A biography for Stanley Marcushasn’t been written yet.
“Owners of valuable works of art don't give to institutions that don't provide good air conditioning and have good shows.”
“I'm lucky that I was in retailing during the time that I call the golden age of retailing.”
“The department store was a product of the 19th century and became a very important institution as America went into the 20th century. It provided show places in developing towns like Terre Haute, Sacramento, and Dallas.”
“Make life exciting, and you live longer.”
“There's a right way to sell and a wrong way to sell.”
“Deciding taste is egotistical, but that's how taste is established, by somebody having the courage to say, 'I don't want to sell that.'”
“It was at the department store where people got away from provincialism.”
“I thought: 'It would be great to create a series of clothes that looked like that tree.' Clothes that gave you the green of the leaf and the warm brown of the underside of that leaf and the vanilla colored blossom.”
“I thought it was unfair to ask school kids to integrate first. The parents should lead the way, not send out the children as advance troops.”
“Designers may find the fashion business can shrivel up.”
“I'd like to put together a think tank of people - economists, futurists, city planners, a few department-store people - to discuss reinventing the department store.”
“Running those poor steers back and forth in the heat is ridiculous. What they ought to do is put the steers in the convention hall and run the delegates.”
“Running a fashion business takes the heart of a good gambler. You're always dealing with new things. And there's no guarantee that anything new is going to be successful.”
“I already own more than any human being needs.”
“If you demand the best, sometimes you get it.”
“Textiles embody all the dimensions of art: color, innovation, talent.”
“Maybe it's my age that makes me very conscious of loose threads, but I don't think that's an earmark of a fine product. And whenever I have a deep-seated feeling like that, I convey it to the person who made it. Sometimes they curse me, and sometimes they thank me.”
“As goods become more standardized - and mass production has that effect, standardizing product - the distinguishing factor between one store and another is going to be how skillful stores are in satisfying customers and making it a pleasant experience instead of a hostile experience.”
“It ought to be self-evident common sense that service is important to sales. But it's not.”
“Since merchandise creativity is hampered by the reluctance of manufacturers to do special things for an individual store, it might be well to increase purchases in foreign markets more able to accept innovative ideas.”