Portfolio > Diners and Dives

In 1914, two brothers named Ike and Mike Katz opened two drug stores in Kansas City, Missouri. One was located on 8th Street and Grand Avenue and the second inside the "Argyle Building" on 12th and McGee Street. At the start of WWI, the Katz Drug Stores became famous because they were allowed to stay open past 6 pm, despite wartime curfews on nonessential businesses. They also absorbed the new 10% tax on cigarettes instead of passing the cost to customers, which was incorporated into their new slogan “Katz pays the tax!” Katz also sold more than just drugs: each store had a small grocery store with a soda fountain and lunch counter and sold small home appliances, music records, Katz-branded beer, and even live animals.[