THE END OF THE DIME STORE The first five and dime store was opened by F.W. Woolworth on June 21, 1879 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The store was a huge success, and other stores followed. By 1912, there were 596 Woolworth stores in the U.S. and Canada. The following year, Frank Woolworth moved his headquarters into the newly erected Woolworth Building in New York City. At 792 feet tall and 57 stories, it became the tallest building in the world....and remained so until the Chrysler Building surpassed it in 1930. By the 1930s, Woolworths was selling more than just five and ten cent items, and lunch counters were being added in most stores, including the ones in Corpus Christi. The Greensboro, N.C. stores lunch counter made civil rights history in 1960 as the scene of the famous sit-in (that very lunch counter is on display in the Smithsonian today). In the early 1960s, Woolworths introduced the discount store concept with its Woolco stores and by 1979 (its 100th anniversary), Woolworths had become the worlds largest department store chain. However, huge and long lasting success in business is never a guarantee. By the 1980s, competition from K-Mart and Walmart began to overpower Woolworths. In 1983, all Woolco stores in the U.S. were closed. In 1993, a re-structuring plan closed over half of the companys 800 stores. The end finally came on July 17, 1997 when Woolworths announced the closing of its last remaining stores and the company name ceased to exist. In Corpus Christi, the downtown store closed in 1970 and made the move to the new Padre-Staples Mall. However, the downtown store building still exists, and part of the Woolworth name can still be seen at the old stores entrance (see photos in the comments). I took the photos below at the Mall on Sept. 12, 1997....the final day.
Posted on: Fri, 26 Dec 2014 16:54:29 +0000
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