F. W. Woolworth Company

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F. W. Woolworth Company (often referred to as Woolworth's or Woolworth ) is a retail company and one of the original pioneers of a five-and-a-dime store. It's arguably the fifth and most successful business in America and internationally, setting trends and creating modern retail models that keep following worldwide today.

The first Woolworth store was opened by Frank Winfield Woolworth on February 22, 1878, as "Wolworth's Five Great Store Store" in Utica, New York. Although initially looks successful, the store soon failed. When Woolworth searched for a new location, a friend suggested Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Using a sign from the Utica store, Woolworth opened his first successful "Woolworth's Great Five Cent Store" on July 18, 1879, in Lancaster. He brought his brother, Charles Sumner Woolworth, into business.

Two of Woolworth's brothers pioneered and developed the most common merchandising, direct purchase, sales, and customer service practices today. Despite growing into one of the largest retail chains in the world through most of the 20th century, increasing competition caused its decline from the 1980s, while the sporting goods division grew. The chain began to shut down in July 1997, when the company decided to focus primarily on sports goods and renamed it itself the Venator Group. In 2001, the company focused exclusively on the sporting goods market, changing its name to Foot Locker, Inc., changing the ticker symbol from Z that it recognized in 2003 to ticker (NYSE: FL).

The retail chain using the name Woolworth survived in Austria, Germany, Mexico, and until early 2009, the United Kingdom. The same Woolworths supermarket in Australia and New Zealand are operated by Australia's largest retailer, Woolworths Limited, a separate company with no historical connection to the Woolworths FW Company or Foot Locker, Inc. However, Woolworths Limited took their name from the original company, because it has not been registered or trademarked in Australia at the time. Similarly, in South Africa, Woolworths Holdings Limited operates Alerts & amp; Spencer-like store and use the name of Woolworth, but never have a relationship with American companies. The Woolworth Group property developer company in Cyprus started life as a Woolworth branch in England, which initially operated the Woolworth department store in Cyprus. In 2003, these shops renamed Debenhams, but the commercial property arm of the business retained the name of Woolworth.

Video F. W. Woolworth Company

History

Origin

Woolworth Co. owns the first five-and-dime store, which sells general merchandise at a fixed price, usually five or ten cents, weakening the price of other local merchants. Woolworth, as well-known stores, was one of the first American retailers to issue merchandise for the shopping community to handle and choose without the help of a sales clerk. The previous retailer has kept all the items behind the counter and the customer presents the clerk with a list of items they want to buy.

After working at Augsbury and Moore's dry goods store in Watertown, New York, Frank Winfield Woolworth obtained credit from his former boss, William Moore, along with some savings, to buy merchandise and open the "Five Great Five Wolworth Store" in Utica, New York , on February 22, 1878. The store failed and closed in May 1878, after Frank earned enough money to pay back William Moore. Frank immediately made a second attempt, and opened the "Wolworth's Cent Five Great Store", using the same mark, on June 21, 1879, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Lancaster proved successful, and Frank never forgot the city for the rest of his life. Frank wanted to open a second store in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and he therefore asked his brother Charles Sumner "Sum" Woolworth to join him by managing it. The Harrisburg store opened as "5 Ã‚ Â¢ Woolworth Bro's Store" on July 19, 1879. After a fight with the building owner, the shop moved to York, Pennsylvania, opened in March 1880. The store did not last long, closing three months later. Frank is looking for bigger and cheaper buildings. He found an ideal location in Scranton, Pennsylvania, at 125 Penn Avenue, and opened "5Ãƒ, Ã‚ Â¢ & 10Ãƒ, Ã‚ Â¢ Woolworth Bro's Store" on November 6, 1880, with Sum as manager. The Scranton store is where Sum fully developed the merchandising model Ã¢ â‚¬ Å"5 Ã‚ Â¢ & 10Ãƒ, Ã‚ Â¢ Ã¢ â‚¬ s brothers. Sum spends a lot of time working on the sales floor, talking to customers and employees. He often personally serves customers. Sales grow steadily. In 1881, on Frank's suggestion, Sum bought his brother's share in the Scranton store in two installments, in January 1881 and 1882. This made Sum the first franchisee of Woolworth Bro.

