Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/05/07/nieman-marcus-files-for-bankru.html
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The company took on an untenable amount of debt as part of two leveraged buyouts by private-equity firms
Another PE mob bust-out. Although the bricks-and-mortar department store business model is doomed even without vulture capitalists or pandemics. The only times I step inside N-M is because my mother likes to go to their “ladies who lunch” restaurant a couple of times a year. Still, I feel sorry for the employees.
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I’m not familiar with the company, not being USian but the logo in the photo says Neiman, not Nieman. As someone with a first language where these two diphthongs are pronounced very differently that sticks out to me.
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serves them right for charging me $250 for that chocolate chip cookie recipe
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My kids want a unicorn, an Olympic sized pool in our backyard, and chocolate for breakfast every day. Sometimes you need to tell people that “no, that’s not happening any more”.
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Just like J. Crew two days ago, I immediately guessed “Private Equity vultures buried it in debt, making it unable to handle any economic difficulties” before I even read the article. Right on both counts. There are always other reasons stores fade away and fail, but the trend the last five to ten years is increasingly they are driven into the ground by massive debt loads caused by leveraged buy outs. Not because they were horribly out competed and crashed on their own.
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Alternate headline: An established department store chain was unable to develop an internet presence after 25 years. Closures due to covid-19 was the actual cause, but the inability to change with the market was the proximate cause of death. https://ecommercedb.com/en/store/neimanmarcus.com
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we uses to call it “Needless Markup”
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Only they have an internet presence. When I was looking for a certain syle of cufflinks they were one of the better online choices. Your own link says they sold more fashion online than Target or Zappos, who can hardly be said to not have an online presence.
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