Just the other day sitting around with some of my friends, SOMEHOW. The subject of Baseball came up. This brought to mind an episode of many years ago. When as a mere lad, my parents and our neighbors decided to make the 50 mile trip to a new store. They called it a “DISCOUNT DEPARTMENT STORE”. Now we had big stores in the big town we called the County Seat. We had a Montgomery Ward, a J.C. Penny and a local store that was about the same size as the previous mentioned named. But a “discount store” what was that?
So one day we all set out on the 50 mile journey. WOW! There we were a Huge building with only one store. Inside I looked around with my parents and neighbors. But wait. I discovered the sporting good department, much larger than the sporting good store we had in our county. Being summer I was drawn to the baseball section. THEN; there it was a big black baseball glove. Not only was I attracted to it because it was black and the only gloves I had seen were brown. It was larger than any I had seen before. I kept coming back to it, wishing it were mine. But at that time $10 was a lot of money. My neighbor friend, her name was Katie; saw me admiring it and asked if I wanted it. Yes I said. She offered to buy it for me if i would mow her yard until it was paid for. I had to mow her yard for the remainder of the summer. BUT I had the glove I wanted so much.
The other kept referring to it as a “peach basket” because it was large, NOT any bigger than what you see outfielders wear now-a-days. I was a Pee Wee leaguer and played center field, just like Mickey Mantle. (Well maybe not exactly just like Mickey). But I was proud of it, I caught more balls with it. But I was also proud of it because unlike many of my friends, whose parents bought their gloves, I EARNED IT AND PAID FOR IT MYSELF.
That store just happened to be JUBILEE CITY.
Jubilee City was an early discount department-store chain that tried to give American families a new kind of shopping experience: a large store where customers could purchase clothing, household goods, and other merchandise at competitive prices.
The company emerged during a major transformation in American retailing. Suburban communities were growing, families increasingly depended on automobiles, and discount retailers were challenging traditional department stores.
Jubilee City expanded beyond its original market, including into Tulsa, Oklahoma; Indianapolis, Indiana; Kansas City; Chattanooga, Tennessee; and the Houston area. But the business model that helped the company expand also created problems with management, merchandising, and distribution. Its operations gradually disappeared during the 1970s.
The founding: Jubilee Shops in 1955
The history of Jubilee City begins in 1955, when Lawrence Altman founded Jubilee Shops Inc. in New York. Altman came from the traditional clothing business. He recognized that consumers were becoming interested in discount shopping and that a large store could attract customers by offering a broad selection of goods at lower prices. Rather than relying entirely on conventional department-store operations, Jubilee Shops developed an unusual arrangement: manufacturers and other operators could lease departments or sales-floor space inside the stores. This approach allowed Jubilee to offer merchandise from different suppliers without having to operate every department itself. It also reduced some of the need for the company to buy and manage all its merchandise through the conventional retail system.
The company experimented with stores in the New York and New Jersey region before pursuing wider expansion. The precise locations and chronology of every early store remain incompletely documented.
What made Jubilee City different?
Jubilee City’s concept was to provide a broad, one-stop shopping experience rather than operate as a small specialty shop. Its stores could include departments selling: Clothing and apparel, Household goods, General merchandise
Products supplied by independent manufacturers and department operators. Other consumer goods intended for everyday family shopping. The exact merchandise selection varied by location; surviving online historical records do not provide a complete inventory for every store.
The leased-department system was central to the concept. Instead of having the parent company directly control every product category, separate operators could run different sections of the same building. This arrangement could broaden the selection available to customers. However, it also made the business more complicated to coordinate as the chain grew.
Expansion into new markets during the 1960s
During the early 1960s, Jubilee City sought to establish itself in markets where discount shopping was expanding but where opportunities remained for new regional competitors.
The company negotiated locations in several metropolitan areas, sometimes pursuing multiple sites in the same market. Expansion required buildings, investment capital, suppliers, and local support. The chain’s historical footprint included the following locations. These are documented examples, not a claim that the list covers every store ever planned or operated.
Where Jubilee City operated
6925 East Admiral Place, Tulsa
The store operated from approximately 1962 to 1970. It became part of Tulsa’s early discount-shopping landscape and was later associated with Belscot and other retail uses. The property was subsequently subdivided.
