DEFUNCT Five & Dime Stores from the past - Life in America
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- čas přidán 30. 06. 2024
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#recollectionroad #nostalgia #shopping - Zábava
Who else remembers the little wax bottles with sweet syrupy drink inside? Candy buttons on paper strips. Candy cigarettes in boxes. Big candy bars for 5 cents. Milk duds and taffy on a stick. Chunky square chocolate bars with raisins and nuts. Pretzel sticks and fresh nuts on hot carousel.
And no matter what your older sister told you, those wax bottles were NOT edible.
Only took 1 time.
Those were Nik L Nips. My parents had a C store for 10 years 1971-1981. We sold every kind of penny candy, comic books, 10 and 16 oz soda cold in the bottles, and other kid essentials. Kids would bring in found bottles, and buy candy with the return money.
Oh sure schallrd1. I remember all of those. I was very fond of Chunky's. They most certainly are not the same today. 😞
@@DavidD-bg7uo But you could chew on them like gum for awhile til they just got tough & hard.
That stuff is all still available, just not very many places have it. They even still make candy cigarettes only now they are called candy sticks.
I can't think of anything I miss more than the five and dimes. Just walking into Woolworth's would put me in the Christmas spirit. And our neighborhood Grant's was the place where all the kids could afford to shop. Every Christmas I get out my manger scene - still in it's cardboard box with the McCrory's sticker on it. I cried when the last Woolworth's closed and I still miss it.
Agree with you 100%.
They still exist
Due to inflation they're called dollar stores now
It's very sad...the small towns had these stores too, then the passenger rail stopped going to small towns and they went away too - or people had/have to move.
Now we have new stores, called , “Dollar Stores “.
📻😐
There is a Woolworth’s in Kaiserslautern, Germany. It opened a few months before we moved back to the states. I couldn’t believe it.
The Woolworth store in my town had a small pet department where they sold canaries, goldfish and baby turtles.
Shit!! Woolworth wasn't no five and dime by the time they went out of business though.🤦 I remember paying ridiculously high price for GI Joe's towards the end
Parakeets and chameleons. Live chicks Easter time. Loved to see the fish in tanks. Hearing the chirping of pet birds when walked into the store.
A Woolworth's I went to had a parakeet and hamster bin. I miss that!
Yes, they sold goldfish and little turtles. There was always at least one canary flying around. Fond memories.
@@davidyoung8521 Awww! That's so my childhood.
I remember taking the bus into downtown to shop at Woolworths with my grandmother once my grandfather left for work. She would shop, buy me some little toy and we would have hamburgers and shakes at the lunch counter. Great times!!
They were always in downtown areas. I only remember them in the bigger towns in NJ near me
My grandmother loved the lunch counter in Woolworths
Lunch counters were great. Hamburger and shakes in big metal cup from ice cream mixers Soda bumbling fresh from the fountain. Banana Splits for 49 cents.
Last time I went into a Woolworth's was in Houston in July 4th weekend 1995.
Of all things they had for sale were WW2 surplus military rifles in a rack when you walked in the front door.
The guns were chained and padlocked and unloaded.
At least I think they were unloaded.
I would take the bus into downtown Corpus Christi to eat at the downtown Woolworths lunch counter before spending hours at the library. I recall getting a turkey dinner for $1.89 circa 1979.
Shopping in these stores in the ‘50’s and ‘60’s was like a trip to Wonderland, especially for a kid. Wish we could revisit those days!❤
Me too!
Wish America was like them days , on Saturday my mom would go to IGA to do grocery shopping and I would go across the parking lot to Ben Franklin to look at toys , good days so was America 🇺🇸
Always a big variety of cheap toys, fireworks in summer and gawdy Christmas tree ornaments right after Thanksgiving.
Watching this is a HUGE reminder how BIG COMPANIES bought out smaller companies and either absorbing them or closing the stores. Now we are down to about 5 companies OWNING 90% of EVERYTHING WE BUY.
💔🥲
When the stores consolidated they still kept their names, distinctive merchandise and appearance. Shoppers probably didn't know that Newberry and Murphy's were part of McCrory's.
It's like the movie, the blob.
Brick and mortar retail is dead anyway.
It's called cannibalization and all of us are on the "plantation"!
This was depressing. I remember Woolworth’s and Grant’s.☹️
We had a Grants in my childhood town of West Haverstraw NY. How I loved the lunch counter.
I once worked at a Grants Store. I had to lie for the store manager who was in his office but he said for us to tell any callers that he wasn’t in. I hated it and they fired me after 6 months on the job. I remember telling one caller “the boss says he is not in. “😊 The caller happened to be the district manager!
I remember those two and J.J. Newberry.
Even the bay area had Grant's, and purities
@@map3384 Just curious: Was it in the plaza on Rte. 9W where the DMV is?
Ben Franklin was a big part of my childhood. I would always ride my bike down to look at the comic books and spend way too much time perusing the toy section. G.I. Joe, Transformers, Shrinky Dinks, Presto Magix... Such great memories of Ben Franklin.
