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Woolworth’s was my Disneyland. If I went the long way home from school I could pass by one of those stores. I would visit the parakeets and the turtles they sold. The aisles were full of all sorts of wonderful treasures. The favorites of the lunch counter were French fries dipped in a generous amount of ketchup and a glass of Coca-Cola. Sometimes a splurge would be an ice cream sundae.
Many a present was bought from Woolworth’s. It was easy to find something for everyone on a kid’s allowance.
Wow, what blast from the past! Never heard of Grants, but the other two, yes! I remember Kregees having a little copper box next to the cash register where they would deposit the tax! Utz chips and a Coke at the counter with my Grandfather!
Speaking of lunch counters or soda fountains, almost ever drug store had one, and all the ones I went to always had the same smell about them,it was a pleasant smell.
I really miss those. I believe there is still one on Nantucket, and perhaps a few more here and there across the country.
As to the Kresge K-mart thing. I would assume that the K-Mart part came later and that the Kresge stores themselves came first because I remember K-mart first coming around the time I was eleven or twelve. but Kresge was around from the time I was very little.
At Woolworth's counter I remember the hot turkey sandwich and Tuna rolls and Chocolate milkshakes.
We had Woolworth's and GC Murphy's. I could spend hours in those stores. If anyone ever gets to Central Texas, there is an old fashioned 5 and dime on Main Street in Fredericksburg called Dooley's. They have the same wooden floors and little glass dividers for the bins. They purposely keep it looking and smelling (thanks to the floor wax) like the old time stores. It's like taking a step back in time!
I remember Kresge Woolworth's, Ben Franklin, Grants, Neisner's.
They were large stores with better quality and more selection than dollar stores. Creaky wooden floors lunch counter...and I always went to see the parakeets and canaries in the back of the store.
My mother would buy me a grilled cheese at the lunch counter. It was a lot of fun as a kid, being turned loose while my mother shopped for stockings or lipstick or whatever grown ups bought in the 5 and 10.
When I got old enough to go on my own, it was for bobby pins, hair rollers, rubber bands, paper clips, nail polish...everything you "needed.'
Most things were laid out on tables instead of being stacked up high like stores do today. Some toys we always got were rubber balls and little plastic canary whistles that you filled with water. And always "bubbble stuff." for blowing bubbles.
I don't think you could get most of the stuff anywhere else. That's why you went to the 5 and 10. And it was fun.
Here's a bit of trivia....at one time the lunch counter at Woolworth's was the largest chain restaurant in the US. Early 60's they had balloons with a price of $.01-.39 for a banana split. Unlike the dollar stores you could buy a goldfish or turtle at Woolworths.
Here's a bit of trivia....at one time the lunch counter at Woolworth's was the largest chain restaurant in the US. Early 60's they had balloons with a price of $.01-.39 for a banana split. Unlike the dollar stores you could buy a goldfish or turtle at Woolworths.
Yup I remember many times I had those balloon banana splits. I miss those.
Here's a bit of trivia....at one time the lunch counter at Woolworth's was the largest chain restaurant in the US. Early 60's they had balloons with a price of $.01-.39 for a banana split.Unlike the dollar stores you could buy a goldfish or turtle at Woolworths.
Don't forget parakeets, we used to buy them there.
Last night I was thinking about dollar stores and I realized they are basically like the old five and ten's I knew as a child.
That got me wondering how many on here remember the five and ten, and also stores like Woolworth, Grants, Kresgees. Those were around where we were and came before the stores like K-mart and Bradlees which are also now mostly gone.
How many remember the old stores?
Once at a Dollar Store, I found a bin of industrial quality, long-shafted drill bits of various sizes. They were priced at 50 cents each and turned out to be of such high quality, that they never get dull. I bought 50 of them and wish I'd gotten more. I've given some to mechanic friends, who tell me they're the best they've ever had. If you look closely at the stock in those stores, you can sometimes find gems like that, that are priced at pennies on the dollar. I can't remember ever finding anything but ordinary junk in the traditional five and dime stores.
Don't forget parakeets, we used to buy them there.
^^^^ I remember getting a sweet parakeet at Woolworth's at the mall.
My favorite "dime store" was the downtown J.J.Newberry, which we called Newberry's. Like Woolworth's, it had a lunch counter, as did most department stores when I was a kid. I loved eating there with my Mom.
I got my Dad a special pocket hand warmer at Newberry's so he would feel comfy when he went duck-hunting. I had an ulterior motive. One of my favorite dinners was crisp-skinned wild duck.
We had a Rexall drugstore near our closest grocery store. I don't remember it as a drugstore, though, but rather another place to get novelty items, cosmetics and comic books.
There was so much variety in those dime stores, and you could handle most of the inexpensive merchandise easily, as nearly nothing was sealed in plastic.
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