industry retail founded 1955 yakima washington u.s. headquarters eugene oregon number of locations 75 products clothing footwear housewares sporting goods hardware toys electronics foods pharmacy beer seasonal goods website http www.bimart.com bi mart is an employee owned chain of retailers located in the u.s. states of oregon washington and idaho . 1 a typical bi mart houses merchandise including electronics and small appliances housewares hardware and power tools sporting and hunting supplies apparel canned and packaged food personal care products a drugstore and pharmacy . an average bi mart is approximately 31 000 square feet 2 900 m2 2 a fraction of the typical 107 000 square feet 9 900 m2 walmart 3 that offers similar product diversity but greater depth . the company was founded in 1955 and is headquartered in eugene oregon . as of early 2011 there are 75 store locations . 4 bi mart s first store opened in yakima washington in 1955 and did not open a second store until 1962 . in 1976 bi mart was bought by pay n save which itself was acquired by thrifty corporation in 1984 . it was subsequently merged into the former kmart subsidiary payless drug and finally purchased by rite aid in 1996 . in 1997 bi mart s management and endeavour capital a portland based venture capital firm bought the company ; 5 they sold it to employees march 1 2004 for 94 million which included 12.5 million contributed from the 401 k plan . bi mart is the sole surviving store name of former pay n save subsidiaries . schucks auto supply retained its name until acquired by o reilly automotive inc. and rebranded in 2010 . in october 2003 bi mart announced it was expanding eastward . eight stores were planned with the first store in havre montana . the second store opened three years later in weiser idaho . in 2006 bi mart exited the montana market due to poor sales . a typical bi mart store in ontario oregon like costco and sam s club bi mart stores are membership stores ; unlike those chains its members only policy started as a workaround to fair trade laws established in the united states in the 1930s by laws such as the miller tydings act and those related to suggested retail prices . 1 thus the membership for an entire family only costs 5 and never expires . references edit a b about bi mart . retrieved 2012 01 07 . marcus hathcock oct 30 2009 original january 23 2008 . bi mart coming to town commercial zone s biggest hole may be filled soon . sandy post . retrieved 2012 01 07 . our retail divisions . walmart . august 24 2007 . retrieved 2012 01 07 . bi mart store locations & hours of operation . retrieved 2012 12 04 . endeavour capital portfolio overview . endeavour capital . retrieved 2012 01 07 . external links edit official website smaller and steady win the race a december 2004 article from the oregonian v t e oregon based companies nyse listed greenbrier companies lithia motors nike nw natural portland general electric nasdaq listed columbia sportswear electro scientific industries erickson inc. fei flir lattice mentor graphics radisys rentrak schnitzer steel umpqua holdings private companies a dec banfield consumer cellular esco franz bakery hoffman construction infocus kindercare education laika leupold & stevens les schwab the old spaghetti factory parr lumber plaid pantry reser s fine foods roseburg forest products shari s vigor industrial other bi mart tillamook creamery western family foods list of companies based in oregon retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title bi mart & oldid 699591414 categories companies based in eugene oregoncompanies established in 1955discount stores of the united stateseconomy of the northwestern united statesemployee owned companies of the united statespay n save navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 13 january 2016 at 06 57 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view