John Geisse
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John F. Geisse (died Feb. 21, 1992) was a major retail pioneer. He is the author of the "better quality discount store concept in America" often called "upscale discount store concept" and was inducted into Discount Store News's Discount Hall of Fame in 1984.[1]
During his retailing career, he launched three successful retail chains. In 1962, with Douglas J. Dayton, he founded and launched the chain Target for the Dayton's Company, now known as Target Corporation. In 1968, he left Target and started with May Department Stores, where he founded the Venture chain. In 1975, he "retired" from May Co. and Venture and then purchased Ayr-Way Stores, Indianapolis. After he sold Ayr Way Stores, he was a long time consultant to his friend Sam Walton and Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. In 1982, he founded his third chain, a midwestern warehouse club called The Wholesale Club, Inc. of Indianapolis, that inspired Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. to create its SAM'S CLUB division in 1983.[1] In 1991, he sold The Wholesale Club chain to Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., and The Wholesale Club merged with SAM'S CLUB.
[edit] Notes and references
John Geisse obit in DSN is very accurate. Thomas Geisse
Discount pioneer Geisse dead at 71 - John Geisse - Obituary Discount Store News, March 16, 1992 by Arthur Markowitz INDIANAPOLIS - John Geisse, a pioneering discount store executive who originated the upscale discount store concept and launched three successful chains, died at his home here Feb. 21 of a heart attack. He was 71 years old. Geisse's retailing career spanned over 40 years, during which he profoundly affected both the business and personal lives of many industry executives.
In recognition of his contributions to discounting, Geisse was inducted into DSN's Discount Hall of Fame in 1984. The citation notes his "having originated the upscale, better-quality discount store concept in America and for being the driving force behind Target and Venture chains, and founder of The Wholesale Club."
He launched Target for the Dayton Co. in 1962 as the industry's first upscale discount store. That made Dayton, a Minneapolis-based department store chain, which later became the Dayton Hudson Co., the first department store with a discount division. Six years later he started Venture stores for The May Co., another department store chain.
He was also an advisor to a number of major discounters. He left Venture in 1975 to start a consulting firm, with Wal-Mart stores as his principal client, and the next year became chairman of Ayr-Way discount stores. (Ayr-Way, controlled by Stephens Inc., a Little Rock, Ark., investment banking firm that had taken Wal-Mart public five years earlier, was acquired by Target in 1980.)
In 1978, Geisse re-established his consulting business, advising such discounters as Wal-Mart, Ayr-Way and Ames and in 1982 founded The Wholesale Club. His insights on the wholesale club industry inspired Wal-Mart to start its own membership warehouse chain, Sam's Club, a year later. The Wholesale Club was acquired by Wal-Mart a year ago and folded it into Sam's Club.
Sam Walton, Wal-Mart's founder and chairman, called Geisse "a pioneer in innovative retailing concepts, creating concepts new and different from anything else in the industry at that time. He was years ahead of everyone else. "I have never know anyone else that I respected more for many things, including integrity, morality and the way he cared for his associates," Walton added.
Dave Babcock, retired May Co. chairman, knew Geisse since 1951 when both worked for the Dayton Co. He was present when Geisse started Target and then Venture. In 1960, Babcock was vice president of personnel, and the first non-family member director of privately held Dayton. He recalled that "John was a vice president. He had looked at the early discounters and decided there was a place for an upscale discounter. His first thought was to get financing and open his own chain."
Geisse reminisced in a St. Louis Dispatch article in 1970 that "Target was my idea originally and I had decided in 1960 to leave the Dayton Co. and set up my own operation. The Dayton management pointed out that I would need capital - something they had. So I agreed to stay with Dayton and develop a discount subsidiary provided I could have an equity interest." He was given a 6% share of Target.
Babcock said, "John built Target, putting the whole thing together with help from the Dayton organization. Douglas Dayton, the youngest family member, went with him into Target, but John created the whole merchandising concept and ambience. "John was a very, very bright man, a [December 1941] graduate from Annapolis [Navel Academy], and very creative; he was almost possessed to do this - and do it right," Babcock added.
Geisse was senior vice president and general merchandise manager of Target - which had grown to 11 stores in three states - when he resigned in July 1968, telling other executives in a memo that "I miss the pell mell excitement of the blood, sweat and tears of the first five years of Target's formation that most of us here today went through together. I confess to a tremendous pride in you and what you have accomplished, and I take that pride away with me."
He had differed with other Target executives over expansion strategy, according to a 1967 Harvard Business School study of the chain, favoring a market dominance plan over shotgun growth. The Minneapolis Star Tribune said in its obituary that Geisse left "when he was passed over for the top job."
A month later May Co. announced that Geisse was joining the company as president of a new discount store division. "John had tremendous strength as a creator and builder," Babcock said, "but he didn't always have the patience to do boring things like day-to-day management over a long period of time. Had he lived he would probably have started something else." In 1968, Babcock was May Co. executive vp. He was traveling on company business when he learned that Geisse had resigned. May Co. at that time couldn't acquire any more chains under an antitrust consent decree reached with the Department of Justice. "I felt that there was room for another Target and told John not to do anything until I talked with him. So we met with John and his wife, Mary, to discuss the idea. John then made a presentation to May's executive committee and after some deliberations we decided to create Venture."
