According to an advertisement in the St. Tammany Farmer published in 1973, TG&Y first came to Mandeville in 1966 with a small store having only 6,000 square feet. In less than five years the growth of the area and the demand for greater variety in merchandise encouraged the store owners to triple the size of the facility to 18,000 square feet. "V.L. Rhoades, manager of the local store, and J.N. Pulley, co-manager, see even greater success ahead for the new facility, as more and more people move into our area and find that TG&Y provides everything they need for the home, hobby, yard and shop," the article stated.
Here are some photos of the people who worked there in 1973. Click on the images to make them larger.
The TG&Y brand of variety stores started in November of 1935 when three variety store owners (R.E. Tomlinson, E. L. Gosselin, and R. A. Young) sat down to discuss the possibility of forming a corporation in order to increase their buying power. An agreement was reaching that night, and plans were formulated to pool all their resources and set up offices and warehouse facilities in Oklahoma City. In 1973, TG&Y operated a chain of 839 variety stores in a thirty-state area.
The Mandeville TG&Y Store
