# I do miss Woolworths.



## Pappy (Sep 26, 2016)

My small hometown had several department stores, but Woolworths was a favorite of mine. I loved the lunch counter and in the store all the open bins where you could purchase an item without it being vacuum sealed in a non open package.


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## Ameriscot (Sep 26, 2016)

I remember 'Woolies' well.  Woolie's just closed in the UK about 10 or 12 years ago.  It was the only store like it in the small town nearest to us, so it was well missed. Replaces by a high priced hardware/homewares store.


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## Don M. (Sep 26, 2016)

Yup...Woolworths and Montgomery Wards were a couple of pretty good stores...IMO.  Now, it seems that both Sears and KMart may soon be joining the ranks of failed retail stores.


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## SeaBreeze (Sep 26, 2016)

I miss Woolworths too, lots of memories there....and Wards!


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## bluebreezes (Sep 26, 2016)

I have good memories of Woolworth's too. As a little kid it felt like a goldmine to spend a tiny allowance there.


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## Ruth n Jersey (Sep 26, 2016)

Oh yes, I loved that store. We called it the five and ten when I was a kid. My Mom would get some baked goods from there. While she ordered I would watch the donuts go around in the machine that made them. They floated around in the grease and then flipped automatically. The lunch counter was a treat. We would get BLT's but what made them special was the chicken salad that they added to them.   I noticed parakeets for 98 cents in the flyer. I can't tell you the number of goldfish, birds and turtles my Mom bought me back then. Most lived for quite awhile. When I was a teenager, we all purchased our makeup, earrings and such from them. My first little radio was purchased there also. They were the first to get air conditioning in our little town. It wasn't controlled very well, you could freeze to death in a matter of minutes. Grants was right next door, they didn't have air conditioning until years later. I could probably write another ten paragraphs about that store. What memories.


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## Cookie (Sep 26, 2016)

There's been no Woolworth's here for years and years, but I used to like it when I was a kid, we used to call it the ten cents store, because things were that cheap.   Later as a teen would get lipsticks and cheap makeup.


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## jujube (Sep 26, 2016)

The dime store was Disneyland to us kids.  You'd have a quarter to spend and could stretch it out to an hour easily trying to make a decision.


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## Manatee (Sep 26, 2016)

I read something about Woolworth's in Australia, but it sounded like someone else had taken up the Woolworth name.


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## DaveA (Sep 27, 2016)

Don M. said:


> Yup...Woolworths and Montgomery Wards were a couple of pretty good stores...IMO.  Now, it seems that both Sears and KMart may soon be joining the ranks of failed retail stores.



I'm afraid that you're right, Don.  Woolworths and Kresges were side by side in my city, back in the 50's.  I first met my wife while she was working during the Christmas season at  Kresges, while she was still in high school.  I believe that Kresges became Kmart sometime in the 60's and was eventually bought up by Sears.


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## Falcon (Sep 27, 2016)

I can remember when I was a kid going there and buying a little cast metal car for a *DIME*!

Those were the days.


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## Butterfly (Sep 27, 2016)

When I had my first job in the 60s,  I ate lunch almost every day at the Woolworth's lunch counter, and then would just mosey around the store for the rest of my lunch hour.


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## Manatee (Sep 27, 2016)

Last Woolworth's I was in was in London back in the 80s.


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## Marie5656 (Oct 25, 2016)

We did not have Woolworths in my town, but we Had W T Grant's and JJ Newberry's.  Both the same concept.  My mom used to work at the lunch counter at Newberry's.  I remember her telling me what a pain it was to change the soda pop machine, with the syrup and seltzer mix.  I guess she was one of just a couple of "the girls" who knew how to do it right.  There is a place in Buffalo called Vidler's when has been around for 60 years or so.  They are huge.  Have been there a couple times.  They are like the 5 and dime, without the lunch counter.


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## Warrigal (Oct 25, 2016)

Manatee said:


> I read something about Woolworth's in Australia, but it sounded like someone else had taken up the Woolworth name.



Woolworths Australia is no longer the old style store that it once was. Over here it has morphed into a whole family of enterprises - supermarkets that bear the name Woolworths, liquor stores under the name of Dan Murphys, Big W for general merchandise, Masters for Hardware, and hotel chains under the name of ALH Group. They are also heavily invested in petrol stations. They are huge in Australia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Woolworths_Limited_companies


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## jnos (Oct 28, 2016)

I remember those exciting trips to the next bigger city, that had more than a grocery store, bars and butcher shop. It was about 15 miles away and had a bakery, two meat markets, clothing store and Woolworth's. My mom would browse the store while I hung out in the toy sections. I usually came home with a large bag of plastic/rubber farm animals, toy tractor or a soldiers. I'm sure my mom wished I was looking at dolls and baking pans, but I was a tomboy.


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## Pappy (Oct 28, 2016)

jnos said:


> I remember those exciting trips to the next bigger city, that had more than a grocery store, bars and butcher shop. It was about 15 miles away and had a bakery, two meat markets, clothing store and Woolworth's. My mom would browse the store while I hung out in the toy sections. I usually came home with a large bag of plastic/rubber farm animals, toy tractor or a soldiers. I'm sure my mom wished I was looking at dolls and baking pans, but I was a tomboy.



I guess it was because I grew up during the WW2 years, that I had toy soldiers, tanks, planes, cars and trucks that I purchased at Woolworths or Grants. Out by the chicken coop, I had a hill full of little caves and hills for my little wars. I could entertain myself for hours.


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## NancyNGA (Oct 29, 2016)

Pappy, there is a little old drugstore in our town that still has its lunch counter.  It's small compared to Woolworth's.



It is across the street from a large apartment complex, so it is always packed with people.


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## Pappy (Oct 29, 2016)

Love the old counters that a lot of stores had. One I remember well was Conroys drug store. A real marble top old fashioned counter with the handles to mix the sodas and ice cream that had to be hand dipped.


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## oakapple (Oct 29, 2016)

I miss Woolworths too, as a child everything was so cheap, so I would go there with my pocket money.


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## Butterfly (Oct 29, 2016)

oakapple said:


> I miss Woolworths too, as a child everything was so cheap, so I would go there with my pocket money.



Me, too, Oakapple.  I'd save up my allowance (it was the princely sum of 35 cents a week in the early 50s) and then go to Woolworths.  Once my grandpa bought me a root beer float at the counter and I thought I'd died and gone to heaven.


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## BlunderWoman (Oct 30, 2016)

My first time of eating outside the home was at a Woolworth's when I was a little kid. My step mom ordered me a grilled cheese sandwich. It had a pickle and a 'fancy' toothpick. I was SO impressed


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## oakapple (Nov 9, 2016)

BlunderWoman said:


> My first time of eating outside the home was at a Woolworth's when I was a little kid. My step mom ordered me a grilled cheese sandwich. It had a pickle and a 'fancy' toothpick. I was SO impressed


Yes, it's funny what we took for sophistication back then isn't it?Mine was being taken aged about seven to a very fancy Palm Court sort of coffee House, where the coffee aroma was wonderful and a string quartet played in the background.


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## Rightbob (Nov 16, 2016)

As a 12 year old boy living in LA near Vermont and Franklin Avenues, I loved to browse through that Woolworth store to play with some of toys when the clerks weren't looking.


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## Aunt Bea (Nov 16, 2016)

I miss the bakery in the front of the old Woolworth's, my bus stop was right out front and I had just enough time to dash in on payday to pick up a treat for the weekend!

Great pan rolls, coconut macaroons, banana cake filled with a creamy filling and rolled up like a jelly roll, etc...


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