Do You Know the Origins of These Popular Stores?

In the 1940s, two brothers, Karl and Theo Albrecht, took over their mother’s grocery store in Essen, Germany, after they returned from World War II. The name of the store, Aldi, stood for “Albrecht Discount.” By 1960, the brothers had more than 300 Aldi stores throughout Germany. The chain now includes more than 10,000 stores and is the parent company of Trader Joe’s.

In 1922, Ivar "Pop" Coulson was manning the soda fountain counter at a Chicago Walgreens when he had an idea. Instead of serving the standard malted milk, which was just milk, chocolate syrup, and malt powder, he added an extra ingredient: ice cream. The resulting concoction was the world’s first malted milkshake.

Macy’s flagship store in Herald Square is a cultural fixture of New York City. It’s been featured in movies, hosts the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, and, in the late 19th century, it became the first retail establishment in New York City to get a liquor license. The liquor portion of the business was shut down in the 1970s so Macy’s could expand the menswear department.

In 1995, ​​Pierre Omidyar founded eBay when he sold a broken laser pointer to Mark Fraser. He’d listed his printer on the site, then called Auction Web, for only $1. After a week of no bids, the laser pointer suddenly gained traction, with bidders raising the device to a sale price of $14.83. Now, nearly 30 years later, eBay is famous as a global marketplace for items both curious and ordinary.

Before the first two Home Depot stores opened in Atlanta in 1979, the founders had planned on a very different name and logo. The chain was initially going to be called Bad Bernie's Buildall, with a logo showing a prisoner in a stereotypical striped uniform. Fortunately, one of the store’s investors came up with the name Home Depot — a moniker that the founders liked for its down-to-earth quality.

Before Amazon founder Jeff Bezos had an office for the company, he met with his then-wife MacKenzie and their first employee, Shel Kaphan, in a Barnes and Noble bookstore in Bellevue, Washington. This was fitting, as Amazon itself began as an e-books marketplace, eventually evolving into the online general store that it is today.

The first Target opened in 1960, a full 23 years before the invention of the internet. So, although the first store offered free parking, air conditioning, discount prices, and self-service shopping, it did not include any sort of internet availability. Instead, Target shoppers enjoyed more than 75 departments of purchasing power, from groceries to jewelry.

The hills are alive with the sound of Best Buy…well, kind of. When it was founded in 1966, the store’s original name was Sound of Music. That’s because the first store in St. Paul, Minnesota, specialized in high-fidelity stereos. By the time the company was renamed in 1983, it was already a seven-store chain pulling in $10 million annually.

Costco stores may be designed to look like warehouses, but the very first store was actually in an old airplane hangar. When it was founded in San Diego in 1976, the store was called Price Club and served small businesses only. Costco opened up to the general public in 1983, but retained its membership option for customers, helping to create the warehouse club industry.

Sam Walton opened the very first Walmart in Rogers, Arkansas, in 1962, with a specific goal: selling products at the lowest prices available anywhere, any time. The retail chain, which is still owned by the Walton family, is one of the largest corporations in the world today.