Dime Stores Once Populated Valley

Johnny Little remembers the days when kids could buy jawbreakers for a penny and a Hershey’s chocolate bar for 5 cents.

Little, 84, owned Little’s Five and Dime on the corner of Argonne and Euclid in Millwood. He operated the shop from 1947 to 1957.

“It’s an era gone down,” said Little from his home in Crescent City, Calif. “It’s sad that the era’s gone, and that all the big discounters have pushed them all out.”

Last week, Woolworth’s, the country’s largest and last “dime store” chain, closed forever. The company posted a $37 million loss in 1996 and couldn’t make ends meet.

For some Valley residents, that story is a bittersweet reminder of bygone days, when dime stores were as common as penny candy.

“I used to have to come down at 8 a.m. for the kids to get their sweet fix before school,” said Little, whose shop was about four blocks from Millwood Elementary. “We had everything … licorice whips, suckers, jawbreakers, bubble gum, and all kinds of penny candy.”

The most popular candies were tiny wax bottles, filled with sweet liquid. Kids - and adults - eagerly chewed off the waxy tip and sipped out the syrupy nectar.

Like many dime store owners of his day, Little started his career as a stock-room clerk at Woolworth’s.

Harold Buelow, a 78-year-old Valley resident, started the same way. He worked for Woolworth’s as a clerk before serving in the Army during World War II.

After the war, he bought a small Valley dime store for $10,000 and renamed it Buelow’s 10-cent Store.

The dime store, near the southwest corner of Sprague Avenue and Pines Road, was a popular place with kids and familes.

“(Buelow) was very good at taking care of kids,” said Florence Boutwell, a 77-year-old Valley historian. “I can remember putting a dollar in their shoes and telling them what to get.”

Toys, candy, hardware, thread, yarn and ribbons were all part of the fare at Buelow’s store.

In 1956, he remodeled and doubled the store’s size to 2,400 square feet.

“It never was a big moneymaker, but it grew fairly well,” said Buelow.

He closed the store in 1976, ending a 26-year legacy of dime store ownership in the Valley. Today, the former dime store is occupied by part of a bicycle shop.

“That was one of the most difficult things I have had to do,” Buelow recalled of closing his store. “We just decided that the good Lord would help us.”

Other Valley five and dimes included Thue’s in Dishman, owned by Gus Thue, and Greenacres Variety Store, owned by Walt Becker.

Lots of shoppers like the low prices and huge selection offered by today’s national chains, but many miss the personal service of the old dime stores.

“I don’t think that people felt like they were a number, like they do today,” said Boutwell. “They had a real interest in their fellow citizens and knew them face to face.”

Little cared so much about his customers that he wouldn’t even call the cops when he caught a shoplifter.

Instead, he’d pull the kid aside.

“I’d spend an hour with him. All I wanted to do was reach him,” Little said. “If I could get him to tears, I figured I had him.”

While the dime store era is over, it leaves a legacy of memories about how modern businesses should be operated, said Boutwell.

“There was a one-on-one relationship that the customer shared with the owners,” she said. “They knew them through sickness and health.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo