"One day we noticed he [Bertrand] was getting rid of most of the watches up in Los Angeles.” The place in Los Angeles was FEDCO, an interesting new wrinkle in the retail economy at the time. From its modest outlet at the end of Slauson Avenue near a cow pasture, FEDCO sold wares at extraordinary discounts to federal employees only — discounts made possible because it was a nonprofit corporation acting almost as a commissary for civilian federal workers. “We found out there were 5000 employees of the federal government in San Diego,” Weiss continues, “and they were all going up to Los Angeles once a week to do their shopping. So we all wondered, why not have one here?"
Sol Price began his career in the mid-1950s, when he worked as an attorney in
San Diego. Clients were in the wholesale jewelry business, and had been selling watches to a non-profit, member-owned retail operation in Los Angeles called
Fedco. When he visited Fedco, Price noticed that its facility was similar to the warehouse he had inherited. He suggested to his clients that his mother-in-law's building, at 2380 Main St., could be used for the same purpose. His clients agreed, marking the beginning of FedMart. The business began in 1954 with a $50,000 ($ in ) capital investment. Price solicited the help of eight individuals, who each invested $5,000 and convinced his law firm to invest the remaining $10,000. He obtained his inventory from clients, beginning with two jewelry wholesalers. Another client, in the furniture business, provided Price with a small selection of furniture. A third client sold liquor, giving Price's FedMart the odd merchandise mix of jewelry, furniture, and liquor. He opened membership to government employees of all levels—federal, state, and local. Despite the less than comprehensive selection of goods, Price's business thrived, collecting $4.5 million during its first year, four times the total projected by Price and his investors. A second store opened in
Phoenix, Arizona, in 1955 quickly followed by a third store in
San Antonio, Texas. A second San Diego-area store opened in Kearny Mesa in 1958 followed by the opening of other stores in San Diego and the rest of Southern California. Membership requirements were dropped in the 1960s and FedMart become a non-membership discount store. In 1969, the company became publicly traded on the
American Stock Exchange. In 1981, Mann was able to obtain the rest of the stock and take the company private. After obtaining a controlling interest in FedMart, Mann pumped more money into the company to enable rapid expansion. Besides building new stores, FedMart leased a store from
White Front in 1974 and purchased the 22-store West Coast division of
Two Guys from
Vornado in 1977 (California) and the 10-store
Globe Store chain from
Walgreens in 1978 (Arizona and Texas). By the early 1980s, FedMart began to lose money and started to close stores, mostly outside of California. There were 46 stores left when Hugo Mann decided to close the chain in 1982 and lease the store locations to other retail firms. Some locations, such as in
Calexico,
Yuma, Window Rock, and one in
Tucson, were bought by former FedMart executives and continued operations until 1994 or earlier, whilst the company changed its name to Sunbelt Realty. 35 of the locations were leased to
Target and the rest were leased to
Ralphs Grocery Stores. The closing of FedMart allowed Target an entry into the highly competitive Southern California marketplace.
Sam Walton, founder of
Walmart, was inspired by the FedMart name for his store. ==References==