Our Ben Franklin always smelled like popcorn, so that drew us in. Popcorn without having to pay for the movie.
Gosh I have such wonderful memories of Woolworths. Shopping there with my mom, and it was so magical at Christmas. Also Ben Franklin, T G &Y, Sprouse Reitz. Wow this was a walk down memory lane.
Our Woolworth store had ceiling fans and wooden floors.
So the 2000’s destroyed everything I loved as a kid. I really miss that time of my life. The 50’s 60’s and 70’s 😂
The 1980's destroyed everything I loved as a kid--and I wasn't even around in the 1950's.
I agree! Times were amazing back then. So sad that we will never see those times again!
@@madcat528 you never know.
I was thinking the same thing. I hate to be negative but things seems so much simpler and more meaningful back then.
It is so sad. I agree with you.
I grew up with 5 and dime stores you could get a bag of candy for a quarter or less. 3 pieces of bazooka gum for a penny
That's why I have very few teeth now.
@@citrine65 LOL. Me, too!
@@citrine65 you got no teeth Caucasian woman from taking methamphetamine and fentanyl....plus from not going to the dentist regularly for check-ups
@@shirleytyler-szkolny6981 blow jobs is the reason your teeth are gone.
I'm 68, and I tell my son's 'You used to be able to buy a Hersey Bar for a nickel'... They both look at me like I'm insane.. LOL!
When I was a kid the five & dime was a wonderful place to go to. They carried things that kids these days don't even know existed. Things like a nickel bag of marbles, a nickel box of cap gun rolls, a balsa wood airplane, toy plastic cars and trucks made in Japan, ball and jacks sets, ball and paddle sets, jump ropes, hoola hoops, skate keys, coloring books and crayons, comic books, and puzzles, balloons and pea shooters, bubble gum and trading cards, all manner of penny candy, Pez dispensers and candy for it, and so much more that I cannot remember right now. You could go into the store with a quarter and come out with a little brown paper bag full of happiness.
It's sad to see these stores get bought up by big corporations to just have them go out of business.
Thse WERE big corporations. The stores were just small.
They got bought up because they were failing. If they hadn't been bought, they just would have disappeared sooner.
@@kathyyoung1774 But they were run by the original owners, who ran them the way they were meant to be operated until they sold to corporations who looked at the stores as nothing more than a bottom line to skimp expenses on. The lack of love and care and the stores went south.
@@rickstalentedtongue910 EVERYBODY who is in business is in business to make money. Of course! Nobody is going to keep up a store that doesn't make money. Other stores took over the business for that type of merchandise, and those stores gradually disappeared. Not anybody's fault. There is no such thing as "the way they were meant to be operated." Meant by whom? You use a business model while it works and move onto something else when it doesn't work any more.
@@kathyyoung1774 You are getting silly, I don't need your adult dressing down on the realities of business. The original owners had a vision and were very meticulous about the details and put their hearts into their operations. These corporations are very bottom line and care little for atmosphere and the little details that made the original business special. Look what happened to Farrells and other business, they lost their magic after the change over.
A town near us had a Woolworth as a kid I loved their hot dogs with the buns toasted on the grill. Great memories of sitting at the lunch counter with my mom while she had coffee I got a chocolate shake it was a real treat and a rare occasion.
Dick's 5 & 10 still exists in Branson Misouri, it is a very popular tourist attraction and still sells the same classic merchandise.
Dooley's 5 10 & 25 in Fredericksburg, TX, closed this summer just shy of 100 years in business, as the owner retired. It was very much a time warp seeing how these stores were so familiar but now mostly vanished from the American scene, and on a street now dominated by boutiques and tourist shops. Where will I go to find wallet sleeves, laundry bags, soap holders and other small but practical items?
That sounds like a place to go! I'll remember that!
How cool is that I wish I could just go there and spend some money if I ever get a chance I surely will used to love that little star had all the coolest stuff bought my first car model there when I was a kid
Used to go there and get up Banana Split
Please, somebody bring back Woolworth’s with it’s wonderful lunch counter. The first restaurant meal I can remember was at Woolworth’s with my mother and with a big cherry pie under the round glass display thing on the bar counter. It was a tuna fish sandwich…yum.
That was my favorite at Woolworth's, but tuna salad on toast, a slice of pickle, and I think it came with a little cup of coleslaw a coke or pepsi, and afterwards a piece of pie.
I worked there as a waitress for three years. It was a wonderful place. One of my (current) coworkers also worked there (out in the store) when she was young; she has only good memories, too.
I worked at Woolworth when I was 18 in 1978 at the candy counter. I loved making the popcorn in the old fashioned popper every day. I would go eat at the lunch counter and I loved the tuna sandwiches.
My favorite was their BLT with a sweet tea.
Ours had a grill and the hot dogs were the best
I loved getting a small bag full of penny candies for 15 cents from Ben Franklins.
