FedMart
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| FedMart | |
 |
|
| Type of Company | Discount membership store |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1948 |
| Headquarters | San Diego, California |
| Industry | Retail |
| Products | clothing, footwear, housewares, sporting goods, hardware, toys, electronics, food |
| Website | None |
FedMart was a chain of discount department stores started by Sol Price, who later founded Price Club. His first location in San Diego, California was in a converted airport hangar. Soon the business took off, expanding to several states in the Southwest United States. Many stores were previous White Front or Two Guys locations. Price later sold the chain to Hugo Mann, a German retail entrepreneur in 1975.
[edit] Hypermarket
Hugo Mann owned a number of successful hypermarkets in Europe, which combined clothing, electronics and household goods, along with food (much like a Wal-Mart Supercenter, but smaller). After the acquisition of FedMart, he began to convert the stores into hypermarkets. Rather than stack items on shelves, they were tossed into wire baskets and unfortunately, FedMart's choice of labels for their own brand of food closely resembled that of the free food distributed to the poor by the USDA at that time. These changes made the store look cheap and disorganized.
[edit] Bankruptcy
The economic downturn of 1981-1982 was more than FedMart could bear, and the chain filed for bankruptcy, liquidating merchandise and closing for good in 1983. Most stores were acquired by Target.
[edit] Trivia
- Until 2002, the oldest remaining FedMart sign still standing was located on Hwy 111 in Calexico, California. The store had been razed years ago.
