Corporate Ruffians The Great Neiman Marcus Cookie Ripoff Plus Get Your Free Cookie Revenge Dallas Texas

I have lived in Dallas most of my life and I liked to buy cologne and a very OCCASIONAL purchase ON SALE at Neiman's and I have NEVER HEARD OF IT BEING POSSIBLE TO BUY A RECIPE FOR $250.00

I seem to recall back in the 1940s or 1950s that maybe a recipe for chocolate chip cookies was included for FREE in some sort of ONE-TIME promotion literature or in holiday wishes sent out to preferred customers or something like that...

BUT THIS STORY SIMPLY IS NOT TRUE.

I don't recall the store even selling cookbooks but it has been almost 20 years since I have lived "back home" in Dallas,Texas and my memory may not be as good as it was.

Where does this crap come from. First of all, Neiman Marcus does not operate cafes, they are restaurants. Second, they certainly don't charge for their cookie recipe. All you have to do is ask for it and you will get it at no charge (unless you decide to buy a tin of NM Cookies which has the recipe on it.)On top of all that, Neiman Marcus does not accept Visa so the original poster may want to check that statement again.

Just as a side note. Clients don't shop at NM because of the prices. They shop at NM for quality merchandise and the excellent personal attention that they receive. Big guys and "little guys" alike.

I have already copied the recipe to word pad.

Take solice in knowing it's just about over for the NM folks.

LET'S HEAR IT FOR THE GENIUS GUYS AT RIPOFFREPORT.COM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Again, GREAT JOB!!!!!!!

I have already copied the recipe to word pad.

Take solice in knowing it's just about over for the NM folks.

LET'S HEAR IT FOR THE GENIUS GUYS AT RIPOFFREPORT.COM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Again, GREAT JOB!!!!!!!

I have already copied the recipe to word pad.

Take solice in knowing it's just about over for the NM folks.

LET'S HEAR IT FOR THE GENIUS GUYS AT RIPOFFREPORT.COM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Again, GREAT JOB!!!!!!!

I have already copied the recipe to word pad.

Take solice in knowing it's just about over for the NM folks.

LET'S HEAR IT FOR THE GENIUS GUYS AT RIPOFFREPORT.COM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Again, GREAT JOB!!!!!!!

Good try Neiman Marcus. As usual you folks think everyone will believe anything you tell them.

PLEASE try again. I have known for years you people sell jewelry stolen on the east coast in your Beverly Hills store on the west coast.

Sorry you didn't know who you were lieing to at the time. Hopefully you'll be able to figure it out soon.

Carry on rip-off artists. Carry on.

Obviously you decided this was important enough to post but it was not important enough to verify in the first place. This urban legend has been kicking around inboxes for years; just because someone forwards something to your e-mail does not mean it is true. It has been forwarded to me (and everyone else in the sender's address book)atleast twice. However, instead of mindlessly forwarding it and propagating more lies and stupidity, I took the time to investigate the claim by going to the Neiman Marcus website. Apparently they have been so inundated with inquiries about this over the years that they posted a disclaimer to the effect that the story is NOT true and actually posted the same recipe--for free. Go to their website and in "search" just type the word "cookie." It will come right up.

There are enough true ripoffs here that warrant negative attention. This is just a waste of time and bandwidth.

The original poster is either incredibly gullible or simply enjoys spreading lies. This is one of the oldest urban legends ever to appear on the internet, and is even addressed on the Neiman Marcus company site. In the future, I'd suggest looking at snopes.com before posting such crap. If "revenge" is making yourself look incredibly stupid, you have succeeded!

From snopes.com:

Claim: Neiman-Marcus charged a shopper $250 for its cookie recipe, not the $2.50 the woman had been expecting to pay. As revenge on the store for refusing to reverse the charge, she now provides the recipe for free and exhorts others to pass it along.

Status: False.

Origins: What
we have here is a golden oldie of an urban legend, one second in tenacity only to Craig Shergold's request for business cards. It's the ultimate "strike a blow for the little guy," and in that lies its appeal. That by forwarding it on, we can be armchair heroes.

Though its present incarnation casts Neiman-Marcus as the bad guy, this legend has been around for at least 50 years, and it's been told of various companies (and various confections) during its long history. Here's a fine example from a 1948 cookbook, Massachusetts Cooking Rules, Old and New, which lists not only the recipe for "$25 Fudge Cake" but also gives the following explanation for the name:

This friend had to pay $25 upon the receipt of the recipe from the chef of one of the railroads. She had asked for the recipe while eating on a train. The chef gladly sent it to her, together with a bill for $25, which her attorney said she had to pay. She then gave the recipe to all her friends, hoping they would get some pleasure from it.

