly the best quality. Is it for eveyone? Certainly not. Is it for some? Yes. In the end, don't customers decided what should exist and what shouldn't? Are do we let Texas Monthly beat writers and politicians decide for us? Its call capitalism and companies either provide a product or service or both people want, or they don't.
16 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
earlybird 4/25/2020 2:44:08 PM (No. 391403)
“Class envy”? These stores met a need just like Sears and Penney and Montgomery Ward met a need.
I think it is a shame to see them go, but I watched I. Magnin disappear when it was eaten alive by a large department store chain, which - as I recall - was then bought up by an even larger chain. Then the homogenization began. The last time I visited “my” beautiful I. Magning store it looked like Filene’s basement. Racks of stuff everywhere, on sale, and none of it looked at all like I. Magnin merchandise. It wasn’t long until it closed forever.
Boutiques came on the scene then. And truly elegant dressing disappeared. Now it is very hard to tell a wealthy woman from anyone else unless you can read the label inside her sweats...
12 people like this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
starboard 4/25/2020 3:24:01 PM (No. 391424)
Bergdorf Goodman in NYC
4 people like this.
Reply 17 - Posted by:
DVC 4/25/2020 3:46:56 PM (No. 391440)
#9, were the cookies any good....and what kind were they?
0 people like this.
Reply 18 - Posted by:
StormCnter 4/25/2020 4:38:09 PM (No. 391458)
I dearly loved buying from Sakowitz in Houston. Their customer service was terrific. But, Sakowitz has been gone for a long time. I wore one of their suits until everyone was sick of looking at it. Good things last forever. Nordstrom is good, too.
5 people like this.
Reply 19 - Posted by:
earlybird 4/25/2020 5:44:49 PM (No. 391504)
I shopped at both Nordstrom (then a shoe store) and Best & Co. (a nice women’s store) in Seattle in the 1960s. Both were known for quality; neither was a luxury store. Some time later they merged and took the Nordstrom name. Their philosophy was stocking a lot of merchandise and giving personal service, even if it was nothing more than a personal handwritten note from the salesperson. I can’t speak for NM, as I was only in the Houston store in the late 1970s, but I. Magnin and Saks Fifth Avenue were a quantum leap above Nordstrom. I Magnin often bought only one in a size and not every store stocked every size. Wealthy women attending the same events did not want to see themselves coming and going. Exclusivity was important, so designer clothes were sold there, and many items bore the exclusive I. Magnin label. The stores were not full of massive racks of merchandise. The finest clothes were brought out for special customers, not available to be tried on again and again by shoppers. Customers were more clients than shoppers.
3 people like this.
Reply 20 - Posted by:
Annie Xango 4/25/2020 5:52:08 PM (No. 391507)
#15...yes, one of the last times I was in SFO and was in I. Magnin's (I knew it was going to close..but) the total shock of seeing that beautiful store as you said looking like Filenes Basement. I have a dear friend who was the head of the fine jewelry dept for many years..while there she purchased an 11 ct. Kashmir sapphire emerald cut ring.at the time it was $7500..a huge sum then..she paid it off in installments..and just recently she sold it in NY at auction.....for $$$$$$$$$.she was also an antique dealer and when we would go to shows..all the others vendors would rush over to look at THE ring!!!!! Have always had a soft spot for NM..in fact, I was on line last nite.(never go shopping at 4 AM!! and found something I was lusting after..1/2 off..so..)but all it all, if I had to pick #1 it would be Bergdorf's.....nothing compares imho...
2 people like this.
Reply 21 - Posted by:
mizzmac 4/25/2020 5:54:26 PM (No. 391508)
"Should" they exist? Well...If they have customers who want to shop there and buy the products they sell, then yes, they should. It's not a morality question, is it?
5 people like this.
"Should Neiman Marcus Exist?" That sounds like something a socialist or AOC would ask. To each his own. If a person has money why would they want to shop at Wally World or buy Made in China? Why would they want to give up good personals service and buy online?
1 person likes this.
Reply 23 - Posted by:
3XALADY 4/26/2020 9:48:35 AM (No. 392032)
I had an NM charge card for years and used it at the St. Louis store to purchase cosmetics and purses. Didn't buy many clothes there as they only carried smaller sizes.
0 people like this.
Reply 24 - Posted by:
franq 4/26/2020 10:39:10 AM (No. 392097)
And, more importantly, why do men have nipples?
0 people like this.
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