Indianapolis, Indiana
5302 North Keystone Avenue
A documented Jubilee City location that operated into 1975. The building survived, although the property was later divided for other uses.
Houston, Texas
10400 Eastex Freeway
This location operated from approximately 1961 to 1963 and later became a Globe store. The building was eventually demolished during freeway expansion. Two other proposed Houston-area sites did not become completed Jubilee City stores.
Kansas City area
Kansas City, Kansas; Raytown and Shawnee, Missouri/Kansas area
Historical records identify stores at 4915 State Avenue, 8760 Blue Ridge Boulevard, and 11215 West 63rd Street. These locations closed as Jubilee City stores around 1966, and the properties were later used by other businesses.
Chattanooga, Tennessee
5615 Lee Highway
This location operated into approximately 1970. Later retail uses included Gibsons and Target, and the building was eventually demolished during airport-area expansion.
The surviving location records show how quickly the chain’s footprint changed. Some sites were sold or repurposed after only a few years, while others continued in retail use under different names.
The ownership and corporate changes
Lawrence Altman is the identified founder of Jubilee Shops, the business from which Jubilee City developed. The later corporate story is more complicated than a straightforward sale to one buyer. By 1968, Jubilee City was involved in a combination with a larger group of discount-store businesses. That group included Belscot, Bell, Scott, ABC Discount Centers, and Econo Mart. The aim was to combine operations and purchasing power across several chains.
Lawrence Altman establishes the business in New York and begins developing the discount-store concept.
1960s Expansion into new markets
Jubilee City develops stores in several metropolitan areas, including Tulsa, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Chattanooga, and Houston.
1968 Corporate consolidation
Jubilee City becomes associated with the larger Belscot group of discount-retail operations.
1970 Tulsa store closes
The Admiral Place location ends its run as Jubilee City.
1975 Indianapolis location closes
The North Keystone store’s documented Jubilee City operation ends.
1978 The broader operation winds down
The Belscot/Jubilee retail organization largely disappears.
Historical dates are approximate where the surviving records do not establish exact opening or closing days. Sources: Houston Historic Retail and Tulsa-area historical accounts.
Further historical research
The most useful next step would be to locate contemporary newspaper advertisements, corporate announcements, and archived photographs. These could help establish a more precise chronology of individual stores and identify additional executives or investors.
Two useful starting points are:
Houston Historic Retail — Jubilee City
Tulsa Shopping Wars — Maduko World Headquarters
The key distinction is that Jubilee City was a retail chain, not a city that disappeared. Its stores closed or changed names, and the company ultimately faded from American retailing as larger discount chains gained the advantage.
The consolidation could have improved buying power and reduced duplicated expenses. However, bringing several businesses together did not automatically solve their operating problems. There is insufficient reliable public documentation to provide a complete list of every shareholder, corporate officer, or individual owner through the company’s final years. It would be misleading to invent a succession of owners where the historical record is incomplete.
Why Jubilee City began to fail
Jubilee City’s decline was not simply the result of shoppers losing interest in discount shopping. The broader discount-retailing sector was growing. The problem was that Jubilee City struggled to compete with businesses that could operate more efficiently.
Competition from larger retailers
Large discount operators such as Kmart had important advantages. They could centralize purchasing, coordinate merchandise across their stores, and spread administrative expenses across a larger operation.
Jubilee City relied heavily on leased departments and outside operators. This arrangement made its stores more difficult to coordinate and could leave the company at a disadvantage against competitors with more integrated systems.
The difficulty of expanding too quickly
Opening stores in multiple states required substantial investment in buildings, equipment, inventory, and transportation.
Jubilee City’s expansion depended partly on outside investors and local financial backing. Its operating model therefore required cooperation among the parent company, property owners, suppliers, and department operators.
If one part of that system failed, the problems could affect an entire store or market.
The supply-chain problem
One of the most significant difficulties involved distribution.
