A New Kind of Store Comes to Town: Step 44

Most commerce in the first half of the twentieth century followed the same pattern as the first 150 years of our country’s existence. For everyday purchases people shopped at nearby markets and general or dime stores, and for special purchases they would venture on a weekend or day off from work to the city center, often referred to as downtown. As noted last week this pattern was changed forever by the advent of shopping centers and malls. Not long after Capitol Court was built a new kind of store and shopping experience arrived on the northwest side of Milwaukee. For some reason, one that I neither understand nor am able to research well enough to explain, this store required membership, and in order to be a member you had to be a government employee. Most people, my father included, chose to work for the government despite its low wages because the work served the community and they felt secure that their services would not be terminated in times of economic hardship. Over time wages have risen and in some instances rival or are better than the wages paid in the private sector. However, along with this rise there has been less and less security as government workers including teachers, firefighters and police have suffered layoffs. At the same time, I speak confidently when I state that none of these people became government employees so they could shop at the Government Employee Exchange or GEX as this store became known. Now, here again, I am not sure whether this was a one of a kind store, a local, regional or national trend. When we first went there my father had to present proof he was truly a firefighter before they would issue him a membership card. What first struck me after my father had filled out the necessary forms, received his membership card, and the attendant buzzed us through the turnstile was the number of shopping carts. Department stores did not have shopping carts and the largest grocery stores maybe had fifty to one hundred. This store had hundreds of carts. Next, there were rows of cough syrups, laxatives, tooth paste, soap, laundry detergent, insect repellent, drain cleaner, floor wax, brooms, mops, waste baskets, light bulbs, shirts, pants, blouses, skirts, dresses, shoes, spaghetti, sauces, soups, breakfast cereal, spiral notebooks, paper, pens, pencils, glue, paperbacks, magazines, and most importantly vinyl records. Never before had such a wide assortment of products been offered at one store. Then, there were the prices. Everything in the store was twenty to thirty percent less expensive than at the grocery or department stores. Nearly everything we needed including my first LP albums came from GEX. In a few years the dime store Kroesge would reinvent itself as K-Mart and Daytons, a large department store chain would develop Target, and along the path I walked to Morse Junior High a Kohls grocery store would attach a discount store with the same name. Decades later, Wal-Mart and Costco would come to fill the void left by GEX’s disappearance.