# Did you ever shop at a '5 & Dime'?



## helenbacque (Aug 11, 2017)

Today's equivalent would be a dollar store.  There was one in my town that was locally owned - name forgotten - but I think Woolworth's and Ben Franklin were also called that.  Was that name a local phrase or was it a universal phrase?


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## NancyNGA (Aug 11, 2017)

In Ohio, we used to call it the "Five and Ten."  Same difference.


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## JaniceM (Aug 11, 2017)

helenbacque said:


> Today's equivalent would be a dollar store.  There was one in my town that was locally owned - name forgotten - but I think Woolworth's and Ben Franklin were also called that.  Was that name a local phrase or was it a universal phrase?



Yes, Woolworth's and Ben Franklin were both discount store chains.
I loved all of those places.  Miss them.


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## RadishRose (Aug 11, 2017)

Also Kresge's which turned into K Mart years later.


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## Ruth n Jersey (Aug 11, 2017)

Yes, growing up we went to Woolworth's. Some called it the 5 and 10, some the 5 and dime. They had a wonderful assortment of items. As a little kid they had so many small toys. My Mom would always let me pick out something. My favorite was a kaleidoscope, coloring books and crayons. Nothing like a new box of crayons. As a teen the cheap perfume,lipstick and nail polish was a steal. Ice cream soda's with friends after school was another treat. So many memories.


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## terry123 (Aug 11, 2017)

Woolworths.


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## Falcon (Aug 11, 2017)

Yes  often.  Kresges &  Woolworths.   (When I was a kid.   They had neat cast metal cars and trucks.

I'd spend about a quarter and come home with enough stuff to keep me happy
until my next trip there.)


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## RadishRose (Aug 11, 2017)

Woolworth's - "High Heels" cheap cologne. "Tangee" lipstick and make up. The 50 cent photobooth.


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## JaniceM (Aug 11, 2017)

I never heard of Kresges-  was it regional???


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## dollie (Aug 11, 2017)

a lot of seniors use to hang out  in the 5 and 10 then eat lunch at  the soda fountain---i use to work at a woolworths


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## HazyDavey (Aug 11, 2017)

We had a couple of 5 and 10 stores, boy they where fun to go to when I was a kid. 
One had a popcorn machine, I think a fresh bag of popcorn went for 10 cents.


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## RadishRose (Aug 11, 2017)

I believe Kresge's was nationwide, but maybe not in every major city.


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## Ruth n Jersey (Aug 11, 2017)

RadishRose said:


> Woolworth's - "High Heels" cheap cologne. "Tangee" lipstick and make up. The 50 cent photobooth.


I forgot about the photo booth RadishRose. Sometimes 3 or 4 of us would squeeze in for a photo. Wow! You got High Heels! My Mom would only let me have apple blossom toilet water and the lightest of pink lipsticks. That went on almost through the first year of high school until she finally gave in. My persistence paid off. I remember coming home with white lipstick. She almost passed out.


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## JaniceM (Aug 11, 2017)

Ruth n Jersey said:


> I forgot about the photo booth RadishRose. Sometimes 3 or 4 of us would squeeze in for a photo. Wow! You got High Heels! My Mom would only let me have apple blossom toilet water and the lightest of pink lipsticks. That went on almost through the first year of high school until she finally gave in. My persistence paid off. I remember coming home with white lipstick. She almost passed out.



Do you remember the lipsticks that had two different colors in one stick-  one light frosted, one darker?  lol


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## Pappy (Aug 11, 2017)

We had a Woolworths, Grants and five and dime, can't remember the name, in our little town.


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## JaniceM (Aug 11, 2017)

Pappy said:


> We had a Woolworths, Grants and five and dime, can't remember the name, in our little town.



Don't forget Newberry's  

I never knew it was a chain til recently.


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## chic (Aug 11, 2017)

dollie said:


> a lot of seniors use to hang out  in the 5 and 10 then eat lunch at  the soda fountain---i use to work at a woolworths



I used to do that when I was a teenager with my school friends. It was at Woolworths but we called it the 5 & 10. Lot's of fun. Record albums for like a dollar. My grandmother used to buy fabric for making curtains. The notions counter was a treasure trove for us kids.


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## Wayne (Aug 11, 2017)

We called them dime stores, BB's were 5 cents I bought many.
Oliver's
Ben Franklin
Woolworth
Davenports
Jojo's

Reed's Hardware was my hangout.


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## jujube (Aug 11, 2017)

Oh, yes, Tangee lipstick.  If I remember correctly, it came in fluorescent red, fluorescent pink, fluorescent orange and just plain old white.   19 cents if you wanted the cheap one that you pushed up with a button or 29 cents if you wanted the fancy one that you twisted up.  

Then there was "Evening in Paris" perfume that came in a pretty blue bottle and smelled like "Evening in Whorehouse".  

