Neiman Marcus in popular culture

Neiman Marcus' international fame has led to its inclusion in many popular media. Television sitcoms can quickly convey someone's wealth by making the character a Neiman Marcus shopper, as was done with Blair Warner of the 1980s sitcom The Facts of Life.[citation needed] Similarly, in an episode of A Different World in which the well-to-do Whitley Gilbert must return all her credit cards to her father, she is especially loath to give up her Neiman's card and reminisces wistfully over past N-M purchases.[28] The store was mentioned widely on the show Dharma and Greg as being a source for the upscale mother's clothes; moreover, the family's pair of Rottweilers are named Neiman and Marcus. A character on the TV series Gilmore Girls compares his ordinary measuring tape to that of the haughty matriarch, Emily Gilmore, telling her daughter: "Your mother got hers at Neiman Marcus. It’s platinum with gold leaf — it costs more than my car!".[29] Hilary Banks in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air also frequented Neiman's. In an episode of Frasier, Niles's wife Maris is said to be en route to Dallas which she regards as her holy land because of it being the site of the first Neiman Marcus. It is also mentioned in the first episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer when Buffy says that Sunnydale is "two hours on the freeway from Neiman Marcus."

The store is mentioned in a number of minor ways in other media. It is said that the shopping scenes from Blu Cantrell's "Hit 'Em Up Style (Oops!)" were filmed at a Neiman Marcus store, and the lyrics mention shopping at Neiman-Marcus after discovering her boyfriend/husband cheating on her. The computer game NetHack involves a buried joke in which the player is told, "You hear Neiman and Marcus arguing" while hallucinating on a game level that includes a shop. American parodist "Weird Al" Yankovic released a song entitled "I'll Sue Ya" on his album Straight Outta Lynwood that satirizes America's fame for frivolous lawsuits; in the song, the singer jokes about various lawsuits he has filed, including suing Neiman Marcus because they "put up their Christmas decorations way out of season."

The chain is also mentioned in the Steve Martin and John Candy comedy film "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles". When Martin's character is going over his credit cards, after he and Candy's character have been robbed, he remarks "And, I've got a Neiman-Marcus card in case we want to buy a gift for somebody."

The chain is mentioned numerous times in the series The Golden Girls by the women; for example in one episode the character of Sophia explains that her Christmas present can be found on the second floor, petite section of their local Neiman Marcus.

In the song "Emotionless" on rapper Jim Jones' album, Hustler's P.O.M.E. (Product of My Environment) mentions Neiman Marcus in his line: "Maserati lookin' like a shark on land, Neiman Marcus Edition, contraband, Neiman Marcus I'm in it, shoppin' and, $5,000 spent on pants, man."

In the Dennis the Menace cartoon strip, the store appears occasionally under the caricature "Deiman-Harcus."

In a dig at 2008 Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin's expensive campaign wardrobe, the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee referred to Palin in a pun as "Neiman Marxist" in promoting a web site called www.DressLikePalin.org, where visitors were shown the approximate price of items in the candidate's wardrobe and comparisons to what health care or work-clothing costs the same money could have paid.[30] The same week, humorist Steve Young posted a satirical fake press-release claiming that Neiman Marcus was in talks to develop a Palinwear clothing line for its stores following the November 4 elections, including various fictitious clothing lines that spoofed the candidate's outdoorsman husband, their unmarried and pregnant daughter, and her assertion that Russia's proximity to her home state of Alaska gave her foreign-relations experience.[31]

The "Neiman Marcus $250 Cookie Recipe" story

The store is featured in an urban legend involving a supposed recipe for its popular chocolate chip cookie.[32] In the legend, a woman and her daughter enjoy a cookie while shopping at Neiman Marcus in Dallas, Texas, and ask for the recipe. The waiter informs her there will be a "two-fifty" charge, which the woman interprets as $2.50. Upon receiving her VISA statement, she is shocked to discover she has been charged $250.00 instead. In revenge, she photocopies the recipe and urges her friends to distribute it for free to everyone they know so that the store will make no further profit on its sale. Because the story typically was passed along as a photocopy, it falls in the legend subcategory of Xeroxlore. Later, with the advent of the Internet, it reemerged as an infamous chain e-mail,

Folklorists have pointed out three chief holes in the story:

Prior to the emergence of the legend, the store did not have a chocolate chip cookie;[33]

A similar story has been around since the 1940s, originally involving a red velvet cake recipe from the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. It wasn't until the 1980s that the story's focus shifted to cookies. The cookie version of the story originally was attached to Mrs. Fields cookies, causing that company eventually to post disavowals of the notices at all its stores.

Neiman-Marcus for most of its history only accepted its own card and American Express
Although the story is untrue, Neiman Marcus published a cookie recipe to quell rumors. There is also another cookie recipe that is also published on the company's website that is slightly different than the above. Kevin Garvin wrote the recipe in 1995. It is featured on the company's website for free. It also is in the Neiman Marcus Cookbook (Clarkson Potter, $45) by Mr. Garvin and John Harrisson.