Gibson Discount Store Opens (1966)

A new retail store for the city of Bemidji, the Gibson Discount Center, will open to the public on Tuesday, Nov 15. The Center is located in the building formerly occupied by the Reuter Store at 104 Third St. in the Dickinson Bilding. Manager of the new store is Don Eickstadt of Bemidji. The Gibson Products Co. began as a barber supply business in 1928 and expanded into a wholesale business supplying wagon jobbers from Little Rock, Ark., in 1932 and expanded further into 34 other cities. H. R. Gibson opened his first discount store in Abilene, Texas in 1954. The organization grew to a chain of nearly 300 stores in 1966. (Nov. 14, 1966)