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by Ravi Chawla

This is a Syms clothing store, where "an educated consumer is our best customer." Lyndhurst, N.J.-based Syms Corp. is riding high these days on its reputation for selling brand-name clothing, mostly menswear, at big discounts. It has 14 stores stretching from Fort Lauderdale to Buffalo to Chicago, and whenever a shopper telephones one, the phone is answered with the same earnest incantation: "An educated consumer ... " Radio and TV commercials sound the message home--oh so earnest, but oh so friendly--from the very own lips of Sy Syms, formerly Sy Merns, the company's founder and CEO. Bear, Stearns & Co. and Rothschild Inc. jointly took the firm public on the NYSE in 1983, at 28 times earnings. Syms overnight became a centimillionaire, pocketing around $25 million and keeping control of 80% of the stock, currently worth about $170 million. The stock has slipped since its new-issue days, but at a recent 12 still sold at a high 16 times projected earnings and 4 times book value. Quite a trick. How does Syms do it? Company literature explains that Syms sells "a broad range of first quality ... nationally recognized designer and brand-name merchandise at prices substantially lower than generally found in traditional retail stores." The question is, how do you sell cheaper and yet make more money? The answer, unfortunately, is: by sometimes hood-winking its "educated consumers" and sometimes selling them inferior-grade garments that can be mistaken for top-of-the-line goods. Educated consumers? Syms has cashed in on an ill-informed lust for prestige labels on the public's part and on the discreditable willingness of many designers and their licensees to bastardize the brands for a bigger return. Syms' tricks are played with suits bearing such famous names as Givenchy and Brioni, which can be found sprinkled among lesser-known garments by the dozen. Syms' off-price business is built, in theory at least, on the fact that manufacturers routinely produce 5% to 10% more garments...

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