- Sol Price
Sol Price (born c. 1916) is the founder of
Fed Mart and Price Club (since merged intoCostco ). He has been known as a pioneer of the "Warehouse store "retail model. He is a 1934 graduate ofSan Diego State University , and in 1938 earned a law degree from theUniversity of Southern California Law School . Sol Price was admitted to the California Bar in November 1938, his California bar number is 16491.Price launched the first
FedMart in 1954 and founded thePrice Club in 1976. In 1993Costco merged with (bought) Price Club to form PriceCostco. Leadership in the new organization was shared between Sol Price's biological son, Robert, andJames Sinegal . After just eight months, PriceCostco spun off a separate company called Price Enterprises, led by Robert Price. The company evolved intoPriceSmart , which operates warehouse clubs overseas.Sam Walton ofWal-Mart writes in his book "Made in America" that he has "borrowed" "as many ideas from Sol Price as from anybody else in the business." He even says that he especially liked the idea of calling his discount chain "Wal-Mart" because he "really liked Sol's Fed Mart name..". In 1983 he dined with Sol Price and later that year, the firstSam's Club was opened inOklahoma City, Oklahoma .In the late 1980s, Price donated $2 million to the construction of a new student center on the campus of University of California, San Diego. Named for Sol Price, the Price Center, which houses the main student bookstore, food court, movie theater, ballrooms and meeting rooms, was opened on April 21, 1989.
He is responsible for injecting money and aiding the renaissance being experienced in a San Diego midcity neighborhood
City Heights , where he originally resided in the 1930s. Price was a member of the Board of Trustees for the Urban Institute in Washington, D.C. and also the Board of Directors for the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. In the past he has served as a member of the Consumer Affairs Advisory Committee of the U.S.Securities and Exchange Commission , and theSan Diego Financial Review Panel.
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