Woolworth

[Tbyrdy]

Re: Woolworth

Yup. Downtown Daytona Beach on Beach Street. I see the (us) old timers remember it well...

[Sealy]

Re: Woolworth

Kresge, McCrory's, Ben Franklin's, Woolworth, G.C. Murphy - used to be a bunch of 'em. Great places to shop and eat. A great place to change history, too. Smithsonian has part of the Woolworth's lunch counter that help usher in civil rights. Alll we have now are dollar stores. Not much to say there.

[Bird03]

Re: Woolworth

1962 was the year that the 5 and dime stores started a transition to big-box discount department stores. All in the same year:

Woolworth's opened Woolco

S.S. Kresge opened Kmart

Dayton's opened Target

Walton's opened Wal-Mart

When sales declined and they started closing stores, Woolworth's diversified into small mall specialty stores. The company still exists today as the Foot Locker Corporation and operate Foot Locker and Champs Sports stores.

There are still Woolworth's stores operating in Mexico that were bought out from the company by a Mexican investment group. Yes they have a lunch counter. No the food is not the same.

[rpatton3]

Re: Woolworth

Sam Walton got his start at a Ben Franklin store in Newport, AR. It's a little town about 40 miles from here.

We had Woolworth, McCrory's, Ben Franklin and Sterling 5 & 10 all in a couple of blocks here in Jonesboro, AR when the town was < 20,000 population.

The lunch counter reminded me of how much things have changed. Civil rights and inflation are the most obvious.

[LuvOurBird]

Re: Woolworth

In California where I grew up we had Woolworth and Ben Franklins. I remember doing a lot of Christmas shopping at those two stores. My mother loved the Ben Hur perfume and that is what we bought for her. Oh my....did it smell, but Mom liked it.

[AZTB]

Re: Woolworth

We had a Woolworth's in downtown Glendale when I was a boy...had an upstairs to it, too. Glendale also had a Sprouse Reitz 5 & 10 store. Used to walk downtown during the summer and wander the aisles of the Woolworth's. Miss that simplicity

[DudleyM]

Re: Woolworth

We had Woolworth, Neisner's, SS Kresge and Ben Franklin stores. All "five & dime" stores. The Neisner's store in nearby Wyandotte, MI had the wooden floors that sloped and when they used the sweeping compound they smelled so unique and good. It also had a beauty shop on the mezzanine level and I had many a haircut there. Unfortunately the building burned, but that was long after the "dime store" went out of business.

In downtown Detroit, my Mom would take me shopping at SS Kresge and the real treat was eating lunch at the lunch counter and getting a 5 cent Coca Cola! Oh those were the days!

[CVCashmere]

Re: Woolworth

My Dad was a manager at McCrory's and W.T. Grants.
I worked at W.T. Grants, too.

He owned company stock and had a pension with Grants.

He lost everything when his pension was raided during the bankrupcy by lawyers from creditors. Afterwards, the Feds passed a bill protecting pensions from those evil thieves.

Not times when they were going under; he never did recover what was lost.

Thanks for listening.

[bwlewis]

Re: Woolworth

Grandma would drive the Hudson Hornet with me, my brother and sister to the "five and dime" at Woolworths in Eastover Shopping Center on the Maryland / D.C. line during special occasions (Easter and Christmas). It had to be special, it took over 2 hours to get there. I remember the seasonal decorations, the lunch counter and helping load the car "without peeking" in the packages and bags.

[Swalker]

Re: Woolworth

In 2007 while in New York, TonyV took us to the Woolworth biulding. WOW talk about nice, its now condos.

[luvbirdz]

Re: Woolworth

Yes, I remember the Woolworth and Kresge stores well. The lunch counters were always staffed by 'Old Ladies' in uniforms, but that impression was probably 'age related' at the time.
Anyone remember one of the first in the Big Box stores TOWERS, with the slogan 'Your Fashion Center'

[jerrym3]

Re: Woolworth

In West New York, NJ, we called them "five and tens".

As a little kid, I remember seeing a black and white TV with a tinted screen in front of it, and a claim of "first colored TV".

The store was on Bergenline Ave, and a trolley ran right outside.

At the intersection of two trolley lines further north, a small park was built.

That park grew to become the famous "Palisades Amusement Park".

[dartguy699]

Re: Woolworth

i absolutely remember!! the wonderful old wood floors and the best grilled hot dog of all time!! what a simpler time it was!!

jim

[Peterfurlan]

Re: Woolworth

In California where I grew up we had Woolworth and Ben Franklins. I remember doing a lot of Christmas shopping at those two stores. My mother loved the Ben Hur perfume and that is what we bought for her. Oh my....did it smell, but Mom liked it.

In New York we referred to all of them as the five and tens. Never got a
whiff of the Ben Hur perfume. I don't know how many of you remember oil
cloth but when you walked by that department an odor you will never forget.

[Skip]

Re: Woolworth

This is so nostalgic. The Baltimore neighborhood I grew up in, as well as the downtown business district, had Woolworth, S.S. Kresege and GC Murphy stores. Barb worked in a Murphy's as a teenager. The lunch counters served vanilla phosphates, which they actually mixed using soda water and vanilla flavoring. Kind of the foreunner of creme/cream soda. Then there were real cherry cokes too: coca-cola syrup fountain mixed with cherry flavoring and soda water. And grilled cheese sandwiches and BLTs too. What memories. What do you think the kids of today will remember 40-50 years from now? McD's in Wal-Mart and cheap cookies in the Dollar Store? Maybe mall food (which isn't all bad). There is a Friendly's in our mall, so maybe that is as close as today's kids will get to what we remember.