Remember When Texarkana Had Gibson Discount Center?

Before Walmart became a household name many of you may remember the retail store Gibson Discount Center. If I'm not mistaken I believe we had two stores here one on the Arkansas side of town and the other on the Texas side. According to Fun in Arkansas, the first Gibson store opened in Little Rock, Arkansas in the 1930s, and by the 1970s the store was a national franchise.

The owner H.R. Gibson was an Arkansas native During that period Gibson was in direct competition with Walmart and was the second-largest retailer behind Kmart. Believe it or not, out of 700 stores nationwide, only two are still open today and that's news to me because I thought they all went out of business. The two remaining stores are both in Texas, in Kerrville and Weatherford near Fort Worth. The pictures for this story are from YouTuber I'm Earnest at the Kerrville store.

Mr. Gibson passed away in 1986, and it's believed that Walmart used some of his business management skills to help build its retail empire today making Walmart the world's largest retailer. Gibson may have been born in Berryville, Arkansas but he also grew up in Louisiana, Missouri, and Oklahoma. At an early age, his father set him up in a livestock business that he ran successfully for many years. He ran numerous other businesses before getting into the retail business in the 1930s.

I don't know about you but for the longest time, I would drive by one of the old locations and it would bring back so many childhood memories of shopping there for Christmas.

For many of you, I'm sure it brings up some fond memories and for those not old enough to remember, you probably saying, Gibson who?

What do you remember most about Gibson's in Texarkana?