GEX/Oklahoma

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terryinokc
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Post by terryinokc »

In Oklahoma City, we had a GEX store.....I always heard that it stood for Government Employees Exchange....it was a membership department store, located not on but very close to Tinker Air Force Base.

We never shopped there....think that you had to be either a government employee or relative.....but I know that it had a leased grocery department and other leased departments (jewelry, pharmacy, etc) in the store.

When visiting Denver in the 1970's, they had stores called GEM.....same type of sign, different name. Not sure what the letters stood for....or if the stores were related. If they were related, does anyone know why the different store names in different cities?

The building in Oklahoma City has been a flea market for 25 or 30 years. There was also one in Wichita, Kansas.....not sure if it was GEX or GEM. It has been a flea market for a long time also.

Just until a couple of years ago, the GEX Food Department sign was still on the outside of the Oklahoma City building.
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Dave
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Post by Dave »

terryinokc wrote:...When visiting Denver in the 1970's, they had stores called GEM.....same type of sign, different name. Not sure what the letters stood for....or if the stores were related. If they were related, does anyone know why the different store names in different cities?
My understanding is that G.E.M. and G.E.X. were owned by the same company .As I recall, their ads had both names at times. Both were membership-type stores primarily catering to government employees.

Could the G.E.M./G.E.X. difference been driven by the same concerns that caused Lucky to operate Gemco in most places, but Memco in the east where there were already G.E.M. stores?

There was also a G.E.S. I don't know if they were related. Circuit City's predecessor, Wards Company, ran leased TV/elctronics departments in G.E.M>, G.E.X., and G.E.S. stores beginning in 1960.

Richmond had a G.E.M. store that had a Food Fair attached to it. We alos had two Carousel stores, which were Ward Company's discount department stores (The Carousels later were sold to Memco).
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