Old Car Guy Wrote:
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> Hopeful Peacemaker Comes In Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Before there was Memco there was Gemco , you
> can
> > tell a old Memco store by the M design on their
> > store front , they had a secret cost price code
> > which had something to do with the actual price
> on
> > the price tag they also had a grocery store in
> the
> > back which made one stop shopping easy at a
> Memco
> > store which had things from sporting goods
> > including seasonal items guns and footballs to
> > clothes watches jewelry sewing machines TVs
> > appliances and rugs and garden items plus car
> > parts tools all kinds of things packed into
> those
> > store and a snack bar with rest rooms in the
> front
> > Memco's were at Fairfax Circle Annandale
> > Alexandria Camp Springs Maryland and later
> Reston
> > plus some more . They shut down suddenly in
> 1982
> > and are still missed by long time residents of
> > Nova . The Fairfax Memco had The original
> Charlie
> > The Watch Repairer with his counter of watches
> and
> > tools and workbench near the front of the store
> on
> > the main aisle and a second Charley nearby
> sitting
> > in a chair by his trailer on the Pickett Road
> hill
> > happily waving at all who went by
> >
> >
>
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/19
>
> >
> 82/12/28/washington-area-memco-stores-to-shut-in-j
>
> > anuary/5befab80-4e10-4ae4-847d-d8342a9f4797/
>
> Gemco was the parent company of Memco - I remember
> going to a Gemco in Houston in the 1970s.
>
> The "secret price code" was the store's cost of
> the item which was represented on the corner of
> the price tag in letters. To decode what Memco
> paid for an item you used THINK GEMCO as the
> decoder with each letter corresponding to 1
> through 9 and 0.
>
> I was in a Memco the day the shuttle exploded and
> watched it in the TV section on 20 or more sets
> which were all playing the same channel.
>
> Sadly, I also had several pairs of their sneakers
> which were branded John Havlicek - they did not
> hold up well and were quickly renamed John
> Craplicek by myself and my school-aged friends.
I n high school I was stuck wearing low budget "Arnold Horshacks"
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