Harold Roitenberg

Roitenberg was born to a Jewish family, the son of Sarah and Norman Roitenberg.[1] Roitenberg graduated with a B.A. in Journalism from the University of Minnesota.[2] After school, he worked in the advertising department of Northwestern Auto Parts in Minneapolis.

Then he went to work for his father-in-law who owned Minnesota Wholesalers which sold horse supplies.[2] During his tenure, he expanded the company into a catalog showroom business that also sold small appliances, housewares, electronics, and jewelry.[2]

Upon his father-in-law's death, Roitenberg was unable to obtain a satisfactory equity interest in the company and ventured out on his own founding Creative Merchandising & Publishing[2] in 1960.[3] As he had little in the way of resources, he could not support his own showroom so he instead developed a new business model which 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.[2] Roitenberg's company allowed them to purchase collectively and secure lower prices.[2] In 1961, he changed the name to Modern Merchandising Inc.[3] Due to its origin as a catalog publisher, Modern Merchandising published its own catalog along with that of competitors Service Merchandise (founded by Harry Zimmerman) and Best Products (founded by Sydney Lewis); the three companies (whose owners were friends) had regional non-compete agreements with each other. In 1982, Modern Merchandising, then the 3rd largest catalog retailer, was acquired by Best Products in a stock transaction worth $109 million.[4] 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 Northwest.[4]

Roitenberg had five children: Steven Roitenberg, David Roitenberg, Sam Roitenberg, Jane Roitenberg Nolen, and Ursula Roitenber Galanos.[1] All his sons predeceased him.[1] Roitenberg was a victim of Bernard Madoff.[5]