Old FEDCO Fashions and Furniture

I thought some of you might appreciate the photos and illustrations in some old FEDCO catalogs I found from the late 1960s. Can some of you Californian's who remember, explain FEDCO to the other TC'ers? I remember it being kind of like an old-style Target or Costco.

First, the fashions:

Now for the Furniture:

I think tikifish will appreciate this first one:

Sabu

[ Edited by: Sabu The Coconut Boy on 2004-10-01 13:09 ]

wasn't it a members only type place (like costco) - where you had to pay money to buy their discounted wares, or be a public employee or something?

my parents used to take us there as kids, and feed us at the cafeteria. I would always get the grilled cheese sandwich - wonder bread, orange processed cheese, grease. Mmmmmm - that's still my go-to Comfort Food.

On 2004-10-01 13:11, dangergirl299 wrote:
wasn't it a members only type place (like costco) - where you had to pay money to buy their discounted wares, or be a public employee or something?

You had to be a Government or Union employee to get a card, although at the end they'd give one to anyone. When I was 20 I tried to get a job in their warehouse, until I found out that I'd have to pay full Teamster dues to make $5/Hr. I got a job with a catering company instead, making $5/Hr under the table & later ended up a partner in the company. Thank you, Fedco!

Yeah, you had to be a Federal (hence the name FED(you dumbhsits)CO. Since I was the prodigeny of a federal goberment wanker-ette, I got to do weird things in the men's room there.

I miss the weird California facts column that they had in the Fedco catalog. One of the weird facts was that the black sand beaches in Hawaii were made white by sending shiploads of white sand from Redondo Beach, here in California. I don't know if that story is true, but it would be strange if California sand were used to make Hawaii look more stereotypical Hawaiian. Does anyone know?

Sabu-
got any pics of the old stores themselves? I seem to remember one on Harbor Blvd. in Costa Mesa...