There was a Ben Franklin over in Lambertville NJ. Was an A&P before so it still had that classic red brick & white trim look. Now it’s a CVS
Candy-coated peanuts and raisins, and jelly beans.
We had Woolworths, Kresge, Kmart, Ben Franklin and Aim Variety. All gone now! There were good lunch counters at our Woolworths and Kmart.
Woolworth's was magical and one of the few fixtures in my childhood. No matter where we moved to, there always seemed to be a Woolworth's. Occasionally, I will dream that I'm shopping in one and I'm always disappointed when I wake up.
How I feel too.
I grew up in Chicago many years ago and the big shopping district in our area was at Lincoln - Belmont - Ashland. 2 blocks from that intersection, at Lincoln and School, there was a Kresge on 1 corner and a Woolworth on the other. I preferred Woolworth as it had toys, stamps for stamp collecting, coins for coin collecting, turtles, goldfish, canaries, parakeets, and even Mynah birds (I thought I'd heard an old woman talking loudly once and turned out it was a Mynah!) It had a lunch counter/soda fountain and my Mom got my sister and me lunch there if we'd behaved well that day. For a kid, those 5 and 10s were magical places, like an Oriental bazaar, and there is nothing like them now. The '50s and early '60s were good times and I treasure the good memories.
So I guess the dollar stores of another time. But they were better. Something else to miss from the last century.
They certainly did better.
Not the Dollar Store at all! These stores had the huge candy counters where you could buy candy by the pound. Looking into those bull candy counters was in itself the wish of a child. These stores had clerks who helped you find what you wanted and truly helped you with purchases.
@@mollygriffith5678 Yes, these shouldn't be compared with dollar stores at all, they had more and were fresh merchandise and excellent service.
Exactly right. Five and ten's were 1930's prices. Dollar stores were 1980's prices. But the Five and Ten's were vastly superior to Dollar stores.
@@mollygriffith5678 They were the dollar stores of their time in regard to their prices. But you're right--they provided variety and service that are lacking in dollar stores.
I really hated to see Woolworths disappear. And there was a Ben Franklin in the town where I grew up in in the 1960s.
There was a Ban Franklin in Gainesville, FL in the seventies and eighties.
@@kathyyoung1774 Same, there were some in Central IL
@@sarahmariah100 Time marches on. We no longer have General Stores or milk delivery or places to tie up horses. Society changes. What I really miss is Sears.
@@kathyyoung1774 Sears, me too! Aparrently other people do too - for some reason we just got a pgysical, printed Amazon toy catalog in the mail which I kept so grandkids could circle toys
@@sarahmariah100 WOW! We've come full circle. I used to use catalogs in teaching consumer math, and then they went away.
A trip on the bus, heading downtown with my Nannie, always included a stop at Woolworths. It was such a thrill for me every time... The candy, toys, fountain... Everything a young boy could want. When I was older I frequented Ben Franklin's, it was more convenient to where I lived, and just as great. It even had an arcade. Those wonderful little neighborhood gems were replaced by soulless monstrosities like Hell-Mart. I miss those good times. Such is Life...
You are so right there is not that soul anymore I remember Woolworth.
Walmart is probably THE primary reason that these chains went out of business!
Yes, Walwarts and Shopgetco, Buymore killed main square businesses in many a small town.
Sadly dollar tree and dollar general are todays 5 and 10.
@@davidmitchell6873 DG is crap! A lot of things cost more than at Walmart, they have bad selections of everything, the aisles always jammed with high stacked boxes of unopened merchandise on movers, they quit selling shoes & clothing. For a kid I would think it'd be a crap place to be taken to cuz the toy selection is sparse and shoddy, and no set up games or board games, not even a decent coloring book selection (maybe kids aren't into that anymore idk), hardly any decent stuffed animals or dolls & doll accoutrements, no gag gift toys like what used to be at Spencer's, or before that, in the backs of old comic books to order. The candy selection is crap. The chain isn't even a shadow of comparison to original dime stores.
I agree. I didn't say I liked it I just think they are probably the closest thing we have to a dime store now.
Arthur, THANK YOU for saying this before I did, I 100% agree. Not to be sarcastic but Walmart should have died out when Sam did, now its being run by a bunch of corporate clowns who absolutely ruined it
As a kid if i got a hold of a dime or quarter i would head straight to TG&Y. I would often spend an hour or so browsing the candy and toy section trying to decide what to get.
our Nick name for TG&Y was toys guns and yoyo,many boy got his 1st BB gun there😉
We used to take our dollar weekly allowance into a Place called Joe's Smoke House, he had 3 isles of penny and 5 cent candy. We'd buy a weeks worth of candy and gum. Hoard it away like misers. Only a couple of us would manage to have candy left on Friday. My brothers were the worst. They'd wipe it out by Tuesday or Wednesday, lol!
Turtles, Girdles and YoYos.
I vaguely remember TG&Y as a kid.
