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Price Club

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Price Club
Company typePrivate
Industry
FoundedJuly 12, 1976; 48 years ago (1976-07-12)
FounderSol Price
Defunct1997; 27 years ago (1997)
FateMerged with Costco
Successors
Headquarters
San Diego, California
,
United States
Number of locations
94 warehouses (1993)
Area served
United States, Canada, Mexico

Price Club was an American warehouse club chain. Founded in 1976, it merged with its competitor, Costco Wholesale, in 1993. The original Price Club warehouse in San Diego, California, is now Costco location number 401.[1]

History

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Price Club was founded by Sol Price in 1975 after he was forced out of FedMart, another retail chain he had founded. Price and several friends invested $2.5 million to establish Price Club. The first Price Club location opened on July 12, 1976,[2] in San Diego, at the former site of a manufacturing building previously owned by Howard Hughes.[3][4]

The original Price Club location is now a Costco

After leaving FedMart, Price noticed that small businesses in San Diego either ordered directly from four or five large wholesalers or they bought locally from relatively small cash-and-carry wholesalers.[5] Therefore, Price Club was originally positioned as a much larger, volume-oriented version of the cash-and-carry wholesale format, meaning that prospective members were required to present resale certificates or professional licenses.[5] Price Club membership was initially only available to business customers, but was later expanded to other groups, such as employees of local businesses, nonprofits, and governments.[5][1] The company charged shoppers a $25 annual membership fee to purchase bulk products at discount prices in a no-frills warehouse setting. Price Club's high sales volume enabled it to pay its employees higher wages and offer greater benefits than typical retailers. The company eventually expanded to 94 locations throughout the United States, Canada, and Mexico (in joint venture with Controladora Comercial Mexicana). In 1992, Price Club generated $6.6 billion in revenue and $134.1 million in profit.[6]

In 1993, Price Club merged with its rival Costco[7][8] and the combined company was known as PriceCostco. Price Club and Costco initially continued to operate as separate chains, with members of either chain being able to shop at both stores. However, by the following year, Price Enterprises was spun off from the combined company and later established PriceSmart in Central America, South America, and the Caribbean.[9][10][11][12] In 1997, PriceCostco became Costco Wholesale Corporation and all remaining Price Clubs were rebranded as Costco.[13]

References

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  1. ^ a b Muir, Frederick M. (March 11, 1985). "Price Co. Ties Its Success to Low Prices : 9-Year-Old Retailing Giant Nearly Doubled Earnings Each Year". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on December 21, 2018.
  2. ^ Markowitz, Arthur (August 22, 1988). "Discounting Hall of Fame: Sol Price: his deeds speak louder than words - founder of Price Club". Discount Store News. Retrieved January 5, 2011.
  3. ^ Coriolis Research Ltd. (June 2004). "Understanding Costco" (PDF). Retrieved January 5, 2011.
  4. ^ The Costco Connection (January 2012). "The empire built on values". Archived from the original on July 29, 2012. Retrieved January 5, 2011.
  5. ^ a b c Jakobson, Cathryn (December 4, 1988). "They Can Get It For You Wholesale: Sol Price and his warehouse clubs have sparked a revolution in the retail trade". The New York Times Magazine. pp. 24–25, 54–57. Retrieved July 24, 2023.
  6. ^ Eisner, Peter (December 15, 2009). "Price Club changed America's shopping experience". The Washington Post. Retrieved March 12, 2010.
  7. ^ White, George & Kraul, Chris (June 17, 1993). "Price Co., Costco Warehouse Stores to Merge". Los Angeles Times.
  8. ^ Bryant, Adam (June 17, 1993). "Costco Set To Merge With Price". New York Times.
  9. ^ "Costco, Price Enterprises Reach Pact With Shareholders | The Seattle Times". archive.seattletimes.com. July 29, 1996. Retrieved August 22, 2024.
  10. ^ "COMPANY NEWS;PRICECOSTCO APPROVES A PLAN TO SPIN OFF ASSETS". The New York Times. July 30, 1994. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved August 22, 2024.
  11. ^ White, Ronald D. (January 11, 2015). "PriceSmart expanding its warehouse clubs further into Latin America". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 22, 2024.
  12. ^ "PRICESMART, INC. 10-K 8/31/02". www.sec.gov. Retrieved August 22, 2024.
  13. ^ "PriceCostco changes name to Costco Cos. Inc". www.bizjournals.com. February 6, 1997. Retrieved August 22, 2024.


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