My first part-time high school job was as a box boy in the drug department of the old Sage Discount store at Beechnut and 610. I worked there for three years. It was originally a membership type store like Sam's and Costco are today. As I recall they dropped the annual membership fee somewhere down the line. Each department in the store was basically a separate entity with different ownership and management. Space within the store was leased to the different owners. As I recall they had the Beechnut store, one on I-10 (Katy Frwy), one on I-45 (Gulf Frwy), and one somewhere in Austin. I remember my boss talking to me about fixing me up with a job if I went to UT. Sage was pretty much the forerunner to Sam's complete with annual membership fees and door gaurds to check reciepts. They did not use item counts at the door, they had different colors of tape to put on all the bags each day. Everything needed a piece of tape on it to get out the door smoothly. I enjoyed working there. The last vestige of Sage that I know of in Houston is Arnes Warehouse on Studemont. That used to be the ownership and management of the Housewares Departments of Sage.
