Do You Remember Gemco Department Store 2022 version?
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- Опубликовано: 5 янв 2022
- Gemco was an American chain of membership department stores that was owned by San Leandro-based Lucky Stores, a California supermarket company which eventually became part of Albertsons. Gemco operated from 1959 until closing in late 1986.
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I got my first record at Gemco, The Go Go’s “Beauty & the Beat.” And I still have it too! 💋
I loved the Lady Lee grocery items at Gemco. During the Cabbage Patch doll craze Gemco customers could put their names on a waiting list to be notified when a new shipment of dolls would be in which avoided long lines. I shopped at the Gemco in Lakewood, CA in the 70s and Gemco in Pomona, CA in early 80s. Was dissapointed when the store closed.
Yes! Lady lee was also at the lucky market as the store brand. I was like 6 and i remember my mom choosing lafy lee. I love it
New sub. Been looking for a GEMCO vid for a while. One stop shop for groceries, school supplies, clothing, toys and appliances. Went to one in Fremont Ca. on the late 70's to early 80's. Thanks for the memories. 51 years old!!!
Thank you for your support and sharing your memories.
Same here. It's basically the Target for us Gen X kids. My parents clearly liked this store because we went there a lot when I was growing up.
I worked for Zodys for a year then got hired at Gemco. I was in high school. I stayed with Gemco for 5 years then managed to secure a position at Lucky markets. Stayed with them until they were bought out by Albertsons who I stayed with until I was eligible for retirement package through the retail clerks union.. at 38 years old!! I wasn't old enough to collect yet so I didn't retire of course but stayed with Albertsons until I was 55 & had reached the highest possible pension payout. God bless the UFCW! I loved every store I ever worked at. What an amazing group of people I met along the way.
Never heard of Gemco Stores.Interesting history.Thanks Eric!.😎
Thanks for watching!
I started my real first job at Gemco Torrance, in 1973 . I wish I knew then what I know now , about how good we had it back then. Started as a cart boy ripping boxes for weeks before the store opened, then just before I graduated from high school got promoted to whse. After a couple of years was moved to the whse receiver position. Those were great days with fantastic people and tons of great memories.
The world needs to go back to those days with stores and people who cared about their employees and customers. Thanks for sharing your video.
Thank you for sharing your memories and yes, I agree with you.
Got my first electric guitar at Gemco.
GEMCO > Target
Thrifty > Rite Aid
Mervyns > Kohls
Pick n Save > Big Lots
Bring back our stores from our childhood.
I remember sneaking into the FV gemco on brookhurst st. You and your friends would walk along an adult as they showed their membership card to enter, pretending you were part of their family. Then we would head to the video game section and play on the demo atari console in the store.
GEMCO on Indian Hill in Pomona.
Saved all my lunch money for two weeks, purchased a Marksman BB gun.
For whatever reason it was the only place that carried the magazine titled 'CRAZY'.
The record section was my favorite part of the store.
The garden patio section was always cool and quiet.
And finally , in my high school days, one night I made out with ( name omitted ) on the back loading dock.
Class Act.
i worked the shoe department there and in la puente...the shoe department was owned by kinney shoes, not gemco...and i agree about the record department..
Loved the Fountain Valley GEMCO. I remember the last thing I bought there was a pair of hiking boots for $30. I got a lot of use out of them. That GEMCO became a Sam's Club. That old GEMCO building was torn down as the company bought up the strip mall to the south to build a new building. The old building sat where the current parking lot is today, facing Brookhurst.
driven by there a number of times. Thanks for sharing your memories.
I have fond memories of shopping at the Gemco in Pomona California as a kid. The sporting goods, electronics and music departments were my favorite. I remember paying $1.05 for a 45 and $5.29 for a LP. That was including sales tax.
That's awesome, I went to the one in Placentia/Yorba Linda . Thanks for watching.
Where was the Pomona one located? I live here and love to know.
@BFRIZZLE909 On Indian Hill Blvd just north of the In N Out. There are condos there now.
@@opd832I went to Mount view elementary school just off Indian Hill , right by In n Out. Gemco had a monthly ticket drawing, if you took in 3 shopping carts the lady or man would give you on ticket, at the end od the month they would draw ten tickets and post the numbers on a board, you would come in and check your tickets..1st prize was a 10 speed bike. Me and my friend would go to gemco parking lot after school and bring in carts, that gemco never had loose carts around..this was in the early 70s
Downey, Santa Ana, and Anaheim... Lots of great 60's-70's memories of shopping with my family.
