Nation's First TG&Y Store Opened Here in 1936

Nation's First TG&Y Store Opened Here in 1936. . At the height of the Great Depression, a bankrupt Piggly Wiggly grocery store on this busy Norman corner offered an opportunity for three young men to lead an American retail revolution. R.E. Tomlinson, E.L. Gosselin and Raymond A. Young had their own “five-and-dime” stores in separate Oklahoma cities but wanted something more. They had met at a trade show and had already started a small business cooperative to buy their goods wholesale from manufacturers rather than deal with middlemen. Their combined Norman store, started in 1936 on the northwest corner of Main Street and Crawford Avenue, became the nation's first TG&Y. (The name came from their initials in the order of their age, oldest to youngest). , >br> That simple start-up would eventually become one of the nation's largest merchandisers and change the face of retailing. At its peak, the company, headquartered in Oklahoma City, had more than 1,000 stores in 29 states from Florida to California with emphasis on Southern states. , Nearly every mid-sized town or city in the central and southern U.S. had a TG&Y. Those without a TG&Y likely had a Ben Franklin store. (The two rarely competed). TG&Y had its own warehouses. A modern fleet of trucks moved goods efficiently to stores. , The Norman store was a test ground for many firsts. It was open six days a week and evenings, too. Eventually, TG&Y expanded in Norman with stores on Campus Corner, Downtown Shopping Center, Hollywood Shopping Center store and Heisman Shopping Center. The company was sold in 1986. Re-branding efforts failed and the last TG&Y in the nation closed in 2001.