Shopko History

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The Company Description of Its Time

Shopko was a chain of discount stores based in Green Bay, Wisconsin, founded by pharmacist James Ruben, who opened the first store in Green Bay in 1962 with a then-novel idea: combine health care services with a large discount store. Shopko became one of the first mass retailers to feature in-store pharmacies and eye care centers, and grew into a family of more than 130 specialty discount stores selling casual apparel, home, family and healthcare products. All of its locations closed on June 23, 2019, and the complete dated record the company kept of itself - year by year from 1961 to 2019 - is kept on this profile's history page.

Pamida, Hometown Stores and the End: 1999-2019

Shopko's second act was built on small towns. It acquired Pamida Holding Co., a retailer operating 148 discount stores in small rural markets, in 1999; Pamida was operated as a separate division, separated again in 2007, and merged back in 2012, after which most Pamida stores were rebranded as Shopko Hometown - the small-format banner aimed at communities too small for a full Shopko. At its filing-era peak the company described more than 16,000 teammates in 13 states and annual sales above $2.2 billion, with private labels including Bailey's Point, NorthCrest, Energy Zone and Soft Sensations alongside national brands such as Nike, Adidas and Reebok.

On January 16, 2019, Shopko filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The filing-era optimism of the timeline gives way to its final entry - recorded on the profile in capital letters: all locations closed on June 23, 2019. The Shopko name survives mainly in Shopko Optical, the eye-care business that continued separately from the closed discount stores, and in the memories of the Midwestern and Mountain-state towns where a Shopko run was a weekly ritual for nearly sixty years.

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