In 1884, confident enough to open another store, Sum partnered with his old friend Fred Kirby to open a shop in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania, a neighboring town west of Scranton. Fred has worked as head of wholesale operations at Augsbury and Moore of Watertown, New York. Everyone put up $ 600 to launch a Wilkes-Barre store named "Woolworth and Kirby". Fred runs a new store and, while sales are initially poor, the store is immediately caught. In 1887 he used his profits to buy Sum and expand stores under his name; Amount and Fred remain the best of friends. During this time, Frank evolved with more stores. Sum's approach is different; he works to improve the look and feel of his Scranton store. It has a mahogany counter with glass dividers and a glass-fronted showcase. The store was bright, new, and polished wood floors gleamed. The layout was soon adopted by Frank for FW Woolworth's stores and became the standard when the two brothers persuaded family members and former colleagues from Moore to join them in forming "friendly rival syndicates" from five and ten cents stores. Each syndicate chain store looks similar inside and out, but operates under the name of its founder. Frank Woolworth provides a lot of merchandise, encouraging competitors to join together to maximize their inventory and purchasing power.

At the same time, using his preference to have someone he could trust, Frank brought their cousin, Seymour H. Knox I, to open a store in Reading, Pennsylvania, under the name "Woolworth and Knox." Seymour runs a general store in Michigan.

Increment and expansion

In 1904, there were six chain affiliated stores operating in the United States and Canada. Between 1905 and 1908, members of Woolworth Syndicate followed Frank's move to combine their business; Sum argues that he does not need to enter his shop. In 1912, the syndicate approved the scheme made by Frank Woolworth: to combine forces and combine as a corporate entity under the name "F. W. Woolworth Company" in the merger of all 596 stores. Stock flotation collects more than $ 30 million for five founders of the combined chain. They all swallowed their pride and accepted Frank's name over the door, with Frank as the new President of the Corporation. Sum Woolworth, Fred Kirby, Seymour Knox, Earle Charlton, and William Moore respectively became Directors and Vice Presidents. One of the "rival predecessors" of the chain includes some stores originally opened as Woolworth & amp; Knox Shop started as early as September 20, 1884 and S. H. Knox & amp; Co 5 & amp; 10 Cent Stores opened after the purchase of 1889 by its cousin Seymour H. Knox I. Knox's chain grew to 98 stores in the US and 13 Canadian stores at the time of consolidation. Fred M. Kirby added 96 stores, Earle Charlton added 35, Charles Sumner Woolworth added 15, and William Moore added two.

Sum Woolworth continues to maintain its base in Scranton, PA. He is not the type involved in politics, because executives from different chains seek to establish themselves in mergers. As he did from the beginning, Sum concentrated on upgrading stores, especially in his native Pennsylvania, and training upscale managers. The managers eventually scattered throughout the company, arranging the style and tone of Woolworth's stores around the world.

In 1900, Frank launched his first development plan in his first success city, Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Instead of just enlarging his shop on North Queen Street, he bought property along the road in an area not considered a "good" side of the city. By keeping his plans calm, Frank ensured that real estate prices would not swell in the area. When he completes the purchase of real estate, he announces his plan to build a five-story office building above a large store. The roof has a garden and an open-air theater. The theater was a big hit in the city, and soon became the social center of the city. This project is something of a rehearsal for the next venture.

In 1910, Frank Woolworth commissioned the design and construction of the Woolworth Building in New York City. An early pioneering skyscraper, designed by American architect Cass Gilbert, a graduate of the MIT architecture school. The building is fully paid in cash. It was completed in 1913 and was the tallest building in the world until 1930. It also served as a corporate headquarters until it was sold by the illuminated F.W. Woolworth Company, Group Venator (now Foot Locker), in 1998.

Frank Woolworth, president of F. W. Woolworth, Corporation, died in 1919, in Glen Cove, New York. Sum's attitude made him the perfect candidate to head F. W. Woolworth Corporation after the death of his brother. He is not confrontational, because everyone is positioned in the company. The Board of Directors unanimously asked Sum to take the presidency. With his famous politeness, he refused. However, he agreed to take on a new role as Chairman. Company treasurer, Hubert Parson, took the presidency. Over the next twenty-five years, Sum saw four Presidents come and go. He gave each of them quiet advice and good advice. As Chairman, he facilitates the debate and ensures that the issue is properly confronted and refuted by the Council.

Over the years the company has been doing a strict "five-and-ten cent" business, but in the spring of 1932, 20 cents of merchandise was added. On November 13, 1935, the directors of the company decided to stop the price limit altogether.

The shops eventually combined a lunch counter after the success of a counter at the first store in England in Liverpool that served as a general gathering place, a precursor to the food court of a modern shopping center. A Woolworth lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina served as a place to sit-in Greensboro in 1960 during the Civil Rights Movement.

The Woolworth concept was widely copied, and the five-and-ten-cent shop (also known as five-and-dime shops) became a 20th century fixture in downtown America. They will serve as an anchor for suburban shopping plaza and shopping malls in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. The criticism that the five-and-dice shop pushed local merchants out of business would recur in the early 21st century, when massive discount stores became popular. However, many local or franchised five-and-dime stores, like many dollar stores these days.

