At the start of WWI, the Katz Drug Stores became famous because they were allowed to stay open past 6 pm, despite wartime curfews on nonessential businesses.

They also absorbed the new 10% tax on cigarettes instead of passing the cost to customers, which was incorporated into their new slogan “Katz pays the tax!” Katz also sold more than just drugs: each store had a small grocery store with a soda fountain and lunch counter and sold small home appliances, music records, Katz-branded beer, and even live animals.

Self-service chain stores became more popular in the late 1960s and early 1970s, so Katz began losing market share.

In 1948, Edna Griffith and her family were denied service at a Katz Drugstore in Des Moines, Iowa, which led to sit-ins and protests.

In protest of racial discrimination, black schoolchildren sat at a lunch counter with their teacher, demanding to be served and refusing to leave until they were.