What no Woolworth? (Woolworths)

Member Name: quissue

Product:	Woolworths
Date:	27/12/08 (195 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: It was like running through a candy shop with all you could eat written on the walls

Disadvantages: no more browsing through wonderful bits and pieces, lost memories

What I know about woolworths is simple:-

My mother worked for them when I was a child in what was then the delicatessen counter which sadly no longer exists.
They sold every type of meat and cheese product imaginable and I remember the smells and tastes of these items so well. On this counter also they had a fresh juice machine and popcorn maker and ice cream machine where you could buy a cone for a few pennies old money.
The other items in the store ranged from children's and adult clothes to records and tapes too ironing boards and kitchen apparel and toys and sweets. They were the first to bring in Pic and Mix and the first to open their doors to customers roaming around and shopping for themselves.
I loved shopping there as a child and later on worked for them for a short time myself. The company was a friendly family linked company and expanded with time to many other linked stores like Comet and Superdrug.
I always enjoyed walking around the store browsing through the many nicnacks watching various changes over the years. I enjoyed the quirkyness of the shop and the friendly staff members and take time now to remember the fact that they are now out of work due to this very sad closure of a great institution. I remember woolworths right from a very early age and find it very sad that it has to close its doors for the very last time. I hope that all the remaining staff soon find work and in this time of recession found it possible to have a reasonable christmas.
I am deeply saddened by the loss of the great company who opened the way for so many other stores now like it in many ways. They were there as a provider of quality items at a knockdown price and served us well over the years. I cannot help thinking that they may have stretched themselves a bit too thin though when they branched out from shop to catalogue sales and internet sales. Perhaps this was their undoing, or maybe they just could not keep up with the times. Which ever way it was I salute you all the staff and Directors of this great company I will miss your great red bannered stores and the many hours browsing and buying I used to do in your vast cornucopia of goodies.
Thank You and goodbye my friend.

This so far is information I found out about woolworths on Wikipedia. I found it fascinating and thought you might like to know a bit about the origins of woolworths too.

The F.W. Woolworth Co. was among the first five-and-dime stores, which sold discounted general merchandise at fixed prices, usually five or ten cents, undercutting the prices of other local merchants. Woolworth's, as the stores popularly became known, was one of the first American retailers to put merchandise out for the shopping public to handle and select without the assistance of a sales clerk. Earlier retailers had kept all merchandise behind a counter, and customers presented the clerk with a list of items they wished to buy. After working in a dry goods store in Watertown, New York, Frank Winfield Woolworth opened his first Woolworth's store in Utica, New York, in 1878, but the store failed within a year. However, a second store he opened on June 21, 1879 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, became a success. Frank Woolworth brought his brother Charles Sumner Woolworth into the business, and together they opened more stores, often in partnership with other business associates. The Woolworth brothers also entered into partnerships with "friendly rivals" to maximize inventory purchasing power for both parties.In 1910, Frank Woolworth commissioned the construction of the Woolworth Building in New York City. This building was entirely paid for in cash. It was completed in 1913 and was the tallest building in the world until 1930. It also served as the company's headquarters until it was sold by the F.W. Woolworth Company's successor, the Venator Group, in 1998.

By 1911, there were six chains of affiliated stores operating in the United States and Canada. That year, Frank and Charles incorporated the F. W. Woolworth Company and through a merger brought all 596 stores together under one corporate entity. One of the "friendly rival" predecessor chains included several stores initially opened as Woolworth & Knox stores starting as early as September 20, 1884 as well as S. H. Knox & Co. 5 & 10 Cent Stores opened after an 1889 buyout by his cousin, Seymour H. Knox I. Knox's chain grew to 98 U.S. and 13 Canada stores by the time of the corporate consolidation in 1911. Fred Kirby added 96 stores, Earle Charlton added 35, Charles Sumner Woolworth added 15, and William Moore added 2.[2]


A Woolworth store The stores eventually incorporated lunch counters after the success of the counters in the first store in the UK in Liverpool and served as general gathering places, a precursor to the modern shopping mall food court. A Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina became the setting for a significant event during the civil rights movement
The Woolworth's concept was widely copied, and five-and-ten-cent stores (also known as five-and-dime stores) were a fixture in American downtowns through the 1960s, and became anchors for suburban strip malls by the mid 1970s. Criticisms that five-and-dime stores drove local merchants out of business would repeat themselves in the early 21st century, when big box discount stores became popular. However, many five-and-dime stores were locally owned or franchised, as are many dollar stores today.

