Originally a discount department store open to government employees paying a $2 per family membership fee, FedMart earned four times more than its investors had projected in its first year.

Over the next 20 years, FedMart grew to include 45 stores, mostly in California, and the Southwest[1] in a chain that generated over $300 million in annual sales.

“We found out there were 5000 employees of the federal government in San Diego,” Weiss continues, “and they were all going up to Los Angeles once a week to do their shopping.

Clients were in the wholesale jewelry business, and had been selling watches to a non-profit, member-owned retail operation in Los Angeles called Fedco.

[7] FedMart began as a membership store by opening in an abandoned warehouse in San Diego, California in 1954.

Price was joined in his business by his son, Robert, who served as FedMart's executive vice president until they sold two-thirds of the chain in 1975 to the German retail company Hugo Mann.

[8] Hugo Mann began purchasing stock in the company in 1975 and obtained a controlling interest in the spring of that year and finally increased its holding to 68% later that fall.

[12] After obtaining a controlling interest in FedMart, Mann pumped more money into the company to enable rapid expansion.

[21] The closing of FedMart allowed Target an entry into the highly competitive Southern California marketplace.

[20] James Sinegal, the founder and former CEO of Costco, started at FedMart as a bagger and eventually became an executive vice president at the company.