I'm originally from So Cal but I also remember Gemco as well.
Federal Employees' Distributing Company, known as Fedco, was a membership department store chain that operated in Southern California from 1948 to 1999. The chain was unusual in that it was a nonprofit consumers' cooperative. Membership cards were required to enter a store and to use a check as payment. At its peak, Fedco had ten department stores plus three appliance-only stores, and served 4 million members. Fedco's lifetime membership cost $10 in 1998. Fedco was closed on Wednesdays.
Ontario, 2534 S. Archibald Ave., store #8 (1982-1999)
Gemco operated from 1959 until closing in late 1986. A number of the west coast stores were sold to Target which fueled their entry into California. "GEMCO" never was an acronym, despite rumors ("Government Employees' Merchandising Company," etc. probably stemming from a similar store named Fedco in southern California) to the contrary. The letters were simply an easily pronounced and remembered name.
White Front was a chain of discount stores in Southern California and the western United States from 1959 through the mid-1970s. They were noted for the architecture of their store fronts which was an enormous, sweeping archway with the store name spelled out in individual letters fanned across the top. White Front filed for bankruptcy in 1975 and then went out of business; the locations were changed to Two Guys, another discount chain. Two Guys soon failed as well and the stores became relabeled as FedMart stores, which eventually were purchased by Target.