TG&Y for toy model cars and trucks and supplies.
When you spoke of Woolworth you forgot their attempt to compete with K-Mart by opening Woolco. Woolco was one of my dad's favorite place to shop.
Very interesting to note that Walmart, Kmart and Woolco all grew from (what started as) "dime" stores; namely, Walton's, Kresge's and Woolworth's
All three "big box" stores began in 1962.
Walmart grew into the world's largest retailer, while Woolco and Kmart went the way of the dinosaur.
@@michaelwascom62 I hate Walmart with a purple passion. I do not like to give my money to this greedy Corporation. Once these large box stores came to town we lost all small stores. And those stores were owned by local citizens better known as Mom and Pop stores. If you are short 25 cents they would just say, just pay me next time you come in. That is no more these days. Instead, they tell you to put something back. I will forever miss woolsworth five and dime. And I have yet ever bought anything off of Amazon. I don't even shop in Walmart. I strictly believe in supporting Mom and Pop's and the old ways. Walmart just came to town to wipe out all the smaller stores so they could monopolize and take everybody's money. Needless to say I also hate Walmart. I will never set a foot inside of one of those stores. Not that it matters anymore. When Walmart opened up a super Walmart, we lost three small grocery marks and a hobby shop. And that's what Walmart sets out to do. There is no nostalgia in Walmart. Instead, I do 100% of my grocery shopping at FoodMaxx. I refuse to support Walmart as they have destroyed our memories of childhood. And they did it with dollar signs and a smile on their face all out of greed. I wish everybody would boycott Walmart.
I remember when the Woolco in Casper went out of business my parents taking several trips there to take advantage of the going out of business sale.
@@stevesloan56 Hello!
I can identify and empathize with your feelings regarding Walmart.
Personally, I have never cared to shop there. I can almost count on one hand (without using the same fingers twice) the number of times in my life (69 years) I've patronized Walmart.
I, too, miss the small, local, "mom and pop" stores.
And although one can purchase any book in print, for a good price, thru Amazon; I prefer to browse in the old "brick and mortar" book stores. Unfortunately few still remain.
Admittedly, I do shop for certain items at Sam's Club (part of the Sam Walton enterprise); but only for ready availability and good price.
But you state an important and critical point: The friendly, trustworthy, "skin-in-the-game" personal interest that characterized "mom and pop" outfits is essentially dissipated.
@@stevesloan56 you blame Walmart all you want, but the real blame lays on the customers feet. Because they chose to shop elsewhere for things.
I remember the 5 &10 cent stores from back in the day. They were:
1. Kresge's
2. Neisner's
3. Newberry's
4. T G &Y
5. Woolworth's
6. Ben Franklin
7. W.T.Grant
8. McCrory
Wal-Mart wiped out all of em...
CH Martin
We would go to TG&Y almost every weekend.
Grandma took us to Woolworth for lunch often. Great memories!
As a kid growing up in the 50s and 60s, these were our department stores in small town America.
A Ben Franklin and a V Store, along with two drugstores, were the go-to places for kids in my home town. A sensory overload for this farm girl!
They were like small department stores in my town. We also had a Ward's, which was the BIG department store.
That"s because you were young and everything is better when you are young
I grew up in a town of a little less than 10,000 population. We had a G.C. Murphy and an Index five and dime store. It was a big deal to get to go uptown and spend a little pocket money as my Dad called it at one of these stores. I sure miss those days in the late 50s and early 60s.
My hometown also had a Murphy's. At one point, it had long lunch counters on either side of the store and when we went shopping on Saturdays, both counters were full. Murphy's is long gone now but I still remember looking at the toys and doing a lot of wishing.
@@TheDoorman55 Yes and the candy counter too.
@@jamesleathers5488 Of course! Dad loved Maple Nut Goodies so we always got a pound in a bag. I recall the sound they made both when they were scooped up and when they slid to bottom of the bag. Always managed to get a few for myself once we got home.
@@TheDoorman55 Those were my Mom's favorites.
I lived in Jeannette Pa. They had a Murphy's
S. S. Kresge, founded in Detroit in 1899, was a favorite of mine growing up in Detroit in the 1960's and 1970's, Locally usually just referred to as a "dime store", I often walked up to my local store on the Eastside to check out the toy section. I still remember how the old wooden floors would squeak as you walked across them.
Sad to have lost so many of these stores.
I loved G.C.Murphy! We had one a little ways down the road from where I lived, me and my friends would walk there to Christmas shop. We were young ten or eleven but those days we walked far and wide to get where we needed to go. Great times.
I was working part time at the five and dime, my boss was Mr. McGee. He told me several times that he didn't like my kind, 'cause I was a bit too leisurely.
Lmao
I used to go in thru the out door.
I remember Walkers 5&10 and Ben Franklins on the square in my hometown. Ever time i hear the song The Little Man by Alan Jackson, i think of those stores. I sure do miss America, back when she was Great 😢
MAGA
I really going to Woolworth as a kid with my mother
Bethel, Ohio still has a Ben Franklin 5 & 10 store. Open 9-6 Monday-Saturday, closed on Sunday.
