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- These images show just how much retail stores have changed over the decades.
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What Walmart, Costco, and other famous retailers looked like when they first opened
Many modern-day retailers that you know and love have been around for years.
walmart early store
Everyone gets their start somewhere. And it's no different for major national retailers.
Plenty of modern-day national big-box and department stores have been around for decades, undergoing the crucial changes necessary to survive in the brutal retail business. Still others maintain glimmers of their old selves, like Walmart's perpetual focus on low prices and the warehouse layout adopted by Home Depot and Costco.
Here's a look at early iterations of major retailers:
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The first-ever Walmart store opened up on July 2, 1962 in Rogers, Arkansas.
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Courtesy of Walmart
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Founder Sam Walton had operated a number of Ben Franklin stores in Arkansas since 1945 and opened Waltons Five and Dime five years after that.
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Courtesy of the Walmart Museum
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The new Walmart chain focused specifically on discounts. It would one day become the worlds largest retailer.
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Courtesy of Walmart
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Macys Herald Square flagship store in New York City may have become famous, but the retailer didnt get its start in Manhattan. A dry goods business that would later become Macys first opened its doors in Haverhill, Massachusetts, in 1851.
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Bettmann / Contributor / Getty Images
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Source: Macy's
Seven years later, founder Rowland Hussey Macy would take his business to the corner of 14th Street and Sixth Avenue in New York City.
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Archive Photos/Getty Images
Source: Macy's
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The company that would become Best Buy launched in 1966 as a single St. Paul, Minnesota, audio store known as Sound of Music. Sound of Music rebranded into Best Buy in 1983.
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Courtesy of Best Buy
Source: MPR News
17-year-old Ingvar Kamprad first founded the business that would become Ikea in 1943, selling odds and ends like pens and picture frames.
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Ikea
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By 1948, the business pivoted to locally sourced furniture, establishing a successful catalog business.
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Ikea
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The company built its first ever store in lmhult, Sweden, in 1958. That inaugural store would come to have the playroom and restaurant that Ikea is still known for today.
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Ikea
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Home Depot was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on June 22, 1979, when twin 600,000-square-foot locations opened up for the first time on Memorial Drive and Buford Highway.
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Courtesy of The Home Depot
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These two initial Home Depots were a bit smaller than their modern counterparts, but they still had the modern retailers low-key warehouse layout.
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Courtesy of The Home Depot
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By the end of 1979, Home Depot had three stores, 200 employees, and a total of $81,700 in sales.
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Courtesy of The Home Depot
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The modern day members-only warehouse chain we know as Costco was brought about by the 1993 merger of Price Club and Costco.
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Courtesy of Costco Wholesale
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Price Club launched in 1976, and Costco opened its doors in 1983.
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Courtesy of Costco Wholesale
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Back then, shoppers could purchase a Costco membership for $25 or $30 a year.
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Courtesy of Costco Wholesale
Source: Business Insider
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See Also:
- Victoria's Secret is taking steps to shed its much-criticized image. Here are 4 things that the brand has changed in the past year.
- More than 2,200 stores are closing in 2020 as the retail apocalypse drags on. Here's the full list.
- We visited an Express store and the empty ghost town clearly showed why the brand is closing 100 stores
SEE ALSO: Here's what Walmart looked like when it first opened over 50 years ago
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DON'T MISS: Here's what Home Depot looked like when it first opened in 1979
SEE ALSO: Here's what Costco looked like when it first opened in 1983
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