Diversification

In the 1960s, the five-and-dime concept evolved into a larger discount department store format. In 1962, Woolworth set up a chain of large one-storey discount stores called Woolco. Some of these stores are branded as Winfields, after the founder's middle name.

1962 was the same year when Woolworth's competitors opened up a similar retail chain selling merchandise at a discount: S.S. Kresge Company opened Kmart, Dayton's open Target, and Sam Walton opened his first Wal-Mart store.

Towards the 100th anniversary of Woolworth in 1979, it has become the largest department store chain in the world, according to the Guinness Book of World Records.

Decline

The growth and expansion of the company contribute to its downfall. The Woolworth company moved out of its five-and-dime roots and did not put much emphasis on department store chains because of its focus on specialty stores. However, the company can not compete with other chains that have eroded its market share. While successful in Canada, the Woolco chain closed in the United States in 1983. The largest FW Woolworth store in Europe, in Manchester, England, one of two in the city center, suffered a fire in May 1979. Although the store is being rebuilt, even larger and higher than the latest fire codes, negative stories in the press, coupled with the loss of life, sealed his fate; finally closed in 1986. During rebuilding and partly as a result of a bad press, British operations were isolated from the parent company as Woolworths plc. This proved to be a coincidence because the brand survived for twelve years longer in the UK than in the United States. On October 15, 1993, Woolworth embarked on a restructuring plan that included closing half of his 800-plus merchandise stores in the United States and turning Canadian stores into a closing division called The Bargain! Store. Woolco and Woolworth survived in Canada until 1994, when most of Woolco's stores were sold to Wal-Mart. The Woolco store that Wal-Mart did not buy was converted to The Bargain! Shop, sell to Zellers or close. Approximately 100 Woolworth stores in Canada are renamed to The Bargain! Shop, and the rest closed.

Focus

In the midst of a decline in signature stores, Woolworth began focusing on the sale of athletic goods. On January 30, 1997, the company acquired a catalog of Eastbay athletic retailer mail ordering.

On March 17, 1997, Wal-Mart replaced Woolworth as a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Analysts at the time mentioned lower prices from big discount stores and wholesale supermarket expansions - which began stock merchandise also sold by five- and-dime stores - as contributors to Woolworth's decline in the late 20th century. On July 17, 1997, Woolworth's closed the remaining department stores in the US and renamed the company Venator.

In 1999, Venator moved from Woolworth Building in New York City to an office on 34th Street. On October 20, 2001, the company changed its name again; this time, he took the name of the top retailer and became Foot Locker, Inc., which Woolworth started in 1974. All of Woolworth's company history is included in the history of Foot Locker, Inc., which resulted in the company in 2012 observing a hundred years of Woolworth's Company joined the New York Stock Exchange. Cover the 2012 annual report using the 1912 Woolworths store and Foot Locker 2012 store to celebrate the event.

Current

By 2015, a group of retro activists, including Victor Corporation of America, launched an online retailer using the Woolworth FW name in an effort to make a retail comeback. Online retailers featuring brands include Victor Talking Machine Co., Parisi Studio, Bite Size, Author Court, and Case Runaway. It carries products including clothing, electronics, gifts, vegan products, lifestyle, home, and furniture. According to the LinkedIn page of Victor Corporation of America, they are currently the parent company of F. W. Woolworth Co. Now has a US website at www.woolworthsusa.com.

