Harold Roitenberg (January 7, 1927 – December 20, 2018) was an American businessman who founded the catalog, Modern Merchandising Inc., a merchandiser and showroom catalog.

Early life and education

Roitenberg was born to a

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

family, the son of Sarah and Norman Roitenberg. Roitenberg graduated with a B.A. in Journalism from the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

Career

After school, Roitenberg worked in the advertising department of Northwestern Auto Parts in Minneapolis and then went to work for his father-in-law who owned Minnesota Wholesalers which sold horse supplies. During his tenure, he expanded the company into a

catalog showroom A catalog merchant (catalogue merchant in Commonwealth English) is a form of retailing. The typical merchant sells a wide variety of household and personal products, with many emphasizing jewelry. Unlike a self-serve retail store, most of the i ...

business that also sold small appliances, housewares, electronics, and jewelry. Upon his father-in-law's death, Roitenberg ventured out on his own founding Creative Merchandising & Publishing in 1960. The company focused on producing catalogs for small businesses who wanted to develop a catalog presence but did not have the expertise, resources, and buying power to secure lower prices from manufacturers. Roitenberg's company allowed them to purchase collectively and secure lower prices. In 1961, he changed the name to Modern Merchandising Inc. In 1982, Modern Merchandising, then the 3rd largest catalog retailer, was acquired by

Best Products Best Products Company, Inc., or simply Best, was a chain of United States, American catalog showroom retail stores founded by Sydney and Frances Lewis in 1957 and formerly headquartered in Richmond, Virginia. The company was in existence for four ...

in a stock transaction worth $109 million. The merger was accretive as Best Products' showrooms were mainly on the East Coast, Texas, and California while Modern Merchandising was mostly in the Midwest and the Northwest.

Personal life

Roitenberg passed away on December 20, 2018, at the age of 91. He had five children: Steven Roitenberg, David Roitenberg, Sam Roitenberg, Jane Roitenberg Nolen, and Ursula Roitenber Galanos. All his sons predeceased him. Roitenberg was a victim of

Bernard Madoff Bernard Lawrence Madoff ( ; April 29, 1938April 14, 2021) was an American financial criminal and financier who was the admitted mastermind of the largest known Ponzi scheme in history, worth an estimated $65 billion. He was at one time ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Roitenberg, Harold 1927 births 2018 deaths 20th-century American Jews 20th-century American businesspeople American company founders University of Minnesota School of Journalism and Mass Communication alumni 20th-century American philanthropists 21st-century American Jews