G. Year 1956 ( MCMLVI) was a Leap year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Year 1973 ( MCMLXXIII) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display full calendar of the 1973 Gregorian calendar. E. M. Membership Department Stores, also known as G. E. X. or G. E. S. , was a chain of discount stores in the United States and Canada. A discount store is a type of Department store, which sell products at prices lower than those asked by traditional retail outlets The chain extended membership to government employees; the name was an acronym for "Government Employees Mart. "^[1]

Appliance and electronics departments in G. E. M. stores were operated by Wards Company, which later changed its name to Circuit City. Circuit City ( is an American dealer and retailer in brand-name consumer electronics personal computers and entertainment software ^[2]

The stores closed during the discount store shakeout of 1973.

Canadian pharmacist Murray Koffler was an investor in the G. Murray Bernard Koffler (born 1924 is a Canadian Pharmacist, businessman and philanthropist E. M. chain, bringing the first G. E. M. store to Toronto in 1959. He eventually subleased the G. E. M. drug department in several Toronto area stores. Following the G. E. M. discount model, Koffler later opened one of the first "big box" store chains, Shoppers Drug Mart. Shoppers Drug Mart Corporation ( is Canada 's largest Pharmacy chain with more than 1000 stores operating under the names Shoppers Drug Mart ^[1]

Former Locations

References