Frank Winfield Woolworth originated the concept of the discount store when he opened shop in Lancaster, Pennsylvania (population 56,000). Buying up surpluses in bulk from other stores in the area, he kept everything priced at either a nickel or a dime. Sebastian Spering Kresge, a Pennsylvania native, liked the concept so much that he decided to open his own “five-and-dime” in Detroit. It turned out phenomenally successful – Kresge was operating 85 stores with sales of about $10 million by the time he founded the S.S. Kresge Corporation. He was worth in excess of $375 million (that’s five billion in today’s dollars) by the time his company was listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

On this day, March 1, in 1962, the first of the S.S. Kresge corporation’s new line of stores opened. They were the brainchild of the company’s new pesident, Harry B. Cunningham, a Harvard graduate.

Cunningham essentially pioneered the discount-store concept: pricing items low to create strong demand, but keeping costs low with high volumes through economies of scale. He opened up into the teeth of competition, however: that same year, both Target and Wal-Mart stores began operation.