Woolworth and its lasting influence on popular culture

Woolworth is the pioneer of retail-style "five-and-dime".
In 1880, Woolworth first sold an artificial Christmas tree ornament, which proved very popular.
In 1928, Adelaide Hall introduced the hit song, "I Can not Give You Anything But Love, Baby" written by Jimmy McHugh and Dorothy Fields, including the lyrics: "Woolworth's diamond bracelet is not sold, dear".
In 1929, in Atlantic City, New Jersey, Sam Foster (founder of Foster Grant's eyeglasses) sold sunglasses from his counter at Woolworth's on the city's famous sidewalk, which was a big hit with the public basking.
In the 1960s Mod subculture in the UK, the young Mod is called "Numbers" after the T-shirts they wear have numbers. They are also called "Sixes and Sevens" because these shirts are worth 7s/6d from Woolworths.
On February 1, 1960, four African-American students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (NC A & T) initiated the Greensboro sitting program at the "white man's" lunch counter at the Greensboro, North Carolina store. (The store is now a museum.)
On May 28, 1963, 14 activists - including pastors of Tougaloo College, Reverend Ed King and professor John Salter, Jr. and Lois Chaffee (white), and Pearlena Lewis disciples, Anne Moody (later published Coming of Age in Mississippi), and Memphis Norman (black), and Joan Trumpauer (who white) - protesting Jim Crow's segregation through sitting at Woolity's "white" table in Jackson, Mississippi. Bill Minor, then a Mississippi correspondent who covered the civil rights event for the New Orleans Times-Picayune and who was there that day, said Jackson Woolworth's action was "a signature event of the protest movement in Jackson The first one was with real violence. "The following year, the 1964 Civil Rights Act was passed into law.
In 1976, David Bowie called his performance, "a cross between Nijinsky and Woolworth."
In 1978, X-Ray Spex released the song, "Warrior in Woolworths", on their album, Germfree Adolescents .
In 1986 Kathy Mattea released a song written by Nanci Griffith Love at the Five and Dime , where both subjects met at Woolworth.
A memorable scene in the 2000 Coen brothers Brother, Where Art Thou? , founded in rural Mississippi in 1937, involved the character George Clooney who was physically thrown out of the FW Woolworth Co. store. and was advised by the manager, "And stay out of Woolsworth [sic] !"
In 2012, the British electro-pop duo, Blancmange released the song, "By the Bus Stop @ Woolies", on their album Blanc Burn .
The Woolworth building remains (though as a thrift store) in Bakersfield, California, and includes a functioning restaurant.

Sit-in Greensboro

On February 1, 1960, four black students sat at a separate dining table in the Greensboro, North Carolina, Woolworth store. They were denied service, touching six months of sit-downs and economic boycotts that became an important event in the civil rights movement. In 1993, the eight-foot section of the lunch table was transferred to the Smithsonian Institution and the store's website now contains a civil rights museum, which has a grand opening on Monday, February 1, 2010, the 50th anniversary of the early sitting.

Imitation sit-ins also occur in other cities where there is a separate lunch counter at Woolworth's. In Roanoke, Virginia on August 27, 1960, two women and a boy "... sat at the lunch table and ordered a piece of cake, soda and sundae, all under the supervision of the biracial committee that had arranged the event." The names of the three blacks were not reported at the time, and are now unknown. While the incident did nothing, other seats were settled, also without incident, at 17 other separate lunch outlets in Roanoke.

President

In recent years, the chairman and not the president has often been chief executive officer. Gibbons (1919-1982) replaced Burcham (1913-1987) as chairman-CEO in 1978 and died in office, replaced by vice-chairman John W. Lynn (1921-2013) who was succeeded in 1986 by the president (since 1983, succeeding Richard L. Anderson (d.2055)) Harold Sells. Farah joined the company as chairman and CEO in December 1994 and Hennig was replaced by Dale W. Hilpert as president in May 1995.

Maps F. W. Woolworth Company

Non-American retail users of the Woolworth name

Former subsidiary F.W Woolworth

Currently in business

Deutsche Woolworth GmbH & amp; The OHG Company (founded in 1927), the German unit F.W Woolworths has been operating independently since 1998; it has Woolworth trademark rights in continental Europe.
Woolworth Mexicana operates a small chain of stores in Mexico, sold in December 1997 for Controlling Dinamico S.A. by Foot Locker Inc. and now a subsidiary of Grupo Comercial Control, S.A. de C.V.

Not Active

Woolworth Canada is a Canadian unit F.W. Woolworth was founded in 1920 and is based in North York, Ontario. In addition to Woolworth's stores, other Woolworth Canada banners include Woolco, The Bargain! Shop, Kinney, Foot Locker, North Reflection, Northern Getaway, Northern Tradition, Silk & amp; Satin and Randy River. This division continues to be called Woolworth Canada even after the last stores under Woolworth's sign board disappeared from Canada in 1994. Woolworth Canada finally changed its name to Venator Group Canada in 1998 and finally Foot Locker Canada in 2001.
Woolworths Group was originally a British unit of F.W Woolworth, but operated independently as a separate company from 1982, running stores in England, Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey. On 26 November 2008, Woolworth's Group plc announced that they are too much debt to keep their payments. The remaining British Woolworth Shop closed on January 6, 2009, with the loss of nearly 30,000 jobs.

Woolworths Limited is Australia's largest retailer, operating various supermarkets and other retail chains in Australia and New Zealand. The name "Woolworths" is legally taken to utilize the name Woolworth F.W. because they do not do business in Australia, and have not registered a trademark there, but there is no other way connected to US or Wolworths U.K.
Woolworths is an upscale retail chain in South Africa that sells items that are comparable to Marks & amp; Spencer Shop in England. The South African company also operates stores in Bahrain, Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Oman, Qatar, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Woolworth's in Bridgetown, Barbados operates independently, having split from the British branch in 1982. Founded in the 1950s, inventory was shipped from England.