“Five and Dime”
Anyone remember five-and-ten-cent stores? I do.
The first five-and-ten-cent store was built in 1879 by Franklin Woolworth (the items were actually priced and five and ten cents), and later he and his brother Charles established a retail empire of more than one thousand stores.
As a boy, no ten-cent bus ride into Newark was complete without spending at least a half hour in Woolworth’s 5 & 10 on Broad Street. My Granny used to refer to it (and those stores like it) as the “Five and Dimeâ€. It seemed to me back then that there wasn’t anything a person could want that could not be bought in a 5 & 10. Woolworth’s even had a lunch counter that served good and affordable food.**
The “Five and Dime†sold hardware, kitchen and household things like potato mashers, clothespins, clothespin bags and the rope itself to fashion a clothesline and the clothesline pulleys, one of which would be mounted on the house near a window or porch and the other to a “clothesline poleâ€. One could buy laundry soap, starch, socks, underwear, and even some clothes at the 5 &10. Books and toys were also always for sale.
We even had a Woolworth’s (with a lunch counter) in the town where I now live, but it closed several years ago, to be replaced by a “Dollar Storeâ€. Now we have no less than three “Dollar Stores†in town. A month or so ago, I finally got around to visiting the one that replaced Woolworth’s, thinking that it might be somewhat the same.
It wasn’t.
The merchandize seemed cheesy to me. These independently owned operations seem to be more like a final dumping ground for things manufacturers could not sell to the better-known chain stores. And, there was no lunch counter. I won’t be returning any time soon.
Of course, it is possible that the merchandize in Woolworth’s was cheesier than I remember, but I don’t think so. At least I don’t like to think so.
** It was a segregated lunch counter in a Woolworth store in Greensboro, North Carolina that was the site of the first Sit-In in 1960, which was followed by similar demonstrations across the country. I recall the Woolworth’s in Newark being picketed by people urging shoppers, “Don’t buy at Woolworth’s! Don’t support lunch counter segregation!†Clearly this was part of a larger effort to economically hurt the Woolworth company, because the lunch counter in the Woolworth’s in Newark was not segregated. This was a source of puzzlement for those shoppers who weren’t paying attention to the news.
I remember the counters with the toy soldiers, tiny cars, and other toys made of metal. As a little kid who could barely see over the edge of the counter it was heaven. You could buy one or two instead of a package of twenty or thirty. They would last forever (or at least until they got burried and forgotten in the dirt pile that was the “battlefield” in the backyard). Very different from the plastic junk of today.
My younger sister was an assistant manager and then manager in the Wollworths in Pompton Lakes back in the late ’60s early ’70s. The merchandise was usable and durable and quite economical.
Comment by joated — March 12, 2006 @ 4:43 pm
Didn’t have a Woolworth’s.
Had a Ben Franklin, though:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Franklin_Stores
Comment by Harvey — March 12, 2006 @ 5:26 pm
I do remember the five and dime store, they had everything you needed there, at least as a kid I thought so. What a great memory, thanks for sparking that.
Comment by Sgt Hook — March 12, 2006 @ 6:06 pm
Fond memories.
Comment by Emlighten-NewJersey — March 12, 2006 @ 6:40 pm
They had a good ham sandwich.
Comment by Catfish — March 12, 2006 @ 7:31 pm
Didn’t they have popcorn machines in the five-and-dimes, too? I remember buying a bag of 10-cent popcorn and walking around eating popcorn in the store. OK, maybe it wasn’t 10 cents. Maybe it was a dollar. Or fifty cents. I know it was popcorn, anyway. And I know I was eating the popcorn and walking around dropping pieces of it on the floor and pretending I didn’t do it. I’m clear as hell on that.
Comment by dogette — March 12, 2006 @ 8:21 pm
ah yes, woolworths. i think i stole a couple of record albums when i was a teenager from the one in my hometown, if i remember correctly.
Comment by mr. helpful — March 13, 2006 @ 2:24 am
… Nanci Griffith has a great song called “Love at the Five and Dime”… I saw her in concert once where she lead into the song with a story about growing up in Texas and visiting the Woolworth’s after school every day… she attempted to relay the smell of the place….
.. something like, “I loved the Woolworth’s store… it smelled like cottoncandy and bubblegum that had been rolled around on the bottom of a leather-soled shoe..” …
Comment by Eric — March 13, 2006 @ 6:52 am
Yeah, we used to ride with Granny on the Public Service bus up to Broad and Market, there to visit the five and dime. I do believe they had a pet section, from which we may have brought home some poor goldfish, turtle or parakeet on the number 1 or 34 bus. I’m almost certain that my Christmas stocking was a Woolworth’s product. Could my famous 45 record box have been from the “five and ten”? Either there or from Two Guys from Harrison. Remember the Two Guys installation in the RCA complex? Before they opened the thing on River Road. Now *there’s* an obscure memory.
