Alright, time to do a little time traveling! Take a good look in front of you-once upon a time, you’d be staring at the grand entrance of Webb’s City, the world’s most unusual drug store right here in St. Petersburg. If you think your local mega-mart is impressive, wait until you hear about this place. Webb’s City was basically Walmart before Walmart was even a twinkle in Sam Walton’s eye, but with a lot more circus flair-and, believe it or not, more dancing chickens!
So let’s set the scene: It’s 1926, the Roaring Twenties, and St. Pete is buzzing with energy. Into this atmosphere stepped James Earl “Doc” Webb. People called him the P. T. Barnum of retail, and he took that label very seriously. He opened a tiny drug store that would eventually expand to take up nearly ten city blocks, with 77 departments and 1,700 workers. You could come for cough drops and stay for a talking mermaid-it wasn’t just shopping, it was show business!
Imagine the sounds of a jolly radio jingle floating through the air: “There’ll be no more hoppin’ around the town a-shoppin’, Webb’s City is your one-stop shopping store.” And Doc Webb truly meant it. Under one roof, you could get your hair cut for a quarter, eat breakfast for a couple of pennies, buy paint, a new suit, groceries, a fishing rod, have your hair styled, and even book a vacation at the travel agency. If you were feeling a little wild, you could also watch ducks play baseball. Yes, you heard that right-baseball ducks and a dancing chicken, probably the only place on earth where both were paired with talking mermaids and acrobats as in-store entertainment. If TikTok had been around then, Webb’s City would have blown up the internet.
Legend has it Doc once sold dollar bills for just 95 cents. “Stack it high and sell it cheap” was his motto. Manufacturers were less amused-at one point, the company selling Ipana toothpaste was furious because Doc undercut their suggested price. The toothpaste wars went all the way to court, but Doc Webb won at the Florida Supreme Court, which basically said, “Sure, let the man sell his toothpaste for 13 cents if he wants.” He did the same thing selling whiskey at knock-down prices-even the lawyers must have been shopping there.
But for all its spectacle and savings, Webb’s City reflected the tough realities of its time. It became a major shopping destination for St. Pete’s large senior and African American communities. Doc Webb hired more African Americans than anyone else around-but, crucially, only for less visible and lower-paying jobs. Black staff might be barbers or butchers, but they couldn’t advance; Black customers could shop in most areas, but couldn’t eat at the lunch counter or browse the latest men’s suits or “ready-to-wear” departments.
By the 1960s, as the Civil Rights Movement was picking up steam across America, protests erupted here too. The NAACP staged sit-ins and pickets, demanding equal pay and opportunities for African Americans at Webb's City. Doc Webb didn’t react kindly-he filed legal action after legal action to drive off the protesters and cited financial losses, but the community’s resolve only grew. Eventually, in 1961, Webb's City removed its racial barriers, but legal arguments dragged all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. The highest court confirmed the issue had finally been resolved-a huge, local win in the struggle for fairness.
As shopping malls popped up in the suburbs, the curtain slowly fell on Webb’s City. Doc’s old tricks-dollar deals, baseball ducks, and all-couldn’t compete with the shiny new shopping centers. The last ticket was punched in 1979, and by 1984 the buildings were gone. If you go to the St. Petersburg Museum of History, you can still spot the giant mermaid sign-a little nod to a place where you really could find anything, and you were always guaranteed a show.
So, next time someone complains that grocery shopping is boring, tell them about the time you visited the ghost of Webb’s City, where breakfast was two cents and ducks played ball better than your uncle Phil. Ready for our next stop? Let’s keep walking!
