An Educated Consumer is Our Best Customer: Sy Syms Dead at 83 ...

by Matzav Editor

The off-price clothing that Mr. Syms sold on unadorned racks in large, no-frills stores, mesmerized customers who recognized prestige designer labels in the lining. Although not all of the attire was actually the same Pierre Cardin jacket or Brioni suit you’d find it Italy, it was good enough to satisfy bargain-hunting customers who needed a decent suit for a job interview, and it made Mr. Syms a multimillionaire.

Syms Corp., a New Jersey-based public company, operates 30 stores in 13 states. In June, it acquired Filene’s Basement, adding 22 stores to its empire. Mr. Syms, who was succeeded by his daughter Marcy as the chief executive in 1998, remained the firm’s chairman.

His success was due in no small part to the television commercials in which he appeared, starting in 1974, and that are still on the air.

“My father had an uncanny talent that made him sensitive to the needs of his customers and the changes in the marketplace,” Marcy Syms said in a statement. “He knew the time was right for off-price retailing. Certainly he was ahead of his time.”

Seymour Merinsky was born May 12, 1926, in Brooklyn, N.Y. His family changed its surname to Merns when Mr. Syms’s father and older brother opened a clothing store by that name. Mr. Syms originally didn’t plan to enter the rag trade. He served in the Army, then graduated from New York University with a broadcasting degree. In 1948, he became a sportscaster in Cumberland, Md.

After two years, he returned to New York to join the family business.

But family businesses are nothing if not dispute factories, and by 1959, Mr. Syms left to open a rival store around the corner. He named it “Sy Merns” but lost a court battle with his family and was forced to rename the store. He chose Syms and later changed his own name to match it.

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