Dear friends,
You can see me talking about business history on these upcoming shows on the History Channel. The series is called The Mega-Brands that Built America. I hope you enjoy them!
Gary Hoover
Executive Director
American Business History Center
“Battle of The Superstores” July 23 at 10pm ET/PT premiere:
Founders and brands explored –
- Sol Price – Fed Mart, Price Club
- Jim Sinegal – Costco
- Sam Walton – Walmart, Sam’s Club
The episode begins with the astounding $30 trillion-a-year industry dominated by two retail masterminds.
Sol Price, a former attorney, forever transforms the retail landscape with FedMart, the first-ever for-profit discount retail store exclusively catering to federal employees.
Price introduces the superstore concept by adding a gas station, pharmacy, and food to reshape the consumer shopping experience.
The World Delivered – Sunday 7/30/2023 at 10pm ET/PT
- Jim Casey – UPS
- Al Fielding and Marc Chavannes – Bubble Wrap
- Frederick Smith – FedEx
100 years ago, shipping packages was slow, and shipping overnight was impossible, until two Seattle brothers risk everything to reinvent shipping packages for all. And a tenacious Yale graduate creates a world-famous express delivery service that transforms shipping into the essential global industry we rely on today.
Dirty Work — Sunday 8/13/2023 at 10pm ET/PT
- Harley Procter & James Gamble – Ivory Soap
- Jacob Schick – Schick, Electric Razor
- King C. Gillette – Gillette Razor
In the late 1800s Americans rarely bathed, lived in filthy conditions and deadly diseases were commonplace. But James Gamble and Harley Procter invent a revolutionary new soap that revolutionizes America and opens up a market to entrepreneurs including King Gillette and Jacob Schick whose bitter rivalry will birth the shaving industry as we know it, spawning a new billion-dollar industry and changing Americans daily lives forever.
