Memco

Gemco

Industry	Retail
Founded	1959
Defunct	1986
Fate	Liquidation
Successor	Target
Headquarters	Buena Park, California
Products	groceries, clothing, footwear, housewares, sporting goods, hardware, toys, electronics
Parent	Lucky Stores

Gemco was a U.S.-based membership department store chain owned by Lucky Stores, a supermarket company headquartered in San Leandro, California, which later became part of Albertsons. Operating from 1959 until its closure in late 1986, Gemco's west coast locations were largely acquired by Target Corporation, facilitating Target's expansion into California. Additionally, Lucky Stores operated a similar concept under the name Memco, with stores located in the Chicago, Illinois, and Washington, D.C. metropolitan areas.

History

Founded in October 1959 in Anaheim, California, Gemco was acquired by Lucky Stores just one year later. This acquisition integrated the supermarket component into the business and supported the growth of Gemco into a multi-location chain. The company maintained steady profitability for over two decades until Lucky Stores faced multiple unsuccessful leveraged takeover attempts. To prevent hostile takeovers, Lucky Stores ultimately resolved to fully liquidate Gemco. The liquidation process took place between September and November of 1986. By fall 1987, Target Corporation had launched stores in many former Gemco locations, renovating these prime retail sites to reflect Target’s distinctive red-and-white branding.

Name, colors and logo

Contrary to popular belief, "GEMCO" was not an acronym—despite rumors suggesting otherwise (such as it standing for "Government Employees' Merchandising Company"). The name was chosen for its simplicity and ease of pronunciation and recall. Initially, Gemco's exterior featured brown with tan highlights as its primary color scheme, while its signage displayed the name "GEMCO" in red letters. During the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s, the logo consisted of translucent capital letters with serifs set against a horizontal dark blue oval background. In the early 1980s, the company updated its exterior color palette to blue with light blue accents and altered the logo lettering to white, adding a yellow diamond shape above the letter "M".

Offerings and innovations

Gemco served as an early prototype of what later became known as the hypermarket, providing a comprehensive one-stop shopping experience that included everything from groceries and garden supplies to typical department store merchandise. Among its concession offerings were gasoline stations, situated outside and away from the main entrance, as well as jewelry counters. One of Gemco’s unique features—unmatched by competitors at the time—was a grocery storage and delivery service. After completing their shopping throughout the store, members could leave their purchased groceries in a designated area. A numbered plastic card was attached to the shopping cart(s), with the matching card given to the customer. When ready to depart, the member would drive to a side exit, present the card to a security guard, who then summoned a courtesy clerk to bring out and load the groceries into the member’s vehicle. This convenience helped attract numerous new customers and fostered repeat patronage.

In many communities where Gemco operated, it was regarded as a desirable employer. Unlike several other discount retailers such as Payless, Gemco employed members of the UFCW (United Food and Commercial Workers) union.

To boost sales, Gemco maintained an active credit department, which experienced heightened activity during the Christmas shopping season.

A limited number of Gemco locations piloted a complimentary babysitting service for shoppers. Parents could leave their children in a designated area within the store and receive a numbered ticket. Once finished shopping, they would present this ticket to the cashier, who would notify the babysitting department to bring the child out; alternatively, parents could retrieve their children themselves. After approximately one year, this trial was discontinued due to California regulations requiring commercial childcare providers to be licensed and insured as daycare centers.

In November 1959, Gemco established the Gemco Charitable and Scholarship Foundation as a California corporation. The foundation organized annual scholarship contests in regions where Gemco stores were located. Selected high school seniors participated in panel discussions where judges questioned them on various topics and evaluated their ability to defend their viewpoints over multiple rounds. Winners received one-time scholarships up to $1,500 based on judges’ scores, with smaller awards granted to runners-up. The foundation’s corporate status has since been suspended in California.

Members of Gemco were sent a monthly publication called the Gemco Courier, featuring cover art inspired by the style of the Saturday Evening Post.

Memco

To prevent confusion with the pre-existing regional chain known as GEM, the East Coast outlets near Washington, D.C., operated under the name Memco rather than Gemco. These stores featured a distinctive blue theme in their interior walls and signage. Memco accepted Gemco membership cards and vice versa, with advertisements occasionally obscuring the initial letter of the membership logo to allow the same image to be utilized in promotions for both brands.

Memco made its debut in the Washington, D.C., area in 1969, launching 100,000-square-foot (9,300 m²) locations at Little River Turnpike near Braddock Road in Annandale, Virginia and on Allentown Road in Camp Springs, Maryland. By December 1982, when the company announced its withdrawal from this market, it operated 13 stores—including two in Richmond, Virginia, one in Reston, Virginia, and two around Baltimore—with additional outlets recently opened in Columbia, Maryland and Greenbelt, Maryland. A 14th store was under construction in Burke, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, D.C. The closures resulted in 1,200 retail employees losing their jobs. Following Gemco’s shutdown, all these locations were converted into Bradlees stores. Several former Memco sites have since been repurposed as Home Depot outlets or were once occupied by Kmart before those stores closed. For instance, the Home Depot near Fairfax Circle in Fairfax, Virginia, previously operated as a Memco location.

In addition to its East Coast presence, Memco established stores in Chicago’s suburbs: Niles and Arlington Heights opened in August 1972, followed by Lombard in August 1973. These three outlets struggled to gain traction and were transformed into Eagle Family Centers by October 1977. Subsequently, two of these former Memco buildings became home to Pick 'n Save discount warehouse stores owned by Roundy's in May 1982.

Fictitious town

The so-called fictitious community of Gemco, California, is situated within Van Nuys, California, close to the intersection of Woodman Avenue and Saticoy Street. This name surfaced on maps during the 1980s, likely serving as a copyright trap, and has since been incorporated into numerous mapping databases. In reality, "Gemco" was an abbreviation employed by the Southern Pacific Railroad to denote the General Motors Van Nuys Assembly facility.

External links

• Gemco Department Stores nostalgic website at royhooper.com
• Lucky Stores at groceteria.net (archived)
• 1973 Chicago area Memco Ad Insert, Chicago Tribune, March 25, 1973, pages 17–20, Section 11