FedMart

Ghost Corp Apparel — resurrecting iconic corporate ghosts.

FedMart began in San Diego on December 3, 1954, when attorney and retail innovator Sol Price opened a membership discount store in a warehouse at 2380 Main Street. Initially aimed at government employees and their families, it sold an improbably glorious mix of jewelry, liquor, furniture, appliances, clothing, and household goods—basically a practical errand with plot twists.

The chain grew from that stripped-down warehouse formula into a major Southwestern discount retailer. Membership restrictions were dropped during the 1960s, and by 1975 FedMart operated roughly 40-plus stores across California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. Its straightforward premise—low prices, low overhead, lots of stuff—helped set the stage for later warehouse-club retailing.

In 1975, German retailer Hugo Mann acquired control of FedMart. Price was dismissed as president and chief executive officer on December 5, 1975; he soon went on to launch Price Club in San Diego. FedMart’s subsequent rapid expansion and mounting losses proved a much less charming sequel.

On April 28, 1982, San Diego-based FedMart announced that it would discontinue and liquidate its retail operations, then numbering 46 stores. Target later took over 33 former locations in Arizona, California, and Texas, reopening them as Target stores in 1983.

Our FedMart collection celebrates the warehouse-born original: big signs, bigger carts, membership-card optimism, and the beautifully blunt retail logic that helped change how America shopped.