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{{Infobox company , name = Globe Discount City , logo = Globe-shopping-city.png , logo_caption = One of three Globe Logos , fate = Liquidation , successor = , foundation = 1960 , defunct = December 31, 1999 , location =
Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...
,
U.S. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
and Houston, Texas,
U.S. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
, industry =
Retail Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholesaler, and ...
, key_people = , products = Clothing, footwear, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, electronics, housewares, groceries, auto service, pets , homepage = , parent =
Walgreens Walgreen Company, d/b/a Walgreens, is an American company that operates the second-largest pharmacy store chain in the United States behind CVS Health. It specializes in filling prescriptions, health and wellness products, health information, a ...
(owned from 1962 and discontinued in 1978), Globe Discount City and Globe Shopping City was a chain of
discount department stores A discount store or discounter offers a retail format in which products are sold at prices that are in principle lower than an actual or supposed "full retail price". Discounters rely on bulk purchasing and efficient distribution to keep down cos ...
that operated beginning in 1960. Globe stores were located in the Southwest United States and were operated as a "
big-box store A big-box store (also hyperstore, supercenter, superstore, or megastore) is a physically large retail establishment, usually part of a chain of stores. The term sometimes also refers, by extension, to the company that operates the store. The t ...
" retail arm of
Walgreens Walgreen Company, d/b/a Walgreens, is an American company that operates the second-largest pharmacy store chain in the United States behind CVS Health. It specializes in filling prescriptions, health and wellness products, health information, a ...
for much of the chain's operational lifecycle. Massive financial losses led to the dispersal of the entire chain through a combination of liquidation sales and transferral of individual store locations in 1978. An independently-run Globe Discount City Store continued until its closure in 1999.


History

The first Globe Discount City opened in Houston in November 1960 by United Mercantile Inc. United had formed earlier in 1960 to operate the existing seven-store chain of Danburg's Department Stores which had existed since the 1930s and the forthcoming big-box Globe retail locations – the first three of which were each built with over 100,000 square feet of space. All but one of the Danburg locations was in the Houston, Texas market as were the first four Globe Discount City locations. Unlike the smaller Danburg department stores, the Globe City concept featured a full grocery store, a Sun Cafeteria utilizing the store's sun logo, and an expanded variety of more than 80 departments including live pets, firearms, and a Globe Auto Center housed in an outparcel building. With three Globe stores open in 1962, Walgreens acquired the United Mercantile portfolio in March 1962. Walgreens had seen
F.W. Woolworth Frank Winfield Woolworth (April 13, 1852 – April 8, 1919) was an American entrepreneur, the founder of F. W. Woolworth Company, and the operator of variety stores known as "Five-and-Dimes" (5- and 10-cent stores or dime stores) which featured ...
announce its new big-box retail concept of
Woolco Woolco was an American-based discount retail chain. It was founded in 1962 in Columbus, Ohio, by the F. W. Woolworth Company. It was a full-line discount department store unlike the five-and-dime Woolworth stores which operated at the time. At i ...
in 1961,
S.S. Kresge Sebastian Spering Kresge (July 31, 1867 – October 18, 1966) was an American businessman. He created and owned two chains of department stores, the S. S. Kresge Company, one of the 20th century's largest discount retail organizations, and the ...
opening its first
Kmart Kmart Corporation ( , doing business as Kmart and stylized as kmart) is an American retail company that owns a chain of big box department stores. The company is headquartered in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, United States. The company was inc ...
in January 1962, and many others getting into large scale discount stores including the first
Walmart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores from the United States, headquarter ...
store later in 1962 and
W.T. Grant W. T. Grant or Grants was a United States-based chain of mass-merchandise stores founded by William Thomas Grant that operated from 1906 until 1976. The stores were generally of the variety store format located in downtowns. History In 1906 the ...
would create big-box Grant City stores. Walgreens would use Globe as its big-box brand while later creating a Walgreens Superstore line for its mid-sized pharmacy-centric stores while continuing its existing, smaller Walgreens stores. Walgreens would extend the Globe big-box locations to its peak of 31 stores primarily in Texas and Arizona with three locations in Louisiana and two locations each in Tennessee and New Mexico. Some locations were branded as Globe Discount City with others labeled as Globe Shopping City. The stores’ positioning statement remained consistent as, “Everything under the sun priced lower.” To retain Globe's “multi-line customer appeal,” Walgreens leased back certain departments of the store including the food market, fine jewelry (to
Zales The Zale Corporation is an American jewelry retailer, incorporated in Delaware in 1993. The principal executive offices are located in Coppell, Texas. History The company began in 1924 in Wichita Falls, Texas, when the two Russian-Jewish immig ...
), the auto center, and the shoe department to third party vendors. Annual Walgreens shareholders reports touted Globe's “per square foot” sales in the early 1970s that were over-trending and the chain's usage of computers to track inventory, sales, and other key performance indicators. The 1973 shareholder report provided a note of warning that the big-box competition was getting “intense” and the chain would not be extending past its Southwest locations.


Downturn and Closure

United Mercantile / Walgreens closed all of the Danburg locations in 1970 as its aging mid-sized department stores were under competition from shopping mall anchors and newer big-box stores. By 1976, Globe stores were underperforming and around 40% of sales were going to the leased areas of the stores. Walgreens ended the Globe-branded check cashing card and internal credit system in favor of bank credit cards to help efficiency. The final three stores were opened in San Antonio early in 1977 to double the number of stores from three to six in the city. But later that same year, Walgreens reported lower earnings partly due to the financial downturn of its Globe store unit. Losses were at $10 million in 1977 when Walgreens decided to exit the big-box space in 1978 closing or transferring all of its Globe Discount City locations by July 1978. Transactions were made to convert 14 locations to Kmarts and 8 locations became FedMart stores. A number of locations which weren't transferred hosted auction sales to dispense with fixtures and any remaining inventory. However, one location in McAllen remained as an independently-run Globe Discount City Store that operated for 20 more years closing at the end of 1999.Cannon, Steve. “Klinck, Globe Stores Go Under,” ''The Monitor,'' 2 November 1999, p.1.


References

Defunct discount stores of the United States Retail companies established in 1960 Retail companies disestablished in 1999