Minding the Store: A Memoir

Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Company, 1974. Third Printing. Hardcover. Good/fair. xii, 383, [3] pages. Illustrations. Index. DJ worn: small tears, small pieces missing, DJ in plastic sleeve, sticker on sleeve spine. Signed by the author. Harold Stanley Marcus (April 20, 1905 - January 22, 2002) was an early president (1950-1972) and later chairman of the board (1972-1976) of the luxury retailer Neiman Marcus in Dallas, Texas, which his father and aunt had founded in 1907. During his tenure at the company, he also became a published author, writing his memoir Minding the Store and also a regular column in The Dallas Morning News. In his 1953 work Neiman-Marcus, Texas, Frank X. Tolbert called him "Dallas' most internationally famous citizen" and worthy of being called "the Southwest's No. 1 businessman-intellectual." Marcus introduced many of the innovations for which Neiman-Marcus became known, creating a national award for service in fashion and hosting art exhibitions in the store itself, as well as weekly fashion shows and an annual Fortnight event highlighting a different foreign country for two weeks each year. He established the Neiman-Marcus Christmas Catalogue, which became famous for extravagant "His and Hers" gifts such as airplanes and camels. Marcus prided himself on his staff's ability to provide service and value for each client, often citing his father's dictum, "There is never a good sale for Neiman Marcus unless it's a good buy for the customer." He was named by Harvard Business School among the greatest American Business Leaders of the 20th century. "'There is never a good sale for Neiman Marcus unless it's a good buy for the customer.' That was one of the first declarations of business philosophy I heard my father, Herbert Marcus, make soon after I came to work at Neiman Marcus in 1926". Thus began Minding the Store. Marcus has spent most of his life not only in helping to create a retailing enterprise renowned throughout the world as the epitome of quality, but also in setting high standards for the level of taste of all who desire "the better things in life". In doing so he has played a key role in making Dallas itself a success. "Mr. Stanley", as he is affectionately called by all his Neiman Marcus friends and associates, has made The Store a legendary success. Although he retired from active involvement in Neiman Marcus in 1977, the influences of the philosophies of business he developed remain an important part of the training of Neiman Marcus personnel. Those basic principles -- best exemplified by his belief in his father's business philosophy -- are the reasons Neiman Marcus was recognized as the taste leader of American retailing. Minding the Store is a warm portrait of a man and an exuberant celebration of the store that has become the best-known landmark in Texas since the Alamo.