There is one here in NH
And not a single thing in that store can be purchased for a measly Dime thanks to our corrupt politicians screwing up our Economy.
One in Grand Marais MN too.
Still one in Lavallette NJ
I think there's one in Lancaster PA
I grew up in Northern California in the 50's. Every Saturday my Mom would take my sister and I to Woolworth's in Downtown San Jose. It was my favorite place ! The fountain was always a treat. Especially the Turkey Club Sandwich w/potato chips ! I could never pass up the Pet Dept. The puppies, the parakeets and canarys and the tiny turtles. During Easter, they would always carry baby chick's and baby ducks. Such great memories. I'll never forget them ! Thanks for bringing it all back !
ah .. Woolworth's .. conjures up the smell of popcorn and hot roasted peanuts. We lived way out in the country, and it was a treat when we kids could hitch a ride with mom into town. She would do her shopping, the kids would spend our time at Woolworth's five and dime, pigging out on fresh popcorn, hot roasted peanuts and a 5 cent Coca Cola (in a glass bottle).
Back when I was a young kid, we thought nothing of it riding our bikes into town for the 5 and dime.
Now days somebody will steal your bike!!!
@@alanhumphrey4198 Sigh…..
@@alanhumphrey4198 oh Lord a negative Caucasian.
We had TG&Y in New Orleans in the '60s. It's where we used to get candy cigarettes, bubble gum cigars, and model car kits.
I remember when the grocery stores would hand out 5pk of cigarettes as samples. It was around 1965. I would a half a cigarette and chewed a pack of wriggles spearmint gum for 5 cents to hide the smell. Candy cigs and bubble gum cigars, gone forever.
There were two in Gonzales LA. at one time. I remember saving up to buy the little ten cent metal toy cars.
And a big bottle of Dr. Nut as well, I imagine.
@@bigscarysteve I was more of a Nehi red drink fan.
*In the 1947 movie Life With Father, The department store mentioned in this movie, after Vinnie gets well she shops at McCreery's (opened in 1868 as the James McCreery & Co. Dry Goods Emporium), located at the corner of 11th Street and Broadway. Charence Day also mentions he would open an account at McCreery's for Vinnie.*
Excellent movie!
@@kaseymeier5944 CBS used to show it on the late show on the night before father's day for many years. Also, one of the boys was played by Martin Milner who was on Adam 12!
@@warrenhoffman2006 Wow! I did not know that about Martin Milner. Growing up, we would watch it at least once a year. I have it on VHS and DVD. It's about time to dust it off and watch it again. Hope you are having a great week, Warren.
@@kaseymeier5944 Thanks, I will - hope you enjoy the movie. If you're a Bogart fan, tomorrow at 10:15pm eastern, AMC is showing "The Two Mrs. Carrolls" - a great one.
Oops, meant TCM!
I remember going to the lunch counter at the Woolworth store in our town when I was a kid and mom would buy me a ham salad sandwich on toast and a Coke. I thought that was the best Saturday in the world. In one block of Main St. in Gastonia, NC we had (From east to west) a Kress, Woolworth, and one called Eagle. Good old days for sure.
The ham salad sandwich was a favorite of mine.
Our Woolworth lunch counter had "sea foam". It was green Jello with shredded lettuce and whipped cream mixed in. I really liked it! The food at Woolworth's was very good. My dad would take me there now and then, it was a treat!
I’m guessing that the last photo of Sprouse Rietz is from 1980 after the eruption of Mt. St. Helens. I can’t imagine another time when having dust masks would be worth emphasizing like that.
I think you are correct. That sure looks like the store that was in Clatskanie, Oregon.
@@krisaguilar6699 Looks like the present day Safeway in town before some exterior mods. Thier would be a hillside behind it if in Clatskanie.
Grew up going to Sprouse Reitz in Salem and Keizer Oregon.
I remember Grant's,Neisner"s and Wooleorth's.
@@nohaboy100 I lived in two towns that had Sprouse Reitz and they were both co-located with the local Safeway so that would make sense.
ALSO there was a Coronet 5 & 10 in downtown Covina, Ca. Haven't seen those mentioned in your videos yet. As always, you provide great mini escape pods from the idiocy and tragedy around us today.
Cornet, not Coronet.
I grew in what was a rural/suburban area East of Houston, Texas and a TG&Y was a bicycle ride away. Lots of balloons for water balloon fights, bought my first BB Gun as a child(No parents with me), and they would play the syrupy-slow instrumental music. The music was so slow the clocks ran backwards.
We didn't have a Woolworth, but a had a bigger Woolco store. I believe they were part of the same company.