My sister and I got our first maxi-peasant dresses there.
Not surprised that Target latter on, opened superstores after taking over so many Gemco.
I remember going to the Store in Canoga Park. It’s a target today.
Don't forget Gemco #586 Beaumont, TX and the ones in Houston. I worked at three of them from 1979-1986. Sad day for a lot of people when they closed.
It was Family!!
thanks for sharing your memories
I went to Gemco in Houston off 1-45 and Crosstimbers it’s now a grocery store.
Thank you for making these GEMCO videos. I have fond memories of the store & search for GEMCO memorabilia, but had no idea they were completely gone by the end of 1986. 'My' store was in Phoenix.
Suggestions for future video ideas: maybe cover Osco, Yellow Front, and Pistol Pete's Pizza?
awesome, thanks for sharing your memories
We also used to go to the same Gemco in Fullerton. I vividly remember going in the 70s and 80s with my family. My grandfather bought me one of my first rock albums: “The Grand Illusion” by Styx, and I remember the record section being right by the door when we would walk in. Thanks for the walk down memory lane.
thanks for watching. I guess the Fullerton one is pretty famous.
They need to bring back gemco❤❤
How I am so found of this store is the countless stories my grand pappy use to tell me of the sam's club of the 50s, 60's and 70's plus the multiple commercials I used to watch and the countless forums I read up on them. As always great video
In 1983, at the Centinela location in L.A., I would play Vectrex video games while my mom shopped. It closed and eventually became an Albertsons for 20 years or so. Now it's an Amazon distribution center.
Another outstanding production, Eric! Appreciate the OC GEMCO location shout-outs.
thanks for watching
My fun Gemco memory is playing the Atari 2600 at the store display while my Mom was grocery shopping. Our family store was in Pacoima, CA.
thanks for sharing that nice memory
The photo at 1:48 is the Tempe, Arizona Gemco store that had just opened in 1974 (now still a Target).
Wild. I went to the same Gemco you did. I remember when it was rebranded to Target. I preferred the Gemco. I don't know why, being only a child, but I guess it had a vibe. Good times shopping there!
awesome, we were probably neighbors. Thanks for watching
I remember winning the shopping cart contest back in the 70’s. You had to collect shopping carts for tickets and then they would enter you into a drawing. Well, I won one day. It was a Casio calculator, alarm clock and stop watch!!! Those were the days
nice! yup, back in the good ol' days.
I still have some memories of Gemco. Still remember ours turning into a Target and going shopping at the Target when it first opened to check it out. I still have an old Garfield book with an old Gemco price tag on it somewhere.
That is awesome. Yeah, I remember my Gemco turning into a Target too.
I left California in 1975, we lived in Newport Beach & I have memories going to Gemco with my parents & leaving with 2 huge shopping carts, mostly groceies, as I recall, and some sports stuff: volleyballs, handballs & I think a ping-pong table🤔 The stores seemed to be gigantic & never ending to me, I was a young child but I can recall the Gemco inside😱 i moved back to the States, California in 1997 & became a Target fan. thank you for this video👏
thank you for sharing your memories
When I was a kid I lived in Mira Mesa in San Diego form 1980-1985 at the end of my block was an empty field for a long time then they built a Gemco it was so close we could walk there I use to love going with my mom shopping there because the store had everything I was always throwing things in the shopping cart and she was always taking them out LOL then we moved in 1985 back to the East coast and we were told that they closed Gemco shortly after we moved.
Sad right? But we will always remember the good times.
I remember Gemco in Long Beach. Now it's a Target. ❤️
I got my first cassette deck at gemco,an akai gx m30. Great deck!!!!!
That is awesome. Thanks for watching
I bought my first 4 Dragonlance books at Gemco in Lancaster, Ca.
thanks for sharing your memories
I'm thinking it might be good to revisit this kind of retail idea.
I remember their food name brand had yellow packaging
I didn't realize they closed way back in 86. I remember buying a Commodore Vic 20 there as kid. Must've only been a few years before they closed.
thanks for sharing that nice memory, I remember the Commodore Vic 20....it kept telling me "syntax error"
I've been to the Gemcos in Arroyo Grande, Ca & Simi Valley, CA clear back in 1982. I also remember Lucky Eagle grocery stores.
thanks for sharing that, I also did Lucky Grocery Stores too.
