Retail magnate regales audience at book signing

In Stanley Marcus' view, you have to keep changing with the times if you want to avoid becoming a "fossil."

The chairman emeritus of Neiman Marcus, who turns 95 this year, spoke March 23 at the company's White Plains store where he was signing copies of his latest book, "American Greats." The

"Life is not static," he said. For example, Marcus said he started learning how to operate a computer about three or four years ago so he could better understand the implications of e-commerce. Neiman Marcus launched its e-commerce website, neimanmarcus.com, last October.

"Of course, this is like entering a baseball game - you hope, but you don't know," Marcus said explaining the future role e-commerce will play in how people buy and sell.

He said no one will truly know for a generation when the two-year-old children of today grow up and determine how they want to shop. His advice to retailers is to create options for their customers.

"I happen to think that the combination of a brick-and-mortar store with a catalog and website is the best way of serving a customer because it allows her to shop the way she wants to shop instead of dictating to her," Marcus said.

In 1926, Stanley Marcus began his career at Neiman Marcus, which was co-founded by his father, uncle and aunt in 1907. During his career with the retailer, he helped transform it from a local store in Dallas, Texas, into an international brand with a reputation for tasteful upscale shopping and marketing.

Marcus, who served as chairman and chief executive officer from 1950 to 1975, was recently inducted into the American Advertising Federations Hall of Fame. The federation noted Marcus' decision to pursue a national advertising campaign for his local store as early as 1934 despite conventional wisdom to the contrary.

Marcus currently holds stock in Neiman Marcus but said he has no other involvement. He said the company's present management remains dedicated to the standards he and his family established: to offer the best merchandise at prices that are honest and fair.

Keeping active

After retiring from Neiman Marcus, Stanley Marcus took up a weekly column at the Dallas Morning News that he wrote for 15 years. Marcus decided to end his column some six weeks ago, he said. But the Dallas resident keeps his mind churning.

"Fortunately, my mind is more active than my legs," said Marcus, who walks with a cane.

I Marcus maintains an active consulting business. He said his focus has not been on retailers because he wanted to learn about other industries, including manufacturing.

Marcus co-edited "American Greats"

with Robert A. Wilson. Marcus said they wanted to put together a book that would inspire the American people after a string of "less than ideal" presidericies. "We needed to write something that bolstered their pride."

The book contains 81 illustrated essays, including a piece by David McCulloulgh on the building of the Brooklyn Bridge and John Updike on The New Yorker Magazine. Other subjects range from the integration of baseball to Sesame Street, the recipe for Coca Cola, and the Wright Brothers.

Marcus said 70,000 copies were printed for his books' first edition and a second printing is on the way.