When last we left our caped entrepreneurs (the Neiman-Marcus tribe), they were in Atlanta, running a new marketing company that was quite successful.
So successful that they would receive two buy-out offers. The first offer was a cold, hard $25,000 cash or, in a distant second place in their minds, the Missouri and Kansas franchise licensing for Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola was brand new at the time and had only the franchise licenses to offer. Al Neiman thought Coca-Cola would never go anywhere, so they took the $25,000 and returned to Dallas with that seed money to start the Neiman-Marcus department store. ($25,000 at the turn of the last century would be a bit more than $600,000 now.)
Perhaps apocalyptically, Herbert Marcus is said to have commented that missing the Coca-Cola opportunity was the one business decision he regretted.
Want to hear more about Neiman-Marcus while sipping a Coke? Book a tour.
Image of the Coke syrup bottle taken from the their website.