Lived in Buena Park as a kid, then Chino(had a Gemco) then out to Moreno Valley but the closest Gemco was the Riverside store.
The store few remember is The Treasury, which was owned by JC Penney. The only one we went to was at beach and orangethorpe(now Target), near where we lived. Pretty much the same setup as Gemco but a bit bigger as I remember. They even had pets.
The Chino Gemco building or at least the property is chino PD, the 60 and Central. The Riverside location converted to a target pretty quick.
I did a history video of The Treasury as well as the malls in Riverside, Riverside Plaza, Moreno Valley mall as well as most of the malls in the Inland Empire and OC.
@@EricCProductions76 I'll check it out. I worked at the MV Sears in the early 90s. Even so, I'm still mad the raceway is gone. They've shifted gears a little with the Gym and Bowling but...Argh, I'll stop.
Our GEMCO became a Target then Target moved to our mall across the street, a furniture store moved in. I also worked there until the last day and remember the story of the hostile takeover.
thanks for watching
Gemco San Gabriel, CA checking in!
Where in San Gabriel was it at?
@@EricCProductions76 It was on San Gabriel blvd, just south of Valley blvd.
I believe it is a Chinese super store now.
@@Ihad9eyes thanks for that
That’s the one I went to with mom and dad. Grew up in Alhambra. Fond memories.
Fremont was my Gemco. My kid brother and I used to loiter around out front, waiting for a family to walk in alongside. We eventually got sloppy and cruised in with Chinese and black families and since we were both tow headed blondies we figured out that the staff at the head counter just said “thank you” as a matter of course. Regrettably many of my memories are of shoplifting like there was no tomorrow. How we didn’t get caught all those times is a mystery to me 40 years later (deep sigh) I also remember buying a little blue transistor radio with ersatz Walkman headphones for $6. This was so I could listen to the old radio shows played on KSFO & KNBR in the early 80’s
thanks for sharing those memories
Mine too!!! Don't forget KFRC
That was my Gemco too! I was so young but i do remember going there. Then it became a target and then albertsons if I am correct. God i miss fremont. I have been in nyc since 2007. Fremont was and is a great place to live
I used to go to Gemco in Woodland Hills, California. People used to mix up Gemco with a rival membership store called Fedco. Gemco allowed a person to be a member for $1, I never understood why be a member store if it was only $1, why not just be open to the general public?
You got me..thanks for watching
Supposedly the membership cost helped to keep the prices low. They did have low prices.
Great stores in Huntington Beach and Signal Hill, California.
awesome, thanks for sharing
Some other Gemco locations in Southern California became other stores as a result of Target already existing there with nearby locations (some formerly FedMart or built in mid-1980's) and also opting to build new stores instead around that time. For example, the Downey and Fountain Valley stores became PACE Membership Warehouse (later became Sam's Club), while the La Mirada store became The Home Depot and the Torrance store became Best Buy and OfficeMax (later became Stein Mart). The two Gemco stores in Las Vegas NV didn't became Target, as a result of the chain building new stores at that time.
thanks for sharing that information.
I was an in-house paste up artist for the GEMCO Courier in the early 80's working at the Southern California Lucky Stores Headquarters in Buena Park. Back then, regardless the grocery chain, we all knew one another by names...today's fish eating a bigger fish has ruined that "family" dynamic. I retired from Lucky's before Albertson's destroyed that sense of "family." NOW, they're getting eaten up too!
thanks for sharing your memories
I remember Gemco in Sacramento, 1963, 2 stores, but I shopped at the Riverside & Broadway location….$1 membership in the 60s,, 70s my grandmother & mom shopped there, until the late 70s….I liked it…..like what Walmart is today everything you need one big store………then after that in the 1980s Target took its place……
thanks for sharing those nice memories
@@EricCProductions76 your welcome:)
I very much remember this store on grand Ave in covina
It may have been glendora
@@rickallen9864it was glendora it was on grand and Mauna loa ave
@@BillMarquez-uw6eh thank you. On the other corner was a bank I think
@@rickallen9864 yes it was and I think still is
Gemco Closed Down After 17 Years
I worked for GEMCO in early 1980s. I believe they don't start their employee at minium wage like KMart.
that's awesome, thanks for watching
After zody's close in Santa Ana which I worked atwork I went across the street to gemco for a little bit and then they close down I should have kept my gemco card
awesome, you worked at all those iconic stores.
