Discount stores of the 1960s remembered.
To earlier generations raised solely on shopping trips to the “five and ten” or the traditional stately department store, these sprawling monsters were either a boon to thrifty one-stop shopping, or a garish monument to stuff that was “cheap” in every sense of the word, sold by inexperienced high school grads. But to MY generation, they were the stuff of baby boomer dreams. Shopper’s World. Shopper’s Fair. GEM (some locations called GEX). Atlantic Mills and Spartan, which later merged. Community Discount World. The Giant Store. Ardan. Arlan’s. Gulf-Mart. French Market. Two Guys. T G & Y Family Centers (which grew out of T G & Y Variety Stores). White Front. Zayre. Zody’s. All doing good business. All thriving and surviving. All making for much-anticipated destinations during a weekend drive around the metro area, at a time when the big car was more or less king of the road, and it cost less than five bucks to fill the tank.
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