Price Club Founder Dies

Sol Price, one of the pioneers of the big-box wholesale club concept who founded Price Club in the 1970s, died on Monday.

Price started his career in merchandising with Fed-Mart, a low-price shopping club he started in San Diego in 1954. Fed-Mart grew to 45 stores in California and the Southwest before it was acquired by a German retailer in 1975. A year later he created Price Club.

“He had a huge impact on retail across the country,” Jim Sinegal told The Wall Street Journal. Sinegal began working for Price at Fed-Mart in 1954.

In 1983, rival Sam's Club opened its doors and the same year, Sinegal and some Fed-Mart veterans, including Sinegal, launched Costco in Seattle. Price Club merged with Costco in 1993, creating PriceCostco Inc., which was later changed to Costco Companies Inc.

After the merger, Price worked in real-estate investment trusts and other investments.  He was born in the Bronx in 1916.