WWW.STREETCARMIKE.COM Transportation Photography by Michael "Streetcar Mike" Strauch

K&B Drug Stores
Created July 1998 and updated May 26, 2007.
©1998-2007 Michael Strauch. All rights reserved.

Look at almost every corner
And what do you see
A big purple sign that says
Friendly K&B
Variety, value and reliability
That's what you get at your friendly K&B
K&B Drugstores

Gustave Katz, who owned a drug store on St. Charles, joined in partnership with Sydney J. Besthoff in April 1905. They opened the first K&B store at 732 Canal Street. The Katz family sold their interest to the Besthoffs in 1954.

Throughout the 1900s K&B expanded to a peak of 195 stores in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, and Tennessee. Most stores were corner locations, either freestanding buildings or on the end of a strip mall. A few stores were sandwiched between other retailers in shopping malls. Pictured is a store in Slidell, Louisiana's Plaza 190 shopping center.

K&B offered a wide selection of merchandise. In addition to pharmacy services and over-the-counter medicines, there were groceries, spirits, hardware, toys, stationery, magazines, and cosmetics. Seasonal merchandise was well represented with a good selection of Easter, summer, and Christmas items. Purple pens and pencils are well remembered; the latter came in the four popular hardnesses (Nos. 1, 2, 2½, and 3).

The company offered its own film processing services (St. Charles corner Louisiana) and sold camera equipment upstairs at Canal and Dauphine (later at 227 Dauphine, then at the West Esplanade Ave. store). 3M supplied K&B with its private label film, carried in 110, 126, and 35mm sizes.

Katz and Besthoff's ice cream had a huge following. There was a large selection of flavors, including seasonal varieties, produced by its Super Ice Cream Suppliers at the warehouse, which moved from its original Camp Street location (now occupied by the Contemporary Arts Center) to a location near Shrewsbury in Metairie.

Best known headquarters was K&B Plaza, a seven-story building purchased from John Hancock insurance in 1973 and located on the former site of the main public library. Created by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, it is all that remained of K&B after the sale to Rite Aid. The logos of the former drug store chain are prominent at the top of at least two sides. The Besthoffs maintain offices and a collection of art there today.

During the 1920s, a merchant backed out of a deal to purchase a large quantity of purple butcher-type paper. The drug store chain bought the supply at a bargain and quickly gained itself an identifying trademark when customers were seen carrying purchases from K&B wrapped in purple paper. This evolved into purple paper bags, private merchandise labels, and store color themes.

K&B's logo for many years had two check marks. This represented a pair of pharmacists available at each location to "double check" prescriptions for accuracy. In the 1970s the logo was redesigned (by Lippincott & Margules) and lost the check marks.

There used to be soda fountains and lunch counters at K&B in the 1950s and 1960s. The front of each store had treadle activated gates (central entrance and side exit through each checkstand). K&B usually opened at 8 a.m. and closed at 10 p.m. seven days a week in later years.

In August 1997 Rite Aid Incorporated purchased the K&B drug store chain and spent the next few months closing or converting them. On June 6, 1998 the new owners held a garage sale to dispose of K&B memorabilia and merchandise, with proceeds given to charity. Purple fixtures, signs, and shopping baskets were among the items available.

This page is inspired by the Yat Speak lexicon entry on K&B at The Gumbo Pages. Thanks, Chuck!

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