“Three dimes is better than a quarter,” was one of his favorite sayings, said Spencer. Their father was more of a lead-by-example kind of guy. His sons noted that the man who never quite got around to finishing his college education once he started selling those ties at ZCMI also never quite got around to writing a formal employee handbook. “But there’s no question Mac was ahead of his time.” “There isn’t the draw to opening early there once was,” said Stuart, 54. Mac apart, back in the pre-internet days, before big box stores upped the ante by opening earlier and earlier, spilling into Thanksgiving Day itself, until everyone started doing it. We’d open early and have what we called door crasher sales.”įor years, those door crashers set Mr. “We did the same thing on Labor Day, Memorial Day, Veterans Day - anytime people had the day off. “We used to open on the Friday after Thanksgiving at 7 a.m.,” said Spencer, 58, who began working for his dad when he was 13, starting out in the Kearns Building in downtown Salt Lake City. On the eve of Thanksgiving week, they reminisced about their dad inventing Black Friday before anyone ever thought to call it that.

Mac flagship store in the City Creek Center. Mac’s sons Spencer and Stuart run the Mr. And if everybody else had the day off, he didn’t. 11 at age 85, surrounded by his family and his legacy of outfitting more missionaries than the Spanish court.Ī self-made businessman who parlayed a job selling ties at ZCMI into a two-pant suit empire, with stores up and down the length and breadth of Utah, Christensen, better than most, understood the art of the sale. The man who would be a first ballot inductee into the Utah Entrepreneur Hall of Fame, if there was one, passed away Oct. It’s been over a month now that Mac Christensen hasn’t been with us. Which is ironic, given all the Thanksgiving weekends Mr. and will not be open at all on Thanksgiving night. Mac clothing store closest to you won’t open until 8 a.m. SALT LAKE CITY - This coming Friday, the Mr.

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