Banana Board, Swanson Dinners…
You forgot to mention the Bellflower Gemco on Lakewood Blvd off of Artesia Blvd just south of the 91 FWY. I believe there was one on the east side of Cerritos. Also, the one up in Downey, which became Pace Membership then Sam's Club.
thank you for the info
Mine would be seeing Karen carpenter (grew up in Downey)
Was at the exit door where security guard stood
I was a kid - didn’t know who she was..however my father did lol
He b-lined to her said Karen- love your music.
I remember she was small - very thin dressed - white with a big sun hat and glasses
She looked at my dad- didn’t say a word and ignored his dumbass lol
He was sad walking to the car hahaha!!
They went by Memco on the east coast.
You are correct. Thanks for watching
I only vaguely remember going to the one in Fremont on the last Christmas it was in existence I think... I got more memories of service merchandise
same here. They were gone by the time I started shopping.
i worked the shoe department inside gemco...the shoe department was owned by kinney shoes who just leased the spot...i got paid from kinney, not gemco.
That's cool, thanks for the link!!!
you're welcome my friend
We shopped at the Indio store
I got busted as a teen for Drinking Beer in the Gemco parking lot in Riverside California in the mid 1980s. The cop made us poor out are beers.
Way ahead of their time with the items you purchase being brought to your car
It was...its amazing how everyone copies that afterwards
I think there was a burger king accoss from gemco they turned into El Pollo loco later we lived at Grand and cypress
Yet have my gemco membership card, i wasnt really thrilled bout this store it reminded me of a hole in the wall store didnt have much to offer.
We always went to the GEMCO in Riverside.
Also remember fedco and zodies
Mu mother working in I think West Covina Ca
late 70s early 80s there was a store north west corner of beach blvd and lincoln ave
was that white front or gemco?
I don't know..
I think that was Zody's.
@@hbskifffisher2021 yeah, I remember that as a Zodys.
I don't get it, was Gemco in trouble when Lucky liquidated it not?
If the chain was in trouble, that would have made Lucky less of a target for a takeover.
Had Lucky liquidated a successful chain vs. selling it to make themselves less of a target to me could have brought a cause of action from the shareholders. As management would have been looking out for their own interests versus the interest of the shareholders.
backwards thinking I guess. The chain was not in trouble but they decided to close it. Doesn't make sense.
Is Hertz video premieres on Sunday PS you drove to Texas I thought you flew 📲🚘✈️
I drove...26 hours in a row
Did a life membership cost $1?
My other memories were seeing the new return of the Jedi action figures in 1983
Also see 2-XL - want it so bad but my cheap ass - dumb ass father said go get a job
My wife bought it for my 50th birthday (better late then never lol)
Brand new in perfect mint box - never opened - sealed and placed into a plexiglass on display in my collection room
Looks as if my wife took a time machine to 1978-
Box still has a new crispy feel - better condition then new toys today
How much? $750!
Yes there are many online/eBay but none in the condition as mine
Bought from worthpoint - something like that
The moral of the story? Take a minute but eventually your wife will buy it for you!!
Lol
You are lucky my friend, my wife did the OPPOSITE. She tossed my vintage Star Wars stuff including tearing up my still boxed Slave 1 from Empire Strikes Back. There was no mistake on her part. She was pissed off at me. I envy you.
Didn't Gemco start the club card craze. To tell you the truth I'm sick of these club cards. Maybe you should do a video on how all that got started. I went to the Granada Hills store.
I will look into that. Thanks.
It seems like 90% of your narration was just reading the Wikipedia on Gemco.
A lot of info is gleaned off of Wikipedia but I had a few other articles that I used from other sources. You are more than welcome to read it off Wikipedia but I figure it makes it more interesting if you can see pictures and commercials from that store. Thanks for your comments and for watching
Yes I remember growing up as a kid in Riverside California and when my mom would say she’s going to Gemco I would beat her to the car this is way back in the 70s
They need to bring back gemco❤❤
I agree
Great idea 💡 👍