"Woolworth's, Shelved 20 Years Ago, Sparked a Revolution ..."

[from The Record, July 17, 2017]

      "Twenty years ago, today, F. W. Woolworth Co. officially went out of business. Opened in 1878 in Utica, N.Y., Woolworth's was a game-changer.
     It was "...an inexpensive department store that had everything." Woolworth's monopolized what was the referred to as five and dimes. Hackensack, Bergenfield, Closter, Pompton Lakes, Rutherford, Paterson, Teaneck and Ridgewood were among many towns in N.J. that hosted these sprawling inexpensive shopping meccas that catered to the thrifty, respectable lower middle class in the days before credit cards.
      "Unlike today's cheaply-outfitted dollar stores, Woolworth stores were clean, well-lighted places, where you could get a ham sandwich for 15 cents at the lunch counter, or buy a tiny turtle with a plastic palm tree in the pet department." (Jim Beckerman)
      Today, Woolworth's marketing model can be seen in the (very) few remaining K-Mart stores and, more prevalent, at Target's. 
      Consider this - "100 years ago, customers could indulge themselves to the extent of a nickel (75 cents in today's money) or dime, without feeling too guilty."  
      

"BEFORE K-MART, THERE WAS KRESGE'S..."

On March 20, 1897, Kresge began working for James G. McCrory (founder of J.G. McCrory's) at a five and ten cent store in Memphis, Tennessee. He continued there for two years. In 1899, he founded his company, with Charles J. Wilson, with an $8,000 investment in two five-and-ten-cent stores; one was in downtown Detroit, Michigan (for which he traded ownership in McCrory's).

In 1912, he incorporated the S.S. Kresge Company with 85 stores. The company was first listed on the New York Stock Exchange on May 23, 1918. During World War I, Kresge experimented with raising the limit on prices in his stores to $1.

By 1924, Kresge was worth approximately $375,000,000 ($5,000,000,000 in 2009 dollars^[2]) and owned real estate of the approximate value of $100,000,000.

...and, then, Kresge's became K-Mart.

The first Kmart opened in 1962 in Garden City, Michigan. Kresge died in 1966. In 1977, the S. S. Kresge Corporation changed its name to the Kmart Corporation. In 2005 Sears Holdings Corporation became the parent of Kmart and Sears, after Kmart bought Sears, and formed the new parent.

...and, now, under the "leadership" of a hedge-fund manager, without retail experience, both Sears and K-Mart (...barely running on fumes, now...) are on life support. Too bad... My memories of both chains, with the flagship Sears Roebuck store on Main St. in Hackensack, and the giant K-Mart on Rte. 17 in Paramus, will never fade, even if the stores themselves, do.