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125 years ago
Zion's Co-operative Mercantile Association — ZCMI — opened for business at its new store in its current location on Salt Lake City's Main Street on April 1, 1876, according to the Deseret Evening News edition of that date.
The newspaper reported, "The great centre of attraction in the city today has been the Z.C.M.I. new store, which opened for business this morning, the splendid building having been thronged with visitors and purchasers during the entire day. To say that the place looks splendid does no more than do it justice, as it compares in many points probably with any store on the continent."
The co-operative was opened in 1869 so that members of the Church could participate in ownership and trade, and help maintain reasonable prices so that "profiteers" could not charge exorbitant amounts for goods. (Essentials in Church History, by President Joseph Fielding Smith, p. 443.)