They were. Woolco came later when Woolworth's started closing. My mom used to turn me loose in Woolworth's in Beaumont with 25 cents, and I bought all sorts of things after browsing for an hour. Speaking of buying BB guns on your own, I bought my first .22 Remington rifle at the S&H Green Stamp store in Beaumont when I was16 and walked in by myself and plopped down 7 1/2 books. I still have it. Hey, fellow native Texan! Good memories.
I grew up on Port Arthur TX and there was TG&Y there. We also had a Woolworths. Loves both of these stores
Was this the TG&Y at the Veterans Memorial Road/FM 1960 intersection? If not, where exactly was it?
Baytown is my guess...
@@suegalow7750 Me, too, fellow Texan. Best wishes.
I remembered Ben Franklin "Dime Stores", as well as Woolworth and their famous Luncheonette! I can still smell the burgers cooking behind the counter! Their shakes were to die for!
I do miss five and dimes Woolworths and Burdines.
We still have two WoolWorth stores in Berlin Germany
They also exist in Australia
I wish. All the. 5and. Dime stores. Was. Back. I. Enjoyed. Them as a. Child. I miss them
I know I'm getting old; I actually remember shopping at several of these stores. But, the largest disappointment for me was the closure of the large Woolworth's on Market and Powell Sts. in San Francisco. We could have lunch, or get fried chicken wings, pop corn or go down stairs to bargain basement closeout department. Yeah, it was a simpler time.
Sprouse-Reitz near the house I grew up in was a favorite place to buy anything and everything! My friend Millie would sometimes buy yarn for her mom, I got a new diary there every time I filled up one and we both loved getting the latest lip gloss! It used to come in a tin -- looked old-fashioned.
Truth be told the only one I really remember is Woolworths. There was one in the shopping area near my house when I was a kid but we just called it the dime store. I built a pretty good Matchbox car collection from their inventory and I remember they served a pretty good grilled hot dog on a toasted bun. They were closed up by the early 70s. I wish I still had my Matchbox cars. They might be worth something today.
I have mine In the blue case but very used. We played with them daily. Might be worth something?
Yes, the hot dogs were special.
@@michaeladamcik7475 I bet they are. Hot Wheels became all the rage but I preferred Matchbox. Those along with the HO slot cars and the James Bond Aston Martin's my dad brought home one day for me and my brother, complete with functioning ejection seats. Hard to believe so much water has gone under the bridge.
@@itinerantpatriot1196 I have 3 AFX tracks controllers one is the Jackie oval.
Also 4 cases of older HO cars.
Numerous parts magnets bodies.
Keeping to show future grandkids
@@michaeladamcik7475 We used to go to the hobby store to run our cars. They had a huge track. I can't remember now how much it cost but you rented track time. Definitely save em for the grandkids. I wish I still had that stuff but over time I guess it all just disappeared into the void, along with my Lost in Space lunch box and my cardboard Lunar Lander. Man, those were fun times.
We had a W T Grants and Ben Franklin in our town. I loved the lunch counter. Sadly they are long gone.
Any Colored people served at those lunch counters do you remember?
We had a G. C. Murphy in the Seminary South shopping center in Fort Worth, Texas for many years. It had a huge fish in an aquarium at the entrance that lived for years, and 3 levels, including the basement. A snack bar was on the ground floor in the back that served shakes made the old fashioned way with extra in the metal shaker. They sold a bit of everything from clothes and shoes to radios, stereos, and phonographs. It closed at the end of 1984. When Seminary South converted to an indoor mall and was renamed Fort Worth Town Center, the Murphy building was demolished, and its former basement was turned into the food court.
I used to love going there in the late 60s and early 70s.
I remember, as a kid in the 1960s, my mom taking us to Woolworth's on Nassau Street in Princeton, NJ. She called it the "five and dime"--which confused me, since nothing in the store cost a nickel or a dime. 🙂
She also loved the Ben Franklin stores in Vermont when we'd go visit my sister there.
Wonder what’s there now? Princeton, I mean.
The "5 and dime" name reflects the value of money in the early century, especially before WW2.
@@samanthab1923 It's the Labyrinth Books
bookstore. 🙂
@@loboheeler Thanks for that info!
@@jpsned Cool
Until just a few weeks ago, Bakersfield, CA still had an operating Woolworths lunch counter in the original Woolworths store that had been operating as an antique store. All of the original signage is still present and a group of investors intends to renovate the building and convert the upstairs into professional offices. The new owners stated that they would like to keep the lunch counter intact and reopen after the renovations. Also, directly across the street is a beautiful Kress store along with a former Newberry's a couple of blocks away. I was lucky enough to visit these stores as a child while shopping with my mother. I sure miss those simpler times and the crowded sidewalks of a once thriving downtown.
Miss Woolworth's and Newberry's too. I hope KC Steakhouse is still in business!