In the 1960s, the five-and-dime concept evolved into the larger discount store format. In 1962, Woolworths founded a discount chain called Woolco. This was the same year as its competitors opened similar retail chains that sold merchandise at a discount: the S.S. Kresge Company opened Kmart; Dayton's opened Target; and Sam Walton opened his first Wal-Mart store.

By Woolworth's 100th anniversary in 1979, it had become the largest department store chain in the world, according to the Guinness Book of World Records.
Woolworth's expansion led to specialty store acquisitions. In 1963, Woolworth purchased the Kinney Shoe Corporation and operated it as a subsidiary. That led to specialty shoe store expansion, including Style in 1967, Susie Casuals in 1968, and Foot Locker in 1974.
Woolworth also diversified its portfolio of specialty stores in the 1980s, including Afterthoughts, Northern Reflections, and Champs Sports. By 1989, the company was pursuing an aggressive strategy of multiple specialty store formats targeted at enclosed shopping malls. The idea was that if a particular retail concept failed at a given mall, the company quickly could replace it with a different one. The company's purported goal was to operate 10 various specialty stores in each major American shopping mall, but this never came to pass as Woolworth never was able to develop that number of successful specialty retail formats. This activity, however, did lead to the development of the successful Foot Locker and Northern Reflections apparel shops, as well as Best Of Times, a timepiece retailer.
In 1989, Woolworth purchased Champs Sports, leading to the development of the Woolworth Athletic Group.
The growth and expansion of the company contributed to its downfall. The Woolworth company moved away from its five-and-dime roots and placed less emphasis on its department store chain as it focused on its specialty stores. But the company was unable to compete with other chains that had eroded its market share. While it was a success in Canada, the Woolco chain closed in the United States in 1983. On October 15, 1993, Woolworths embarked on a restructuring plan that included closing half of its 800-plus general merchandise stores in the United States and converting its Canadian stores to a closeout division named The Bargain! Shop. Woolco and Woolworth survived in Canada until 1994, when the majority of its stores there were sold to Wal-Mart. Stores that were not purchased by Wal-Mart were converted to The Bargain! Shop stores.
Still with the decline of the signature stores, Woolworth marched on with a new focus toward athletic goods on January 30, 1997, acquiring the mail-order catalogue athletic retailer Eastbay.
On July 17, 1997, Woolworths closed its remaining department stores in the U.S. and changed its corporate name to Venture. In that same year, Wal-Mart replaced Woolworths as a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Analysts at the time cited the lower prices of the large discount stores and the expansion of supermarket grocery stores -- which had begun to stock merchandise also sold by five-and-dime stores -- as contributors to Woolworth's decline in the late 20th century.
In 1999, Venator moved out of the Woolworth building in New York City to offices on 34th Street. On October 20, 2001, the company changed names again; this time, it took the name of its top retail performer and became Foot Locker, Inc. Foot Locker stores chiefly sell athletic clothing and footwear.

I will now ask you all to think for a small momment for all those affected by this closure of such a great company. In my case part of my and my mothers life too. I think it will affect a vast amount of companies too maybe not directly but indirectly. It is a sobering thought isn't it. So please when you are running through the last remains of Woolworths and cannot find the bargain of the century your looking for, take time to think what this closure is doing to those that once worked for them and what the effect will have on those around them and those linked with the company. I thank you all for these thoughts.
Woolworth's for me is like an end to an era, and I for one will miss them.

Summary: A sad demise of a great store it will be sadly missed