GrandPa's
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| GrandPa's, Inc. | |
|---|---|
| Type | Defunct |
| Founded | 1954 St. Louis, MO |
| Headquarters | St. Louis, MO |
| Key people | Tom Pidgeon, Jack Holley |
| Industry | Retail (Department & Discount) |
| Products | Clothing, footwear, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, electronics, and housewares. |
| Website | none |
GrandPa's or GrandPa Pidgeon's was a discount store founded in 1954 by Tom and Mildred Pidgeon, spreading across the midwest from its Bridgeton, MO (near St. Louis) origins, which remained truly "discount", when most others like Venture, Kmart and Target gradually raised prices in order to finance a more attractive layout and broader range of merchandise.
The company was owned by Gramex Corporation founded in 1958 which also oversaw such companies as Forsyth Computers and Omni Sports, which was forced to close due to increasing competition.
GrandPa's was sold, in 1999, to Value City[1]. It had approximately $200,000,000 in sales in its final year. It was profitable until its sale, failing to end only 1993 in the black, but was said to be facing a harder struggle near the end.
The company was known for their newspaper distributed advertising circulars that were printed mostly with black ink on a brown paper, in contrast to the glossy full color circulars of competitors.
