Kuhn's-Big K Stores

Ghost Corp Apparel — resurrecting iconic corporate ghosts.

Kuhn's-Big K Stores began in 1913 as Kuhn Brothers, a Tennessee variety-store business founded in Columbia. In 1962, the company opened its first Big K discount department store, joining the great mid-century American ritual of putting a whole lot of merchandise under one very large, very confident roof.

The business became Kuhn's-Big K Stores Corporation in 1969. By 1970, its corporate office was at 3040 Sidco Drive in Nashville, and the company operated Big K discount stores alongside Kuhn's Variety Stores across Tennessee and neighboring Southern states. It went public in 1971 and pressed ahead with larger stores during the decade.

In 1977, Big K bought the 33-store Edward's chain in South Carolina, operating it as Big K-Edwards. The acquisition expanded the chain to more than 100 stores—serious regional-discount-store territory, where fluorescent lighting, lawn chairs, socks, toys, and improbable seasonal displays all had a job to do.

Walmart agreed to acquire Kuhn's-Big K in June 1981 and finalized the transaction in August. Walmart's 1982 annual report described the acquisition as 92 stores; it subsequently closed some overlapping locations, converted the others, and shut the former Big K Nashville office that September.

Our Kuhn's-Big K Stores collection celebrates a Southeastern retail original: a variety-store family business that swung big, went discount, and left behind one bold letter, a whole lot of aisle memories, and a corporate ghost worth wearing.