When I was about 12, I was finally allowed to go downtown with my friends on a Saturday.  I always had $2 to spend.  25 cents each way on the bus, 40 cents for a student admission to the theatre (and what a bargain! Two features, a serial, cartoons, newsreel, coming attractions and you could spend all day if you wanted), about 50 cents for a BLT and a coke at the dimestore counter, 10 cents to ride the elevator to the top of the big monument in the center of downtown (oh, at least as tall as Mt. Everest and a Saturday tradition) and then around 50 cents to spend at the dimestore.  What was it going to be?  Unapproved lipstick? Gaudy jewelry? Candy? Perfume?  I was in the Garden of Eden....


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## RadishRose (Aug 11, 2017)

Ruth n Jersey said:


> I forgot about the photo booth RadishRose. Sometimes 3 or 4 of us would squeeze in for a photo. Wow! You got High Heels! My Mom would only let me have apple blossom toilet water and the lightest of pink lipsticks. That went on almost through the first year of high school until she finally gave in. My persistence paid off. I remember coming home with white lipstick. She almost passed out.



Oh Ruth I wasn't  allowed High Heels either. My friends older sister had it! LOL


And- I forgot we had Grants.


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## Ruth n Jersey (Aug 11, 2017)

jujube I remember all the things you mentioned. Instead of going to the theater we also could go to a nearby roller skating arena.The BLT's that we got from Woolworth's also had chicken salad on them with the bacon. I never had them made that way anyplace else. The photo shows the exact Woolworth's ,left side of photo, that I went to in my hometown of Hackensack NJ. Probably taken in the early 50's. I live about 50 miles from Hackensack now and have driven by it on occasion. Everything has changed. I wish I hadn't done that. Rather live with my memories.


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## RadishRose (Aug 11, 2017)

Gosh, Ruth that could almost be my downtown in CT!


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## Ruth n Jersey (Aug 11, 2017)

RadishRose said:


> Gosh, Ruth that could almost be my downtown in CT!


 I guess most main streets looked a lot alike back then. I would do anything to go back and walk down that street just one more time. I remember getting clothes in Grayson's and shoes in A&E Beck that are shown in the photo. No malls back then.


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## jujube (Aug 11, 2017)

...and you dressed up to go downtown.  That was serious business; no slopping around in torn jeans and hoodies.  

I loved going to one of the big department stores (12 floors) and riding in the elevators.  They had full glass doors and you could see the floors flashing by.  Some of the stores had elevator operators, others were automated.  They'd announce the floors:  "Third floor.....ladies' better dresses (they never mentioned ladies' worse dresses, though), notions.  Fourth floor....men's wear, shoes.  Fifth floor....bedding and linens."   And then there was the "bargain basement"....what treasures were down there!  One of the stores had a "sub-basement" even.....I was always creeped out by the sub-basement.  It was always damp and smelled funny.


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## RadishRose (Aug 11, 2017)

That's right Jujube, you dressed up for town. My mother wore hat and gloves, too. We didn't have a 12 story shop, but enough for need of an elevator, and I do remember the operator calling out the goods on each floor.


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## Pappy (Aug 12, 2017)

This was our Woolworths. The white building on the end was Grants.


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## Pappy (Aug 12, 2017)

Correction: Woolworths was across from Fishmans.


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## helenbacque (Aug 12, 2017)

Yes!  I had forgotten.  If you were going shopping in the department stores, it was white glove time.  Not necessary for the 5 & Dime.  And we had a Kresge too.  Good trip down memory lane.


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## Trade (Aug 12, 2017)

helenbacque said:


> Today's equivalent would be a dollar store.



The 5 and 10's, that's what we called them, were much nicer than today's cheesy Dollar Stores.


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## SeaBreeze (Aug 12, 2017)

I remember going to Woolworth's as a child, we called it the 5 & 10.  On a hot summer day it was a treat to get an ice cream sandwich there.  I agree Trade, not nearly as cheesy as Dollar Stores these days.


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## Deucemoi (Aug 16, 2017)

my grandmother retired from woolworths a great place to shop, also ben franklin and actually a store named 5 & 10.I think they may have morphed to the dollar stores. Kmart,montgomery wards,sears,jcpenny all had stores here in montana which later closed and went only to catalog sales.


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## Jackie22 (Aug 16, 2017)

I remember Woolworth's and their great lunch counter.


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## CeeCee (Aug 16, 2017)

I also remember Woolworth's, 5 and 10, Kresges, Grants and in the 80's Ben Franklin.  Ive lived in a few different states so maybe that's why I remember the different ones.

Grants was in downtown Pittsburgh and they had the best hot dogs at their lunch counter.  Their buns were toasted and the hot dogs were  cooked kind of like you see rotisserie chickens cooked now.

All very simple, I didn't  even add ketchup or mustard, it was perfect on its own.  Although I haven't had a hot dog in many years, I can still taste the ones at Grant's.  Yum.


