There’s Bliss at Saks
NEW GENERAL MANAGER RELISHES ROLE AT BILTMORE SAKS FIFTH AVENUE
A mentor stood with Marie Bliss on Fifth Avenue and asked her what she saw. “I know what I want,” she responded, making a sweeping gesture with her arm toward the exclusive department stores that populate the New York street famous for its over-the-top shopping opportunities: Saks Fifth Avenue, Bergdorf-Goodman, Harry Winston, an endless list of luxury. “I want one of these.” She was in her 20s.
The mentor was Fred Perlman, president of Montreal-based Dalmys (Canada). “You will get one of these. I will be here to help you,” he told her. And he did, serving as her coach through her rise from sales associate to assistant manager, to manager and finally Western regional director with Dalmys.
Bliss’s career spans more than 30 years in retail and real estate strategy and implementation. In February 2014, she became vice president and general manager of Saks Fifth Avenue at Biltmore Fashion Square. She assumed her position upon the departure of Robert Arnold-Kraft, who left the Phoenix store to return to San Francisco with Saks. To take the opportunity, she left the Neiman Marcus Group, where she was assistant general manager and merchandise manager in San Francisco.
Moving to Phoenix wasn’t a difficult decision. Bliss and her husband had lived in the Valley previously and had friends to reconnect with here. Accepting the position at Saks was also not a difficult decision. “It’s a beautiful store,” she says, “an amazing build. The customers have been wonderful.”
Among the appeals of the Biltmore store to her are the store’s history, reputation and connection to the community. One of her goals is to build on that reputation. “We want to become the luxury retailer of choice here. We are going to continually work to make sure we get everything we need for our customers – the very best products and the very best service.”
Challenges that face high-end retailers are similar to those facing other businesses. One of these is cultivating the next generation of shoppers. “The next generation doesn’t see their social lives in the same format as their parents,’ ” she says, noting that she is very much about the newer, more contemporary look.
Wherever Bliss has gone, she’s willing to try new things. Early in her career, she couldn’t find models for a runway show in her store. So she started a modeling agency. She was the first to supply cellphones to all of her sales associates, and then she created a tech-savvy bar to teach them how to use them.
What might shoppers expect to see in a Marie Bliss-managed store here? She loves the store as it is, but she will bring her own spark: creativity, action, dynamic displays. Already she has urged staff to build more advanced visual presentations – to create vignettes and put the mannequins within them. “We have a great presentation,” she says. “We just need to escalate it even further, make it more fluid.”
Bliss loves what she sees in the Valley’s philanthropic community, and notes that it’s “hands-down, the best anywhere.” While Saks is known for its connection to the community, she expects to extend that reach.
Another of her goals is to start a mentoring program. In her previous positions, she has mentored young women both formally and informally, wishing to pass on the coaching and encouragement she received early in her career. “I want to offer the world of retail to people who may not think they can do this. I would love to be able to use our platform here and give that to young people, to show them how to become business people.”
From Perlman she learned that everything happens between the front-line staff and the customer. “He taught me the basics, to understand the customer,” she says, “and then he told me to be creative.”
PHOTO BY AMY VIDEAN
STORY BY CINDY MILLER
