Neiman Marcus to Launch Closeout Site

Neiman Marcus Group is getting ready to go slumming.

The luxury merchant is planning to open a standalone closeout Web site to liquidate past-season and end-of-season clearance merchandise more efficiently, the company said in documents filed recently with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Currently, the company sells clearance merchandise through a tab on NeimanMarcus.com.

The Dallas -based company offered few details about the clearance site other than that it is part of an effort to beef up Neiman Marcus Direct, a unit it credits with generating $504 million in the first three fiscal quarters of 2006 or 15.6% of the company