| dbo:abstract |
G. E. M. Membership Department Stores was a chain of discount stores in the United States and Canada. The chain extended membership to direct and indirect government employees; the name was an acronym for "Government Employees Mart." Appliance and electronics departments in G.E.M. stores were operated by Wards Company, which later changed its name to Circuit City. The stores closed during the discount store shakeout of 1973. Canadian pharmacist Murray Koffler was an investor in the G.E.M. chain, bringing the first G.E.M. store to Toronto in 1959. He eventually subleased the G.E.M. drug department in several Toronto area stores. Following the G.E.M. discount model, Koffler later opened one of the first "big box" store chains, Shoppers Drug Mart. On November 7, 1964 GEM opened its first store in the UK. This branch in West Bridgford, Nottingham was the first out-of-town superstore in the UK. GEM didn't actually sell anything, they rented out companies and then took a percentage of sales. Most of the departments in GEM were nation companies such as Boots or TIMES Furnishing. (en) |
| dbo:fate |
Closed (en) |
| dbo:foundingYear |
1956-01-01 (xsd:gYear) |
| dbo:industry |
dbr:Retail |
| dbo:location |
dbr:Detroit dbr:Michigan |
| dbo:thumbnail |
wiki-commons:Special:FilePath/Government_Employees_Mart_Logo.png?width=300 |
| dbo:type |
dbr:Discount_store |
| dbo:wikiPageID |
16653296 (xsd:integer) |
| dbo:wikiPageLength |
2870 (xsd:nonNegativeInteger) |
| dbo:wikiPageRevisionID |
1094186826 (xsd:integer) |
| dbo:wikiPageWikiLink |
dbr:Boots_(company) dbr:Detroit dbc:Defunct_companies_based_in_Detroit dbr:Murray_Koffler dbc:Retail_companies_disestablished_in_1973 dbr:Shoppers_Drug_Mart dbc:Retail_companies_established_in_1956 dbr:West_Bridgford dbc:Defunct_discount_stores_of_the_United_States dbr:Discount_store dbr:Retail dbr:Michigan dbr:Shakeout dbr:Circuit_City_(1949–2009_company) |
| dbp:defunct |
1973 (xsd:integer) |
| dbp:fate |
Closed (en) |
| dbp:foundation |
1956 (xsd:integer) |
| dbp:industry |
dbr:Retail |
| dbp:location |
dbr:Detroit dbr:Michigan |
| dbp:logo |
Government Employees Mart Logo.png (en) |
| dbp:name |
G.E.M. (en) |
| dbp:products |
clothing, footwear, housewares, sporting goods, hardware, toys, electronics, appliances, cameras, drugs, and auto repair homepage = None (en) |
| dbp:type |
dbr:Discount_store |
| dbp:wikiPageUsesTemplate |
dbt:Infobox_company dbt:Reflist |
| dct:subject |
dbc:Defunct_companies_based_in_Detroit dbc:Retail_companies_disestablished_in_1973 dbc:Retail_companies_established_in_1956 dbc:Defunct_discount_stores_of_the_United_States |
| gold:hypernym |
dbr:Chain |
| rdf:type |
owl:Thing dbo:Company schema:Organization dul:Agent dul:SocialPerson dbo:Agent wikidata:Q24229398 wikidata:Q43229 wikidata:Q4830453 yago:WikicatCompaniesBasedInDetroit,Michigan yago:Abstraction100002137 yago:Company108058098 yago:Group100031264 yago:Institution108053576 yago:Organization108008335 yago:YagoLegalActor yago:YagoLegalActorGeo yago:YagoPermanentlyLocatedEntity dbo:Organisation yago:SocialGroup107950920 |
| rdfs:comment |
G. E. M. Membership Department Stores was a chain of discount stores in the United States and Canada. The chain extended membership to direct and indirect government employees; the name was an acronym for "Government Employees Mart." Appliance and electronics departments in G.E.M. stores were operated by Wards Company, which later changed its name to Circuit City. The stores closed during the discount store shakeout of 1973. (en) |
| rdfs:label |
G. E. M. Membership Department Stores (en) |
| owl:sameAs |
freebase:G. E. M. Membership Department Stores yago-res:G. E. M. Membership Department Stores wikidata:G. E. M. Membership Department Stores https://global.dbpedia.org/id/4joCL |
| prov:wasDerivedFrom |
wikipedia-en:G._E._M._Membership_Department_Stores?oldid=1094186826&ns=0 |
| foaf:depiction |
wiki-commons:Special:FilePath/Government_Employees_Mart_Logo.png |
| foaf:isPrimaryTopicOf |
wikipedia-en:G._E._M._Membership_Department_Stores |
| foaf:name |
G.E.M. (en) |
| is dbo:wikiPageDisambiguates of |
dbr:Gem_(disambiguation) |
| is dbo:wikiPageRedirects of |
dbr:Government_Employees_Mart dbr:G.E.M._Membership_Department_Stores |
| is dbo:wikiPageWikiLink of |
dbr:List_of_defunct_department_stores_of_the_United_States dbr:List_of_defunct_retailers_of_the_United_States dbr:Gemco dbr:West_Bridgford dbr:Gem_(disambiguation) dbr:Government_Employees_Mart dbr:Asda dbr:G.E.M._Membership_Department_Stores |
| is foaf:primaryTopic of |
wikipedia-en:G._E._M._Membership_Department_Stores |