Comment by Cousin Jack — March 13, 2006 @ 8:09 am
I loved the Five and Dime stores. Actually – that is where Sam Walton of Wal-Mart fame came up with the concept of the very first Wal-Mart. They are based on that very concept. I learned that at the Wal-Mart museum.
Ok – I need to get a life….
😉
Comment by Tammi — March 13, 2006 @ 8:20 am
Thanks for bringing back a good memory, for I loved that store when I was a child. They dissappeared from around Macon and most of rural Georgia, only surviving in Atlanta. Miss that place, along with the old Chi-Chesters pharmacy in Macon, which had lots of similar stuff for kids and an even better counter and soda fountain…
Comment by Laughing Wolf — March 13, 2006 @ 8:27 am
Jack,
Re: Two Guys from Harrison
Before they even had a STORE in Harrison, they sold stuff from a trailer. One of the two guys was named “Herb”. My mother and her co-workers would always buy stuff from “Herb’s”. I specifically remember a really cool cap gun my mother bought me from there. Much later, when “Two Guys” became huge, my mother still referred to the store as “Herb’s”.
Comment by Jim - Parkway Rest Stop — March 13, 2006 @ 8:49 am
We still have a 5&10 in town … with a Dollar store right down the street.
Prices aren’t 5 and 10 cents anymore, but the product lines are still pretty cheesy.
RWR
Comment by RightwingRocker — March 13, 2006 @ 11:05 am
I always headed straight for the back left corner where they had the birds, fish and turtles.
They had the best grilled cheese sandwiches.
Comment by Sluggo — March 13, 2006 @ 12:18 pm
I remember taking the number 4 bus down to Perth Amboy to shop at the Woolworth’s on Smith Street. About a block away, on the corner of Smith and State (the “five corners”) was a Kresge’s, another “five and dime”. I loved the lunch counter at Woolworth’s. The one place in town to get a great chocolate malt!
Comment by Jerry K — March 13, 2006 @ 12:27 pm
The thing I remember most about the five and dime was buying my mom “Evening in Paris” eau de toilette and “Ben Hur” for my dad- I think it was 50 cents for a little bottle. And I got my first real baby doll there too, when I quit sucking my thumb.
Comment by Eaging Mom — March 13, 2006 @ 3:58 pm
Raging Mom,
Wow! “Evening in Paris” … I’ll bet damned near everyone bought their mom a bottle of that at one time or another, and the moms all gushed over receiving such a wonderful present and pretended it was really great stuff. That’s what moms do.
Comment by Jim - Parkway Rest Stop — March 13, 2006 @ 4:08 pm
Like Harvey, I don’t recall a Woolworth’s, but we had Ben Franklin’s. I remember my Grandma taking me to the “Dime Store” when I would spend the weekend with her. They did have just about anything and everything you could want.
Comment by Contagion — March 13, 2006 @ 5:51 pm
We had a Woolworths and a Ben Franklin. (although my mom would never get us anything from the lunch counter at Woolworths…) Anyhow, they were interchangeably called the “five and dime” or “the dime store”. We could actually walk to the Ben Franklin – so my friends and I would go buy the penny candies whenever we happened to save up enough pennies. Things like “dots”, and bubble gum cigarettes, and those little wax “coke” bottles filled with colored sugar water… the list goes on.
The things my kids missed… oh well I’m sure they’ll look back on their own list of “things that were”.
Comment by Teresa — March 14, 2006 @ 12:19 am
I grew up in West New York, and we had two five and dimes on Bergenline Avenue, Woolworths and I think the second was Kress. Yes, I remember the counters with bins of stuff in little compartments. I remember buying the Ronco stuff there, the Pocket Fisherman and the Magic Playing cards. And the lunch counter with the ice cream sodas and hot dogs in those wierd buns which I found out later in life were called “New England style”.
Comment by roberto — March 14, 2006 @ 11:15 am
Cuz,
When you went to Woolworth’s with Granny, we used to hang out in the basement at the lunch counter. Granny and her Irish lady friends would drink cups of tea at the counter. They would add the sugar and milk, and then pour some of the tea into the saucers. They would then drink the tea from the saucers. It had to be some kind of Irish thing. Everyone knew the words to “Mrs. Murphy’s Chowder” and it was a good way to spend the day.
Even today, when I pass the store (no longer a Woolworth’s), I still think of Granny, the Irish ladies and the tea from the saucers.
All things considered, we were lucky kids…
Comment by cousin gary — March 15, 2006 @ 10:20 am