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## CeeCee (Aug 16, 2017)

They looked kind of like this...was looking for a pic of the way they were cooked but didn't find one.


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## jujube (Aug 16, 2017)

I loved eating at the dime store lunch counter with my friends.  That was the only time I got to do it.  If I went downtown with my mother, it was business and business only.  Head straight for the department store, get the white shirt you needed for chorus and go home.  No lollygagging at the dime store and absolutely no stopping to eat.

To my grandmother, eating at the dime store lunch counter was like drawing a GO DIRECTLY TO PTOMAINE POISONING, DO NOT PASS GO, DO NOT COLLECT $200 card; it simply was.not.done.  We either ate at the "nice" cafeteria (which was booooring) or at the department store tea room (which was boooooring).  There was always modeling going on (boooooring) and you didn't get to spin around on the stool (booooring) and there were no boys to look at out of the corner of your eye and pretend to ignore (booooooooooring).


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## DaveA (Sep 2, 2017)

First met my wife when she was still in high school and worked part-time at Kresge's and the following Christmas season at W.T. Grant, a couple of doors up.  Woolworth's was also in the row of stores.  This in New Bedford, MA.  


Conway, NH, in this same period (early 50's) had  Ben Franklin store which was unfamiliar to me here in Massachusetts.


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## Buckeye (Sep 2, 2017)

In Gallipolis, OH we had 2(!) G.C. Murphy's 5 & 10.  They are long gone of course.


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## Falcon (Sep 2, 2017)

JaniceM said:


> I never heard of Kresges-  was it regional???



I think it was the forerunner of what is now  K-Mart.


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## Ruthanne (Sep 2, 2017)

Yes, I recall a 5 and dime shop near where my grandparents lived.  Loved to go in there!


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## Aunt Bea (Sep 3, 2017)

I'm another fan of the hot dogs on toasted New England style rolls topped with a little fluorescent green sweet pickle relish from the lunch counter at W.T. Grants.  

I also enjoyed the bakery counter at Woolworth's.  The bakery was in the front of the store and the bus stop was right outside.  On payday I would have just enough time to run in before the bus came and buy a Banana Roll, a loaf of Dutch bread and at Christmas time a bag of coconut macaroons.  The older lady at the counter looked and sounded like Dot Cotton Branning from EastEnders, she was tall thin, wore a black hairnet and a white uniform, had a nicotine stain on her upper lip and a deep, smokey, raspy, voice.  She always smiled and said _"make sure you pop that Banana Roll in the Frigidaire when you get it home, doll." _and I did. 

 I also remember going into Woolworth's at Christmas with my mother when I was very young and seeing row after row of individual plaster nativity scene figures lined up so you could buy as many kings, cows or shepherds as you wanted and the choir boy/girl candles in various sizes.

Here's a song inspired by Barbara Hutton the poor little rich girl that inherited the Woolworth fortune, estimated at an inflation adjusted $900 million, at age 7 and died at the age of 66 with only $3,500.00.


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## Timetrvlr (Sep 3, 2017)

Did anyone mention Sprouse-Reitz dime stores? I always found affordable birthday and Christmas gifts there for my folks when I was a kid.


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## tortiecat (Sep 3, 2017)

Many years ago I used to have lunch at Woolworth's and buy their 'sticky buns' to take home.


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## Outdoorsygal (Sep 3, 2017)

Sprouse Reitz had a great lunch counter w/soda fountain. Good cheap food too


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## chic (Sep 4, 2017)

Falcon said:


> I think it was the forerunner of what is now  K-Mart.



Wasn't that Mammouth Mart? (spelling?) In high school, one of my girlfriends worked at one. 

I did enjoy the 5&10. We also had a Grant's store in my hometown. My girlfriends and I used to eat lunch there sometimes as teenagers. Fun memories.


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## SifuPhil (Sep 4, 2017)

Growing up in Yonkers, NY we had both a Woolworths and a Grants "downtown". 


(The Woolworths has the red banners in the middle and on the right side - they spanned the whole block)


I remember Woolworths' lunch counter - GREAT food. Also, the bargain basement. 

There was also always a friendly feud between the two stores - when one would advertise a sale on a certain item, the other would immediately follow suit. 

I'm sure they're both gone now - just another lost artifact of youth.


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## JaniceM (Sep 4, 2017)

Timetrvlr said:


> Did anyone mention Sprouse-Reitz dime stores? I always found affordable birthday and Christmas gifts there for my folks when I was a kid.



Now that you mention it, there was one I went to when I was a kid, but it also had a different store name connected to it.  Can't place what it was-  or where.


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## JaniceM (Sep 4, 2017)

SifuPhil said:


> Growing up in Yonkers, NY we had both a Woolworths and a Grants "downtown".
> 
> View attachment 41660
> (The Woolworths has the red banners in the middle and on the right side - they spanned the whole block)
> ...



They both went out of business decades ago    (the companies, not just the individual stores)


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