 sol price (january 23, 1916 â december 14, 2009) was the founder of fedmart, price club (which ultimately merged into costco) and pricesmart.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/pricesmart he is considered a pioneer of the "warehouse store" retail model. ==early life and education== born in new york city, price was the son of samuel and bella price, jewish immigrants to the united states from minsk (belarus), in the early years of the 20th century.washington post: "price club changed america's shopping experience" by peter eisner december 15, 2009 the name price, which later became so apt, was assigned at ellis island; the original name may have been press or preuss. the family relocated to san diego in the early 1920s. price graduated from san diego high school in 1931, attended san diego state university in 1932, and earned his undergraduate degree (in philosophy) and a law degree from the university of southern california in 1936 and 1938, respectively. by 1938, he had married his girlfriend helen moskowitz; they eloped to las vegas. price was admitted to the california bar in november 1938. ==career== price launched the first fedmart in 1954 and founded, price club together with his son, robert, giles bateman, a nephew, rick libenson and others in 1976. the company went public in 1980. in 1993 costco merged with price club to form pricecostco. leadership in the new organization was shared between sol price's son, robert, and james sinegal. after eight months, pricecostco spun off separate companies called pricesmarthttps://shop.pricesmart.com/ and price enterprises, led by the younger price. [[pricesmart
1916_births 2009_deaths American_Jews American_businesspeople_in_retailing American_chief_executives American_philanthropists Businesspeople_from_San_Diego,_California Lawyers_from_San_Diego,_California San_Diego_State_University_alumni University_of_Southern_California_Law_School_alumni