Howdy folks, and welcome back to Houston Historic Retail. Today, we’re visiting a modern-day remnant of Gibson’s Discount Center; Drug Emporium. To explain the connection, we’ll need to start with a bit of history. The first Gibson’s Discount Center opened in 1960 in Abilene, TX. The company’s roots are a bit deeper than that, but this was their entry into the discount department store territory. The stores were a big hit, and founder Herb Gibson began franchising the chain. A common practice at the time for variety stores and some department store chains was to franchise their stores, like how fast food franchise operations operate today. Gibson’s franchisees were required to purchase from vendors selected by their corporate operations at the rates negotiated by them. That being said, Gibson’s was not a Swiss watch of operations, and blind eyes were often turned in favor of letting a franchisee run their own business. Things looked quite good for Gibson’s, as they had some presence in larger towns, but their bread and butter were smaller towns that big chains often overlooked. By the early 70s, Gibson’s was operating essentially from coast to coast, with hundreds of stores across the country. This growth, however, had come with some pains, and one of them was the increasing unhappiness of franchisees. While many stores had started as individually owned, mega-franchisees had begun to acquire stores by the dozen. One example was Howard Bros., which had acquired multiple stores across Texas. In the early 1970s, they ended their Gibson’s franchise agreement and rebranded the store as Howard Bros. While other franchisees, such as Pamida, would make similar moves, this one seems to have been the most personal to the Gibson family. This is where our story picks up. The original Gibsons in Amarillo, which had been family-owned, had ended up under the Howard Bros. concern by the 1960s. When they left the chain, this new Gibson’s was built in retaliation.
The new Gibson’s, located at 4210 SW 45th Ave, Amarillo, TX 79109, opened in early 1973. The new store was massive, coming in at 80k sqft, compared to the older Howard Bros store, which was a meager 20k sqft. Howard would leave the Amarillo market after only two years, marking this as a success for Gibson’s. Unfortunately, while Gibson’s was winning small battles like this, they were not focusing on the larger problems. Franchisees had continued to break away, as they received little benefit from Gibson’s beyond the name. While the company had tried to innovate, going so far as to open a “co-op warehouse” in Seaogville, it was impossible to support a chain with locations as far away as Guam. With a diminishing size and the inability to compete against centrally distributed chains, the Gibson family decided it was time to sell their family-owned chain. The new owner would relocate the corporate HQ and distribution to Dodge City, KS, which would be the final straw for many Gibson’s locations. While Gibson’s was failing, not all of its operators were, and some were looking to jump to a promising new concept named Drug Emporium. This brand was founded in 1977 in Columbus, Ohio, and helped pioneer the discount drugstore space. The idea can be best explained as taking the best-selling portions of Gibson’s and boiling them down. The main feature would be the pharmacy and associated drug store items. However, the stores would also maintain a strong pantry and home products (marked-up junk) in a fraction of the typical space of Gibson’s. Similar to Gibson’s, they also employed a franchising model, and at one point had over 30 stores in Texas, many of which were located in former Gibson’s locations. Drug Emporium would also have its share of problems and went bankrupt in 2001. The brand was sold, but corporate stores were all closed in 2003, leaving multiple former franchisees to operate independently. As of the time of this article, the Texas stores remain in operation, still under the company name Gibson Sales, and are owned and operated by a member of the Gibson family. Also a handful of independent stores across Texas and Kansas still use the Gibson’s name.
