The Neiman Marcus cookie recipe hoax
A rumour is spreading the Internet that tells the story of how a woman and her daughter purchased a cookie recipe from Neiman-Marcus thinking it was $2.50 but actually turned out to be $250. The rumour claims the Neiman-Marcus company refused to provide the woman with a refund and now the woman is circulating the recipe so others can have it for free.
The story claims the waitress in the Neiman-Marcus café ambiguously exclaimed the recipe was “two-fifty”. According to the author, two-fifty turned out to mean $250 which she learnt after receiving her VISA bill weeks later.
As far as urban legends go, this is an old one, but it didn’t start with Neiman Marcus. Tales of people “getting one over” on big corporations for a perceived wrongdoing by spreading protected or copyrighted information is a several-decades old business.
Various recipes supposedly for sale but being distributed for free have spread from door-to-door. We say door-to-door because many of these pre-date the Internet by quite some time. The Red Velvet cake recipe, for instance, supposedly charged for by the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, is one such example.
The Neiman Marcus variant has been spreading since at least the early 1990s, and is even less likely to be true since the popular high-street store didn’t even sell cookies at that time. They do now, by the way (in response to the on-going myth) though the recipe is a little different than what is quoted in many versions of this rumour (and there are many.)
And is Neiman Marcus charging for that recipe? No! They’ve made their recipe available since it existed, and it’s on their website here.
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This is an aged, classic urban legend, inspiring us to get our revenge on those “nasty big corporations” that the Internet often loves to hate, which is why these types of rumours often prove so successful. But after 8o plus years of circulation, we’d think you agree that it’s probably time for the “share this recipe” type hoax to be finally put to rest.
See the full rumour (well, at least one example of it) in all its glory below.
My daughter and I had just finished a salad at a Neiman-Marcus Cafe in Dallas, and we decided to have a small dessert. Because both of us 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 the waitress said with a small frown, “I’m afraid not, but you can buy the recipe.” Well, I asked how much, and she responded, “Only two fifty-it’s a great deal!” I agreed to that, and told her to just add it to my tab.
Thirty days later, I received my VISA statement, and the Neiman-Marcus charge 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”. That was outrageous!
I called Neiman’s Accounting Department and told them the waitress said it
was “two fifty”, which clearly does not mean “two hundred and fifty dollars” by
any reasonable interpretation of the phrase. Neiman-Marcus refused to budge.
They would not refund my money because, according to them, “What the waitress
told you is not our problem. You have already seen the recipe. We absolutely
will not refund your money at this point.” I explained to the Accounting Department lady
the criminal statutes which govern fraud in the state of Texas. I threatened to report them
to the Better Business Bureau and the Texas Attorney General’s office for engaging in
fraud. I was basically told, “Do what you want. Don’t bother thinking of how you can get
even, and don’t bother trying to get any of your money back.”
I just said, Okay, you folks got my $250, and now I’m going to have $250 worth of
fun.” I told her that I was going to see to it that every cookie lover in the United
States with an e-mail account has a $250 cookie recipe from Neiman-Marcus…for free.
She replied, “I wish you wouldn’t do this.” I said, “Well, perhaps you should have thought of that before you ripped me off!” and slammed down the phone. So here it is!
Please, please, please pass it on to everyone you can possibly think of. I
paid $250 for this, and I don’t want Neiman-Marcus to EVER make another penny off of this recipe!
$250 Neiman Marcus Cookies
* 2 cups butter
* 24 oz. chocolate chips
* 4 cups flour
* 2 cups brown sugar
* 2 tsp. soda
* 1 tsp. salt
* 2 cups sugar
* 1 8 oz. Hershey Bar (grated)
* 5 cups blended oatmeal
* 4 eggs
* 2 tsp. baking powder
* 2 tsp. vanilla
* 3 cups chopped nuts (your choice)
Measure oatmeal, and blend in a blender to a fine
powder. Cream the butter and both sugars. Add eggs and vanilla, mix together
with flour, oatmeal, salt, baking powder, and soda. Add chocolate chips,
Hershey Bar, and nuts. Roll into balls, and place two inches apart on a cookie sheet.
Bake for 10 minutes at 375 degrees. Makes 112 cookies.
PLEASE READ THE RECIPE AND SEND IT TO EVERY PERSON YOU KNOW WHO HAS AN E-MAIL ADDRESS! THIS IS REALLY TERRIFIC!!
Even if the people on your e-mail list don’t eat sweets send it to them and
ask them to pass it on. Let’s make sure we get these ladies $250.00 worth.
Enjoy the cookies, they are good….
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