Woolworth is still in business…They reinvented themselves into smaller stores. They are now known as Foot Locker.
But the Woolworth store doesn’t exist anymore.
More like they liquidated the assets in bits & pieces.
I remember my parents frequently shopping at Wards but my Father would go to Sears for all his hand tools.
K-Mart was established by Kresge. Woolworth started a Woolco chain to compete with K-Mart but it didn’t last very long
My introduction to ‘big box’ type stores was the Gold Circle that opened near me in about 1966. Great selection of car models…
S.S. Kresge was renamed Kmart in 1977.
I forgot about that Kmart connection. I remember Atlantic Mills way back in the 50’s as being a general big box store. I think they had about everything except lumber.
I still shop at Sears
I don’t think you could pay me to shop at Kmart
Woolworth started a Woolco chain to compete with K-Mart but it didn't last very long
Woolworth was already well established before Kresge even opened his first store. In fact he got the idea for Kresge from Woolworth. The Woolworth company lasted well over 100 years. And is still in business today with a different name and business model. They own many little national chains…Foot Locker being their largest.
Did any of you shop at and like Luskin’s? They sold electronics and appliances. I was pleased with the items I bought there and the prices. The next generation operates the Big Screen Store and the Sofa Store. A friend of ours bought a big LED TV there is was happy with the whole process.
F. W. Woolworth and S. S. Kresge “dimestores” as they were called existed decades before what we call “discount” stores. The Kresge company began the K-Mart discount store chain and ultimately phased out the Kresge dimestores. Woolworth then began discount stores separate from the Woolworth dimestores. These discount stores were named Woolco but were never major players in the big discount store market that Walmart now controls.
Woolworth first called it “Woolworth’s Great Five Cent Store.” Later generic variations were also “five and dime stores” and “five and ten cent stores.”
Anyone besides me remember Sears low priced tool line called Dunlap? My dad had an electric drill with the Dunlap name purchased at Sears in 1951.
S. H. Kress was another big five-and-dime chain, now long gone. Also J. J. Newberry, which had a store near my childhood home where I bought school supplies. Funny how in the last decade dollar stores have been popping up everywhere. It makes me wonder if the old five-and-dimes chains could have converted to the dollar store format and still be as common as they once were. Can’t see why not. The quality of the goods is roughly equal (poor).
I still see buildings that have distinctive Woolworth architecture of the 1920s, when they were built many updated stores with sleek lines. Kress stores were often in surprisingly elegant buildings with fanciful decor like many movie theaters of the same era.
The Wikipedia article on Kresge/KMart notes that the first KMart opened in March, 1962, four months before the first Walmart. Interesting, as KMart seems so much older. They just got big faster, and out-of-date much faster.
A little more poking around turned up that both Woolworth’s Woolco subsidiary and Target were also founded in 1962. The year of the discount store, it seems. Woolco finally closed its US stores in 1982.
I guess by 1962 suburbia had grown up and the inner cities were in decline. Driving to a big discount store or shopping mall made sense for suburban families with cars. It’s what we did (I was also a product of 1962.) Plenty of dimestore branches were built in malls, but they always seemed out of place to me, with inferior merchandise and limited selection. The discount store across the street was always so much larger. The dimestore was perfect as a neighborhood or small town establishment. Few in my memory had much parking as they didn’t need it .
since we are on woolworths…
I talked to my mom and found out that I had a false memory of my great grandmother working at woolworths, turns out that we just ate lunch with her there. she worked at benjamins, a fashion store. just in case you guys remember…
These discount stores were named Woolco but were never major players in the big discount store market that Walmart now controls.
Nothing is as big as Wallmart. But a Woolworth’s peak…they were one of the top 3 stores in the country.
Good morning - I think this one’s starting to drift from the tool/auto theme. Would you mind redirecting it? Thank you.
Speaking of Woolworth . . .
Did they ever have an auto “repair” division, like Sears . . . ?