Bloomberg: Crime Stat Manipulations are "Tiny"
Palin: "Absurd" Not To Consider 2012 Run
School Already Canceled Tomorrow for Snowpocalypse!
Wall Street Throwing More Money at Republicans
More Bald Eagles Spotted In Harlem!
Clothing retailer and Brooklyn native Sy Syms passed away at age 83 from heart failure yesterday in Manhattan. According to the NY Times' obituary, he "pioneered selling off-price clothing and built his retail chain, the Syms Corporation, into a national brand."
Syms was born Seymour Merinsky and, after serving in the army and studying at NYU, he joined the family's clothing business. The Times explains, "Nine years later, he opened a store around the corner that competed directly with his father’s and brother’s establishment. He named it Sy Merns, the name he had taken after the entire family changed its name. His brother sued him, and after Mr. Syms lost the case, he renamed his store Syms, which he eventually adopted as his last name. Syms soon began expanding by focusing on an almost completely untouched marketplace: the mistakes, close-outs and leftovers produced by name-brand clothing companies."
He opened a store on Cortlandt Street, where not just New Yorkers would flock—the Star Ledger spoke to Syms' daughter Marcy, the company's CEO, who said that NJ commuters "could stop in the morning and see something they liked. And they would stop in at night to pick it up. He would often hold things for people."
It was Syms' voice in the company's first commercial that heralded its famous "An educated customer is the best customer" slogan, and there are Syms clothing stores in 30 locations in 13 states. Earlier this year, Syms bought Filene's Basement.
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
Where was Merns located? Was it in the east forties or low fifties?
I have never visited a SYms, nor do I know anybody who has. I didn't even really know what it was, apart from their little blurbs at the end of the Newshour.
I used to work around the corner from the big Syms all the way downtown, and bought a few things there over the years. I also had a chance to meet Sy Syms and his wife once in the studio of their weekly radio show and they were both very nice and cordial. I was sad when I heard he died.
I've never visited a Syms probably because I don't really have any reason to buy a suit. But I want to thank him for his charity. I see his foundation on many PBS shows.
And, I find his face and voice quite soothing. like a gentle grandpa.
His last words were, "The world belongs to Jeffereson", not realizing that Thomas Jefferson had died nearly 2 centuries before.
I bought my entire work wardrobe for my first big NYC job at Syms. Ironically, my boss at that job was friends with Sy and Marcy Syms so I met him several times, wearing Sym's purchased clothes. He was a lovely man.
Seriously, every shopping averse male should go there, the stores are designed for male shoppers. Pants, over there. Shirts, over here. I've taken many a scaredy cat boyfriend and male relative shopping there and they love it for how not confusing it is. And the tailors know what they're talking about.
Very true. A third of my wardrobe came from Syms. I remember buying $98 C.Klein pants in their Paramus store.Same pants were shown in then-current GQ, with $215 Barneys price. And of course NJ has no tax on clothing.
Their tailors are professionals. Best around. I like those old Italian women behind cashiers too.
you can still get some seriously cosby sweaters at the one in midtown