Gimbel was born on April 10, 1885 in Vincennes, Indiana, the son of Isaac Gimbel and Rachel Feustman. His grandfather, Adam Gimbel, an immigrant from Bavaria, founded his Palace of Trade at Vincennes in 1842. Successful there, he moved to Philadelphia in 1865, leaving his sons in charge of the family store in Indiana. The Gimbel brothers prospered. After experimenting with branch stores in nearby small communities, they moved their operations to Milwaukee in 1887.
Young Bernard began his education in the public schools of Milwaukee. Bernard attended the William Penn Charter School until 1903. In 1904 he entered the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He graduated from college in 1907 with a B. S. in economics.
After graduation, Gimbel began work at the family store in Philadelphia. He served briefly in a variety of positions before becoming a vice-president in 1909. That same year he played a major role in convincing his father and uncles to open a branch in New York City. There they rented a ten-story building on Broadway between Thirty-second and Thirty-third streets. Macy's, the store that became their chief (albeit friendly) rival, stood a block away. Superbly sited at the confluence of the Pennsylvania and Long Island railroads, four subways, and the Hudson Tubes (an underground railroad connecting Manhattan and several New Jersey communities), the new Gimbels opened in 1910 and proved an immediate success. Not long after, in an astute move, Bernard persuaded his reluctant elders to purchase for $9 million the building on which they were paying an annual rent of $655, 000. In 1923 the family moved to Chieftans, a 200-acre estate, in Greenwich, Connecticut In the 1920's Gimbel's love of athletics, travel, and high living earned him a reputation as a member of the so-called "international sporting set. " But during these years he also helped expand Gimbels. In 1922 he persuaded the family to convert Gimbel Brothers into a public corporation. He engineered Gimbels' purchase of the Saks Thirty-fourth Street and Saks Fifth Avenue stores in 1923, and of Kaufmann and Baer of Pittsburgh in 1925. The Saks Thirty-fourth Street store closed in 1965, but the other two proved to be highly profitable acquisitions. In 1927, following a riding accident, Isaac Gimbel retired from the active management of Gimbels to chairmanship of its board of directors. Bernard became president, although he never considered himself as able a merchant as his father. His success in business was due less to attention to detail than to his grasp of broad issues and his ability to sense the public's mood. He avidly read the newspapers and daily traveled the subways of his beloved New York City to keep abreast of the tastes and interests of his customers. Under his leadership, Gimbels weathered the Great Depression, but not without losses. A shrewd guess that World War II would create shortages led Gimbel to borrow $21 million to lay in stocks of hard-to-obtain items such as nylon and silk stockings and toy electric trains that were sold at considerable profit in 1942 and 1943. At the war's end Gimbels marketed surplus military items, including small flare parachutes and field telephones, as toys for children. During and after the war Gimbel stressed thrift, deliberately keeping the main store rather dowdy in appearance. Sensing a growing affluence in the country, Gimbel refurbished the New York City store in 1949, giving it a smart, more fashionable appearance. Even so, the company continued to cater to every economic level, from its basement stores for bargain hunters to its Saks Fifth Avenue stores for those seeking luxury items. Under Bernard Gimbel's direction, talented outsiders gradually moved into many top positions in the firm. Those whom he put in charge of branch stores were given freedom to adapt to the particular needs and tastes of the communities they served. Gimbel, on occasion, erred in business decisions. He was very slow to join the movement of department stores to the suburbs, for example, beginning only in 1953, the year he stepped down as president. By 1966, however, the firm was operating twenty-seven Gimbels stores and twenty-seven Saks stores across the nation, many in the new shopping malls that were revolutionizing the retail business. Gimbel continued as chief executive officer of the company until 1961 and as chairman of the board until his death. Except for two years during the depression, Gimbels grew steadily during his association with the firm. Instead of fighting unionization when his employees began to organize in 1936, Gimbel simply hired an exceptionally skillful negotiator who over the years kept wages competitive with those of rival firms. Gimbel served on a large number of civic projects, notably the New York World's Fair committees of 1939 and 1964-1965 and the New York Convention and Visitors Bureau. He died in New York City on September 29, 1966.
Unlike many of his business associates, Gimbel voted for Franklin D. Roosevelt and contributed to all four of his presidential campaigns.
An energetic man who required but five hours of sleep a night, Gimbel compensated for an overly hearty appetite by regular and vigorous exercise.
On April 4, 1912, Gimbel married Alva Bernheimer. They had five children, including a son, Bruce, who succeeded Bernard as president of Gimbels.
