Ira Neimark (courtesy of IraNeimark.com)

Remember the old TV commercial: “When E.F. Hutton speaks, people listen?”  Well, the same is — or ought to be — true of retailing legends when they’re taking their victory laps or sitting on their verandas in gated, golf communities.  Yesterday, Kevin Coupe of MorningNewsBeat.com picked up a WSJ story about former Bergdorf Goodman CEO Ira Neimark, in which he offers a bit of advice.  Here are a few tidbits:

Customers are always looking for something new to make their lives a bit more exciting, no matter what age or gender, in good times or bad.

Always take the opportunity to visit every business that relates to your own…There is no question, in any business, that it is imperative to know as much as possible about your present and potential customer.

Neimark swears by the under-appreciated MBWA degree – Management By Walking Around.  For him, focus groups are like “kissing a girl through the screen door.”  On another topic, you, dear reader, likely escaped Mr. Neimark’s disapprobation by dint of being in electronic retail.  The former exec regarded with disfavor the few salespeople he did find during a recent visit the Westchester mall, near his home in Harrison, N.Y.  Their dress, their manners and (one imagines) any number of other things were all found wanting.