Sol Price is the most influential retailer you’ve never heard of. A man who never sought the spotlight, but whose legacy and lessons cover the entire landscape of modern retail.

Have you ever wondered why you can still buy a hot dog and soda for $1.50 today at Costco? We can thank Sol Price for that. To him, keeping promises to customers mattered more than profit margins.

Public Release: August 12.
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Sam Walton said he borrowed more ideas from Sol Price than anyone else. Jim Sinegal of Costco said, “I didn’t learn a lot from Sol. I learned everything.” Jeff Bezos studied him. Home Depot echoed him. 

He invented the warehouse club, pioneered membership retail and built two multi-billion-dollar companies. The real lessons aren’t about what he built, but how he did it. 

This episode is for informational purposes only.

Lessons from Sol Price:

1. Bet on Yourself: At 38, Sol put $5,000 into FedMart. For a small-town lawyer in 1954, that was serious money. When he got fired at 60, most people would retire to a golf course. Sol? He dumped $800,000 of his own cash into Price Club. No backup plan. No safety net. Just conviction that he could figure it out. The first company became a $300 million giant. The second one spawned a trillion-dollar industry. When you believe in what you’re building, go all in. Half-measures guarantee half-results. 
2. The Intelligent Loss of Sales: Sol stocked exactly one size of 3-in-1 Oil: the 8-ounce bottle. Every competitor carried small, medium, and large. “Sure, we lose the customer who wants the small size,” Sol said. “That’s the intelligent loss of sales.” Here’s what happened: carrying 3,000 items instead of 50,000 meant a lot less time ordering, stocking, checking out. Labor costs crashed. Every saved penny went to customers as lower prices. Price Club hit $1,000 per square foot. Competitors with “complete selection” $300. Turns out customers prefer lower prices to endless choices.
3. Think Like a Fiduciary, Not a Merchant: When Safeway sold sugar below cost, Sol did something insane. He put up signs in FedMart: “Sugar is cheaper at Safeway this week. Go buy it there.” His managers thought he’d lost it. Sol’s view? “I have a fiduciary duty to my members, like a lawyer to clients.” That radical honesty created something powerful. People drove 200 miles round-trip from San Diego to shop at his LA store. When you treat customers like clients, not targets, trust becomes your greatest asset.
4. Win-Win: The Math of Success: Most businesses think someone has to lose for them to win. Sol flipped the equation. San Antonio retailers paid 50 cents an hour in 1957. Sol paid a dollar. Let’s look at what happened: Employees could afford healthcare and dignity. Communities got stable families, not desperate workers. FedMart attracted the best people with near-zero turnover. No constant hiring, no training costs, no theft. Those savings? Straight to customers with lower prices. Higher wages created lower costs. Sol didn’t split the pie differently. He baked a bigger pie.
5. Ignorance is a Superpower: Sol had never worked retail when he started FedMart. “Fortunately, we didn’t know what wouldn’t work or what we couldn’t do.” Retail experts knew you couldn’t sell tires next to toothpaste. Sol did it anyway. Experts knew stores needed elaborate displays. Sol used sawhorses and plywood. Experts knew warehouse locations were death. Sol thrived there. Revenue went from zero to $300 million. Sometimes the most dangerous thing you can know is why something won’t work.
6. Bounce, Don’t Break: Helen’s parents said Sol wasn’t good enough. Socialist parents, lazy father, drooping eye. He married her anyway with a dollar ring from Woolworth’s. FEDCO rejected his partnership. He built FedMart and crushed them. Hugo Mann locked him out of FedMart at 60. Within a week, Sol signed a lease one floor up. Every morning, he rode the elevator past the company that fired him. Seven months later, Price Club opened. At 87, when PriceSmart tanked, he rescued it with his own money. Three knockdowns. Three comebacks. Each one bigger. Success isn’t avoiding failure. It’s what you do after.
7. Be a Teacher: Sol believed you train animals, but teach people. He bought a Greyhound bus, installed beds and a kitchen, turned eight-hour drives into rolling universities. Teaching executives while cooking chili at 70 miles per hour. When Bernie Marcus got fired, Sol walked him through every Price Club detail. Home Depot was born. Sam Walton showed up with a tape recorder? Sol mailed it back intact. Sam’s Club was born. His secret: you can copy warehouses and membership fees. You can’t copy principles. That’s why Costco dominates while Sam’s Club survives. 
8. The $1.50 Promise: Price Club sold a hot dog and soda for $1.50 in 1976. Today, nearly 50 years later, Costco still charges $1.50. They lose money on every single one. When someone suggested raising the price, Costco’s CEO said, “If you raise the price of the fucking hot dog, I will kill you.” That hot dog isn’t food. It’s a promise customers. It says some promises matter more than profit margins. What you refuse to change reveals who you are.
9. Turn Problems into Principles: There is almost always another way. Texas law in 1957 required separate facilities by race. Sol’s San Antonio solution? Remove every table and chair from the lunch counter. If everyone had to stand, everyone could eat together. When a Dallas bank demanded segregation clauses for his loan, Sol said remove it or no deal. The bank blinked first. He didn’t fight the system. He redesigned around it. 

Source:

1. Price, Robert E. 2012. Sol Price: Retail Revolutionary & Social Innovator. San Diego: San Diego Sol Price.

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