Sound disturbingly familiar?

The Cookie 1960s saw this tale mutate into a villainization of New York's famed Waldorf-Astoria hotel over a dessert known as "Red Velvet Cake." A woman who'd dined at the hotel later wrote to ask for the recipe. The recipe arrived . . . along with a bill for $350, a bill her lawyer assured her she had to pay. Her way of getting even was -- you guessed it -- to distribute the recipe far and wide.

($350 is a shocking figure for those times. Just to give an idea of the relative worth of things back then, the grocery budget at my house was $50 a week for a family of four. Faced with a $35 dentist bill, my mother would for the next two weeks stand over me as I brushed my teeth at bedtime, making sure I wasn't half doing the job and thus sentencing the family to the poor house.)

By the late 1970s, this legend had shifted to Mrs. Fields and chocolate chip cookies. Indeed, this version proved so fiendishly popular that in 1987 the following notice signed by Debbi Fields was displayed in her stores:

Mrs. Fields recipe has never been sold. There is a rumor circulating that the Mrs. Fields Cookie recipe was sold to a woman at a cost of $250. A chocolate-chip cookie recipe was attached to the story. I would like to tell all my customers that this story is not true, this is not my recipe and I have not sold the recipe to anyone. Mrs. Fields recipe is a delicious trade secret.

You rarely hear this tale told of Mrs. Fields these days -- the 1990s saw it shift yet again, this time to point a finger at Neiman-Marcus. One possible reason for this shift could have been a double misremembering of names as the legend was briefly told of the department store Marshall Fields: Mrs. Fields to Marshall Fields (similar name) and Marshall Fields to Neiman-Marcus (similar-sounding name plus both are department stores).

As the latest in a long line of victims, Neiman-Marcus has fielded numerous inquiries about the following tale (which I've excerpted from the rather lengthy canonical version):

My daughter & I had just finished a salad at Neiman-Marcus Cafe in Dallas & decided to have a small dessert. Because our family are such cookie lovers, we decided to try the "Neiman-Marcus Cookie". It was so excellent that I asked if they would give me the recipe and they said with a small frown, "I'm afraid not." Well, I said, would you let me buy the recipe? With a cute smile, she said, "Yes." I asked how much, and she responded, "Two fifty." I said with approval, just add it to my tab.

Thirty days later, I received my VISA statement from Neiman-Marcus and it was $285.00. I looked again and I remembered I had only spent $9.95 for two salads and about $20.00 for a scarf. As I glanced at the bottom of the statement, it said, "Cookie Recipe - $250.00." Boy, was I upset!! I called Neiman's Accounting Dept. and told them the waitress said it was "two fifty," and I did not realize she meant $250.00 for a cookie recipe.

(Neiman-Marcus refuses to strike down the bill; then comes the usual exhortation from the writer to pass this along to as many as possible.)

Especially in their particular case, the legend is even more improbable than usual in that:

* Until quite recently there was no such thing as a "Neiman-Marcus" cookie. They developed a chocolate chip cookie in response to the rumor.

* There is no "Neiman Marcus Cafe" at any of the chain's three Dallas-area stores. Instead, the restaurants are named Zodiac, Zodiac at North Park, and The Woods.

* Neiman Marcus does not sell recipes from its restaurants. The department store gives them away for free to anyone who asks.

(Check out the Neiman Marcus web page for a bit about this piece of lore and their newly-developed chocolate chip cookie recipe.)

As to why this legend has taken on a life of its own despite persistent and detailed debunkings, it's a classic David and Goliath story. It is, after all, the little guy smacking the big, heartless corporation a swift one right across the nose, something both you and I have often longed to do. This bit of faxlore invites -- nay, demands -- participation. Painless participation too. One tap of the "Forward" key and someone who always saw herself as part of The Forces For Good (but who could never find the time to change the world) gets to enjoy that wonderfully warming self-righteous feeling that comes from Striking A Blow. All it takes is either a couple of pins and a bulletin board or e-mail capability and an alias list and your good deed of the day is done and finished before the morning's first coffee has cooled.

What's the possible slandering of an innocent company when there's a cheap 'n' easy "warm fuzzy feeling" to be had? Like, would an anonymous, forwarded-a-million-times e-mail lie to you?