Landmark old store becoming self-storage facility
Today it sits vacant and nearly forgotten on a side street near downtown Wichita Falls. Soon it will have a new life.
In its heyday the wide storefront with boarded windows was a beehive of retail activity, a must-stop location for families to inhale the unique aroma of caramel and popcorn and buy everything from screws and bolts to dresses and shoes.
The original site of Gibson’s Discount Center at 601 12th Street, now owned by a Garland company, will undergo a $1.4 million overhaul to become a self-storage facility.
W.A. Streich, a former farmer and grocer, became associated with the Abilene-based Gibson family business interests in the 1930s and came to Wichita Falls in 1946 to operate Gibson Wholesale, which moved into the 12th Street location in1950 and then converted to a retail discount operation in 1959.
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The original downtown store encompassed about 28,000 square feet and had a large parking lot across 12th Street. A huge signed proclaimed Gibson’s was the place “where you buy the best for less.”
Business boomed for the chain and the Streich family franchise operations later opened a second store on Kell Boulevard and stores in Burkburnett, Vernon and Bowie in Texas and Lawton, Duncan and Frederick in Oklahoma.
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The Gibson’s chain grew to 684 stores nationwide. Legend has it that in 1961, Herb Gibson, Jr. declined to give a franchise to Arkansas businessman Sam Walton, who responded by opening his own discount retail chain. The Gibson's company began a slow decline in the late 1970s as franchisees left the group. The chain sold in 1984.
Both Wichita Falls stores shut down in early 1994, with management citing changing market conditions, location and physical conditions that “have created unprofitable results.”
The local operations manager attributed the closing in part to the arrival of Walmart and Sam’s Club in Wichita Falls – stores owned by the man who had been denied a Gibson’s franchise three decades earlier.
“Our buildings are older and not the size of the newer discount retailers,” operations manager Mark Henry said at the time. “We can’t carry as wide a selection of merchandise, and down the line that had an effect.”
Gibson’s had a generous profit-sharing plan and all 115 local employees were fully vested when the stores closed.
The Streich family operated its Kell Boulevard location as Bargain Depot for a couple of years. It later became Denim & Diamonds nightclub and now houses retail stores and a fitness gym.
ServiceMaster operated out of the downtown building for several years before moving to a different location.
The Gibson’s chain ceased to operate in 2003. Four independently owned stores still carry the name, including one in Kerrville, Texas and one in Weatherford, Texas.
The old downtown location will become the second major downtown retail location to shift to storage. The Sears building on Lamar Avenue, which encompasses a city block, converted in 2014.
This article originally appeared on Wichita Falls Times Record News: Landmark old store in downtown Wichita Falls becoming self storage