As the company expanded its merchandise beyond clothing, transportation arrangements became more complicated. The historical account published by Houston Historic Retail reports that Jubilee City’s trucking company sued the stores after disputes arose over the addition of merchandise beyond apparel to shipping arrangements. The dispute illustrates the practical challenge facing a business that was trying to coordinate numerous product categories through a developing distribution system. The trucking litigation is described as one of the final blows to the broader operation. Consolidation did not solve the underlying problems.
Combining Jubilee City with Belscot and related discount chains offered the prospect of shared buying and lower operating costs.
But the expanded organization also had to coordinate separate retail operations, leased departments, suppliers, and trucking arrangements. The consolidation did not produce a sufficiently durable solution.
According to the surviving historical account, the combined Belscot/Jubilee operation had largely wound down by 1978.
Houston Historic Retail
Tulsa provides a particularly clear example of what happened to the chain.
The Jubilee City store at 6925 East Admiral Place was a recognizable part of the city’s early discount-retail era. Local recollections describe it as one of Tulsa’s first major discount stores, predating the arrival of Walmart in the local shopping landscape.
Some former customers remember the store’s grocery department and a small food counter where they could buy barbecue sandwiches. Those details come from residents’ recollections rather than formal company records, but they show that the store was remembered as more than simply a place to buy clothing. The Tulsa location ceased operating as Jubilee City around 1970. The property subsequently had other retail uses, including Price Mart, and was later subdivided.
The broader corporate operation continued to unwind after the Tulsa store had closed, with most of the Belscot/Jubilee business ending by 1978. Thus, the Tulsa store’s closure and the demise of the overall operation were separate events.
That happened to the buildings?
Jubilee City’s demise did not mean that all its buildings immediately disappeared.
Former store properties followed different paths: Some were converted into other retail businesses. Some were subdivided for multiple tenants. Some remained standing long after the Jubilee City name disappeared. Others were demolished because of redevelopment or infrastructure expansion.
The Houston location on Eastex Freeway, for example, was later occupied by Globe before demolition associated with freeway expansion. The Indianapolis property survived, while the Tulsa property was reused and subdivided.
Jubilee City’s place in American retail history
Jubilee City belongs to the early generation of discount retailers that helped establish the idea that consumers could buy a wide range of everyday products at lower prices in large stores.
Its story is significant for three reasons.
First, it anticipated the one-stop discount store. The idea of bringing numerous product categories together under one roof became central to the success of later mass merchants.
Second, it experimented with a distinctive business model. Leasing departments to outside operators allowed Jubilee City to assemble a broad selection of merchandise, but also created coordination challenges.
Third, its failure illustrates the importance of distribution and cost control. Retailing depends on more than attractive prices and large buildings. Purchasing power, inventory management, transportation, and consistent store operations can determine whether a chain survives.
Jubilee City’s disappearance occurred during the same broad transformation that favored larger, more integrated discount retailers. Its story is a reminder that being early to a successful retail concept does not guarantee long-term survival.
Jubilee City’s disappearance occurred during the same broad transformation that favored larger, more integrated discount retailers. Its story is a reminder that being early to a successful retail concept does not guarantee long-term survival.
1955 Jubilee Shops is founded
Lawrence Altman establishes the business in New York and begins developing the discount-store concept.
1960s Expansion into new markets
Jubilee City develops stores in several metropolitan areas, including Tulsa, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Chattanooga, and Houston.
1968 Corporate consolidation
Jubilee City becomes associated with the larger Belscot group of discount-retail operations.
1970 Tulsa store closes
The Admiral Place location ends its run as Jubilee City.
1975 Indianapolis location closes
The North Keystone store’s documented Jubilee City operation ends.
1978 The broader operation winds down
The Belscot/Jubilee retail organization largely disappears.
Historical dates are approximate where the surviving records do not establish exact opening or closing days. Sources: Houston Historic Retail and Tulsa-area historical accounts.
Further historical research
The most useful next step would be to locate contemporary newspaper advertisements, corporate announcements, and archived photographs. These could help establish a more precise chronology of individual stores and identify additional executives or investors.
Two useful starting points are:
Houston Historic Retail — Jubilee City
Tulsa Shopping Wars — Maduko World Headquarters
The key distinction is that Jubilee City was a retail chain, not a city that disappeared. Its stores closed or changed names, and the company ultimately faded from American retailing as larger discount chains gained the advantage.
