Neiman Marcus Wikipedia
Neiman Marcus, the famed upscale chain of department stores, has been bought out by fellow luxury merchant Sacks Fifth Avenue for $2.5 billion. Amazon also bought a piece of the new company which will be called Saks Global. The deal came after Neiman Marcus rejected a $3 billion bid made by Sacks Fifth Avenue last year.
Marc Metrick, the current chief executive of Saks and Saks.com, who will run the newly combined company, said, “Saks has remained steadfast in our commitment to be at the forefront of luxury fashion, meeting customers not just where they are but where they are going. Together, with our ongoing focus on innovation, we are primed to drive growth for our brand partners and create career development opportunities for the incredible talent across Saks Global.”
Saks Fifth Avenue was established in 1924 by Andrew Saks, out of what was previously known as Saks & Co, which was started in 1897. Its first store was located in Washington D.C. It was in 1924 that the firm merged with Gimbel Brothers, Inc. and built its flagship store and building on Fifth Ave in Manhattan. The company currently has 41 stores across North America.
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Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, Neiman Marcus was founded in 1907 by Herbert Marcus Sr., a former buyer with Dallas’ Sanger Brothers department store, with his sister Carrie Marcus Neiman and her husband, Abraham Lincoln Neiman. All three were Jewish. In addition to Bergdorf Goodman, the company also owns Horchow, and Last Call.
In the past twenty years retailers everywhere have been losing more and more of their market share to online sellers like Amazon. And even the luxury stores are hurting.
So, will people even be interested in shopping in a brick and mortar store anymore?
Well, Richard Baker, the chief executive and chairman of HBC, told The New York Times, “Customers love to go to a store. They love to touch a product and spend time with their personal shoppers.”
In May 2020, Neiman Marcus went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. And this was the worst time imaginable for retailers as the world had just gone into the Covid crisis shutdowns. But the firm came out of bankruptcy by the end of the year and in June 2022 it reported huge increases in sales with the end of the Covid crisis. But in 2023, things have not gone so well for the retailer.
