The Age Of The Giant Marts
Posted: Friday, December 04, 2009
by Joel Hendon
http://hebronics.org/index.html
As most of my readers are aware, I was born a while ago, 1930 to be exact. And I've seen things come and go. Fads develop and fade, etc., things changed a lot from time to time. The U.S. was largely an agricultural country but was developing into a machinery and production country. Which, developed into big business and fairly prosperous times. Then we began allowing our prosperous businesses to get away and we became, largely a technology country, which is still growing, but we have to let someone else build the products we develop.
There was "Roses 5 & 10 Cent Stores" which flourished from 1929 to 1980. Then S. H. Kress also had a successful chain from 1896 to 1980. Plus there were several others with limited numbers and limited success.
Sebastian S. Kresge began his career as a clerk in a hardware store for two years, then became a traveling salesman for five years. On March 20, 1897, he started with James G. McCrorey in a 5 and 10 cent store where he worked for two years and purchased a part interest in the store. He then, in partnership with an investor, began his own company with two stores of the 5 and 10 cent variety. He later traded his part in the McCrory's store for half in another. Kresge's stores became quite successful and by 1912, he had 85 stores and he became incorporated under the name S.S. Kresge Corporation. By 1924, his worth was approximately $375 million (worth around $5 billion in today's money value).
When Sam Walton came out of the military in 1945, he opened a variety store with the help of an investor and his own savings of $5,000. He went into the business to succeed and always kept his selves well stocked with popular items at low prices and kept the store open longer than most stores' hours. He purchased a Ben Franklin five and dime store which also became successful and he opened more Ben Franklin stores. His success was phenomenal.
Shopping centers became vogue and rather than become involved thus, he built larger stores and called them Walton's Family Centers. By 1962, he and his brother, Bud, owned 16 variety stores in Arkansas, Missouri and Kansas. He opened his first Wal-Mart on July 2, 1962 in Rogers, Arkansas. Wal-Mart operate stores in all fifty states and many foreign countries. They are the number one discount chain in the entire world.
This same year, Kresge, opened his first Kmart and enjoyed good success for several years. They expanded into 49 states, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands, and in 2006, they had 1,416 stores. The company acquired Sears in 2005. They presently rank as the third largest discount store chain in the world, behind only Wal-Mart and Target.
This type of merchandising was unheard of in the early part of my life and I can recall the beginning of those "Marts". Kmart was the first to establish stores in the area where we lived in 1962, and I thought this was the most wonderful store I had ever known. You could find almost anything there at reasonable prices. I had not hear of Wal-mart or Target at the time. When I did learn that Wal-Mart was putting up similar store to that of Kmart, I felt they were simply one trying to get in on the success story, but then I learned of their background and their success. It took a while before either had stores in smaller towns and as they did so, Wal-Mart took the lead and has held it for many years. Target, was much slower in locating in our area, and in fact, my first visit to one was about two years ago.
These large super stores all but extinguished the small Mom and Pop shops, simply because of their vast variety of products and, because of their purchasing leverage, could beat the prices of the smaller shops by a considerable margin.
Now, with online shopping, all of these giants are becoming more and more involved. And in this endeavor, they have other strong competition. There are those such as Amazon which was almost entirely book sales a few years ago, but now has an enormously huge variety of just about everything. Their marketing innovations involve much more than simply stocking millions of dollars worth of merchandise, but partnering with thousands of manufacturers and wholesalers which drop-ship those items not in their own warehouses. Plus they offer businesses the opportunity to become associated with them and share the benefits of their vast advertising and reputation.
Reader's Digest also has become an online retailer with a variety of quality products. I suspect these will be joined by others rapidly.
It appears that more and more people are, and will continue to be, shopping online due to high costs of gasoline and personal transportation.
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Top-level comments on this article: (3 total)I miss the better quality of goods that were offered in corner and small local stores in our far distant past.Small shoe repair stores have not been replaced by 'marts' but have vanished totally vanished as have small local small candy-soda fountain stores and stationery stores.Small local fruit and vegetable stores, hardware stores, small fish stores as well as small local bakeries vanished only to be replaced with giant mart stores who sell ersatz tasting breads and cakes in comparison to the high quality baked goods that small bakeries once sold.Bigger is NOT always better.Mom and pop stores eked out small profits but moms and pops did manage to live and to send their kids to college and to take vacations from what they earned.Even funeral parlors were independently owned but now are mass chain conglomerates and monopolies.Perhaps it was indeed a much better economic 'good old days' time for all of us in the distant past when dinosaurs walked the Earth.Thanks for an article that tangentially made me nostalgic.Paul, I agree, I miss the personal service and friendships gone with the small shops. But, I doubt they'll ever return.
I didn't know Kresge's was K-Mart - should have been a natural leap but I missed it - nothing like the "maid rites" ground meat burgers at Kresge's in the 50s!Yeah, Mr. Kresge was one of the most successful one for a long period. And, I think would have swamped everyone with the Kmart thing if Sam Walton hadn't really took off big time.
Joel,Excellent history on the big chain discount stores. I learned a lot.When I first read your title, I thought you were talking about 'marts' which are huge indoor shopping areas opened only Thursday through Sunday and offering an array of hard to find products as well as many 'mom' & 'pop' type of stores. In our area, we have only one mart left. The one I go to, on occasion, has a German butcher with specialty foods, a hardware store, fabrics, spices, shoes, chocolates, lamps, leathers and a host of other unique items. In our mart, there is a clam bar at one of the buildingl. I love the mart because of its wonderful smells and its unique offerings.Thanks for sharing,Hi Nancy, thans for commenting. You are very fortunate. We have numerous conveinence stors called (xxx)-marts but no such thing as you mention. It is difficult around her to find a decent butcher, or deli.
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