We had a Grants, Thriftys, TG&Y, and a Browns Toy Store in a little shopping square in Bixby Knolls, CA. Grants was where we usually went to get our Levi’s and school clothes. I remember our Grant’s had the tube system to send money upstairs instead of having cash registers. And TG&Y had the best candy section and Thrifty’s had the Lunch Counter. Oooh the smell of hamburgers! Mmmm……Great memories! Thank you 🙏! ☮️💟
We had TG&Y, Newberry’s and Coronet 5 & 10 cent stores in San Diego CA.
The correct name was Cornet, not Coronet.
And, as always, thank you for your videos!
I was just remembering that scene in "Breakfast at Tiffany's" - Audrey Hepburn and George Peppard had their day out on the town and each had to do what the other wanted - and she wanted George to shoplift something from Woolworths. They each walked out with Halloween masks on. It takes me back to occasional class trips and famiy outings to New York. ALL souvenir shopping took place at that same Woolworths. (35th and Broadway).
As a kid we had Ben Franklin and Sterling Stores was caddy corner to each other in my hometown in Arkansas
I worked at Woolworths and Grants back in the day..Loved it!
There is a functional original lunch counter in the former Woolworth's store in Bakersfield, CA. It is fairly large, and has additional tables outside the counter. The outside of the building still has the Woolworth's signage, even though it is now a multi-business store.
I used to work in downtown Bakersfield and ate many lunches at that Woolworths.
Did it allow Black people to sit at the lunch counter?
Back in the 70's and being near Los Angeles we had three of these stores within a few miles of each other; TG&Y, JJ Newberry and Woolworth's. Always love the pictures with all of the classic cars from the old days.
Newbury's is the store with the Venom cologne I remember..that was great!
I worked in Kresge's at Central Square in Cambridge MA. I worked after school, I worked at the sock counter where at the time you bought individual pairs of socks. After that I worked at the lunch counter. I made many sundaes, cooked plenty of hamburgers too. I have fond memories. Another defunct place I worked was S & H Green Stamps. I long for the good old days.
We had a Sprouse Reitz. The smell of Pop corn and mothballs waiting for Mom to get her goods and pick her way through the rack of dress patterns was a right of passage in the mid '70's.
I remember W. T. Grant's and a very small Woolworth's. I miss the five and dime.
T G & Y - my favorite -- so much just cool junk -- my sister had a job there at cash register- it was so cool-, oh and Gibson's -- went there a LOT with my parents -- they had a great gardening section
Thanks for sharing! Great look back in time!👍
My very first job was at WT Grant. I loved it there.
I worked there when I was in high school in the early 70s.
This is where I got my first real 6 string. It was the summer of '69
I heard that song !!!
Great show, I really enjoy these videos it makes you look back to how things were so simple.
6:25 $2.99 for 8-track, get them while they're hot.
So basically McCroroy’s ran every company they bought into the ground. I had a McCroroy’s in my town growing up and remember it well.
Yeah. I noticed a running theme here. Smh
sounds about right.
Kind of like Sears/Kmart's savior buying them and running them into the ground, lol?
Not necessarily. More likely Walmart just ran everyone else out of town. They were famous for building Malwarts on the outskirts of small towns and putting all the local mom and pop stores, including franchises, out of business. No matter how big McCrory was they can't survive all their stores getting crushed by the Walton Gang.
Or if you look at it another way, maybe McCrory's extended the life of other stores that probably would have died quicker deaths. It's hard to know for sure either way.
We had a Ben Franklin. It was collectively known as "the ten cent store". It's been almost sixty years but I still remember the smell; a good smell. Smelled like happiness.😊
Every Saturday my friends and I would walk uptown to Murphy's. Such great memories of happier days, thank you 😊
Best part of my growing up.everything closed on Sundays.
When I was a kid, in the 70s, and I went to visit my grandparents, it wasn't a successful visit, without a trip to Ben Franklin, I loved going there, candy and toys!! And I was usually successful at talking my grandma into buying me something..lol..lol..👍👍
First job in 1972 was a Woolworths in Camp Springs, MD. $1.15 an hour as a Stock Boy. My older sister was a Waitress at the counter. Good times.
5&10 man what memories, model car contests, 25 cents for small toys.
We have a Ben Franklin located in Cheney Washington. Been here for years. We have a Kress building still located in Spokane Washington. The building is called the Crescent because it looks like a crescent moon in shape. Spokane's City Hall moved into the building where the Montgomery Wards were until the early 70s.
We had a Ben Franklin in Merrill Wisconsin! Closed up in the mid 1990’s this video brought tears to my eyes! 😢 The best days of retail are passed!😮
The Woolworth’s Five and Ten in our town and a little old Grandpa taught my mother a valuable lesson! My mother was busy doing wash and preparing for dinner back in the 50’s when she was interrupted by the doorbell. Answering she found an older gentleman who asked her in she knew where Bruce was! Now Bruce was the name of my little brother who had yet to turn 4! She responded by telling him that Bruce was down for a nap! The man pointed to his right and my mother looked around the corner to see my brother standing on the porch with a big smile. Seems he had made the trip on foot with my mother so often that when put down for that nap, the quarter in his pocket was burning a hole in it! So with his sweater on and in his corduroy slippers, he walked the 12 blocks to the Woolworth store by himself! He caught the attention while shopping and he decided that my brother was not safe and asked questions about his home till he learned enough to return him safely to the house!
