Woolworth Demise Signals End Of Era

For Linda Hengst, the five-and-dime meant a childhood xylophone and thread for a popped button. For Maria Simpson, it was grilled cheese and flea collars.

From hairnets to handkerchiefs, turtles to tools, lipstick to lunch served by women with beehive hairdos, F.W. Woolworth stores always had something large or small but usually cheap - for generations of American shoppers.

“We had to take the bus to get downtown and we would get dressed up and go shopping,” Ms. Simpson, 44, said Thursday, recalling a store in her hometown of Brooklyn.

After 117 years as America’s general store, Woolworth Corp. said last week it will close its remaining 400 F.W. Woolworths around the country. Frank Woolworth opened the nation’s original five-and-dime in Lancaster, Pa., in 1879.

In announcing its decision to exit the five-and-dime business, Woolworth blamed its inability to generate a profit despite years of effort.

Last year, Woolworth’s five-and-dime stores in the United States reported an operating loss of $37 million and only accounted for $1 billion of the corporation’s annual sales of more than $8 billion.

Mrs. Hengst, 50, still has the xylophone her grandparents bought her during childhood visits to the Woolworth in Altoona, Pa. She also recalls spending her teenage years sharing Cokes and fries with friends at the lunch counter in Warren, Ohio.

She went to Woolworth’s again on Thursday, in search of envelopes. Her office had run out.

“Where else do you get envelopes, a pound of coffee, thread if you lose the button on your clothes on the way to an interview? It’s just awful they’re closing,” she said.

Most Americans don’t shop at F.W. Woolworth anymore. But for generations, the local five-and-dime meant prowling the narrow aisles in search of bobby pins, hot salted peanuts in a paper bag or dish rags.

Or dragging children past the popcorn machine and the mechanical horse to stock up on underwear or school supplies.

Or, for those same children, inspecting every shelf in search of the finest birthday gift for Mom that a tiny allowance could buy.

Like the madeleine that led Marcel Proust on a train of associations back in time, Woolworths can trigger warm memories of childhood - or for many black Americans, cold recollections of racism.

For years, blacks were denied access to many Woolworth lunch counters. The company changed its discriminatory practices after four black students who were denied lunch at its Greensboro, N.C., counter staged a sit-in in 1960, and the protest spread to 50 cities.

Still, adults of all races recall owning a parakeet, turtle, goldfish, hamster or baby chick bought there with piggy bank money - and later buried in the back yard or flushed down the toilet.

“Our treat was going into Woolworth’s and getting a malted and grilled cheese sandwich,” Ms. Simpson said as she popped into Woolworth’s in Columbus to pick up a flea collar.

Serena Smith, a 61-year-old Baltimore resident in Columbus last week for a church convention, said she could always find the perfect matching bracelet and earrings at Woolworth’s.

“It was such a treat to go to Woolworth’s,” she said. “You could get everything.”

Mrs. Hengst said she worked on her grandparents for a long time before they broke down and got her that xylophone.

“I drove them crazy with it,” she said. “They’d tell me to go out on the porch and play it. I also bought a little bunny that jumped. I kept looking at and looking at it” until they finally gave her the money to buy the mechanical toy.

Byron Rider, who has worked for Woolworth for 29 years and as manager of the downtown store for the last 10, has heard it all before.

“Every week I hear from someone who said they grew up in this place and their grandma brought them here,” he said. “It’s home to many.”