Even though his name is not over the front door like the legendary Stanley Marcus, Tansky is as much associated with the glory days of Neiman’s, serving as its president for 16 years, leaving an imprint of luxury and exclusivity that will probably never be seen again in the upscale retail sector.
Burt Tansky DAVE TACON
Tansky, who died on March 16 at age 87, grew up in Pittsburgh and while attending the University of Pittsburgh sold football souvenirs, starting a retail career that first took him to Kaufmann’s, the long-gone local department store chain, which he joined in 1961 as a management trainee. “I liked the action at retail,” he later told Women’s Wear Daily. “I liked the momentum, the interaction with people.”
His career path took him to stores in Boston and Dayton, OH before he landed at I Magnin in San Francisco, his first taste of the luxury market, one that stuck with him for the rest of his life.
“That’s when I found out that there is another way of life in the retail world,” he told the Leadership Business Council in 2015. “For me, there was no turning back.”
He eventually became president, ironically, of Saks Fifth Avenue before moving to Dallas in 1994 to take on the leadership of Neiman’s, a position he held until his retirement in 2010. During his years at Neiman’s, he was a hands-on manager. During store visits, he liked inspecting shoe displays, according to a WWD obituary. “No woman has enough shoes. That’s why I like the business,” Tansky told WWD in an earlier interview. “I can talk shoes. I can talk underwear. I can talk hats. I love to talk about the merchandise.”
Tansky died just weeks after Saks had announced it would be closing the downtown Dallas flagship, a decision that was since postponed until at least the end of the year. One suspects the closing was not something he would not have approved of.