He never did that ever again! Lol! As ared the daylights out of my Mom.
Does anyone remember Zody's, ABC Union, or Cornet? These were out on the west coast.
Ha! Zody's. Now there's a blast from the past. I can still smell the fresh popcorn as you walked in. Covina, CA.
I grew up in most of these stores. I loved the Candy Counters.
My late mother-in-law worked at the Woolworth's located at the Crestwood Mall in St. Louis, Missouri.
I worked for Woolworth's in college when they were shutting down. My job was to disassemble the store fixtures as they sold out of stock. I was hired by the Allentown PA store, but I ended up doing the same work there and at the Bethlehem and Easton stores. The Bethlehem store was the best, one of those century-old downtown stores with the creaky wood floor and the long lunch counter. I got some great memorabilia including counter price signs from the 1940s, a shopping basket from the 1950s and the best of all, the original under-the-overhang lightup store name sign from the Easton store, which lives in my garage along with my 1956 Packard.
Thanks 😀
The W.T. Grant and Woolworth's in the Eastland Shopping Center, West Covina, Ca. are anchor childhood/teen memories from the late 50's through the 60's. Both gone for decades. I worked as a dishwasher in the Woolworth's lunch counter in 1970, right out of high school. I remember T G & Y and Newberry's in neighboring cities but rarely if ever shopped in them.
I grew up in Covina! I remember those stores well. We had a T. G.
and Y. by our house. It was at Arrow and Citrus.
I have clear and happy memories of the Ben Franklin 5 & 10 in Boonville , New York . I saved my money from doing various " jobs " , and bought my first model car kits . Best of all , I remember the first place I lived on Earth , was an apartment directly over the store , where we had a clear view of the volunteer fire department , and Mr. Yeager's Sinclair gas station . I'm 69 years old now , and have spent most of my life about 1500 miles away . I have repeatedly viewed a video "drive around " of my old home town , and , sad to say , the fire station has relocated , and Yeager's Sinclair , and the building that housed it , are also gone . They both have always existed in my mind and in my heart . I guess the one good thing about " progress " , I can now view my childhood town , and see that the first place I ever lived still exists ! Thank you so very much for these truelly wonderful video memories !!!
I remember the Woolworth in my hometown. Went there often as a child and teen. Really do miss that store.
Had a five and dime in the neighbood called J & R variety. Everybody nicknamed Junk & Rubbish. Greatest place to buy all your school supplies. Had items you couldn't find anywhere. Closed up mid 90's when the owner passef away, and the family didn't want to run it anymore. What a shame. Would have loved to take my grandaughters there to buy there school supplies.
I remember buying those little round red erasers with the little brush attached at the Ben Franklin in my town.
Junk & Rubbish--I love it!
In the early 1970s I used to buy fabric and sewing stuff at TG&Y. Cloth World took over the market for that kind of thing.
When I was around 10 years old, my mom sent me to buy school supplies for me and my sisters at McCrory's. I got to the store, loaded everything in the shopping cart...and walked right out the front door with a full shopping cart! No one even looked at me, and I didn't realize what I had done until I was already down the block and almost home, and I was too embarrassed to go back.
This was in 1993. Maybe if I had paid for those supplies, McCrory's would still be around today haha
🤣🤣🤣🤣
My first real job was in a Ben Franklin store while in high school, the La Grange Park IL location, from 1967-68. Worked as stock clerk and cashier, which included also painting (my very first task, ugh!), window-washing, and nightly cleanup, mainly floor sweeping. I found the 'penny-candy' section of the store the most unique, witnessing the introduction of Spree candies in such colorful packaging, and...'Zulu Darts'!! The owner was not too pleased with my overall performance while I was there, but hey, how many people do all that well on their first job? Yet in retrospect now so many decades later, Mr. J., you were alright, and I now much more understand your perspective on the matter, and why you gave me the dress-downs you did. Still, now a valued memory and experience. Rest in peace, sir, and long live the Ben Franklin name.
I remember going to Grants with the whole family and my father would treat us to lunch. Sooo long ago!
Thank You so much for this video. I used to shop in the Kress in Memphis back in '85. Did not realize it was the first one though. The outside of the store was beautiful. I also remember a McCrory's in Memphis.
The Ben Franklin stores in Cleburne and Stephenville Texas are still a viable and going store and can be visited to this very day!!
In all of their videos, to me, the very best part is seeing all the vintage cars parked in the parking lots.
Interesting video
I remember Ben Franklin and also GC Murphy's. Ben Franklin had parakeets at the back of the store, and I liked to go look at them. GC Murphy was at Lafayette Square Mall in Indianapolis back when that was a nice mall that I looked forward to going to because my parents didn't take us up there very often.