Woolworth's was my first part-time job when I was 16.  Every Woolworth's smelled the same, no matter where the store was located.

Wishing everyone who watches this video success in their work.

I furnished my first apartment with Woolworth things including dishes, etc. also, bought all my baby things in 1985.

Thank you for this riveting historical documentary, story. I had no idea what profound change Woolworth made to sales. Thank you!

Wow.......Such an enlightening historical business documentary. nice one

In elementary school we read a book about F.W. Woolworth. I loved this!!

I was a kid in the 80s I loved coming to Woolworth. The toys and crafts. Didn’t know it was so old

This success business story has been simply amazing in those early years.

Here is a brief summary of the video:

* *The Rise:* Frank W. Woolworth went from a poor farm boy to a retail pioneer by creating the "five-and-dime" store model (fixed low prices and open displays). He built a massive empire and paid cash to construct the iconic Woolworth Building in NYC.
* *The Tragedies:* His immense wealth brought deep personal sorrow, including his wife's dementia, his daughter's tragic death, and his own bizarre delusion that he was the reincarnation of Napoleon.
* *The Fall:* His granddaughter, Barbara Hutton, inherited the massive fortune but famously squandered almost all of it across seven failed marriages.
* *The Legacy:* The Woolworth stores—famously the site of the pivotal 1960 Greensboro civil rights sit-ins—eventually went out of business due to modern competition like Walmart. However, its athletic shoe division survived and rebranded into the company we know today as **Foot Locker**.

In 1980 my friend and started going into college downtown PEORIA Illinois and we went to Woolworths every day and we just thought it was the best thing ever because we were not used to going downtown or riding a bus but we felt fancy.

One interesting design feature of the Woolworth stores (at least the ones I shopped in and around Pittsburgh) was entrance exit points in two separate locations. When I went to college in Pittsburgh I often got from Forbes Ave to Fifth Ave on rainy days by going through the Woolworth's or got from one wing of my local mall to another by going through the Woolworth's store. And usually I bought something. It was a brilliant concept.

This is a profound story about Money, but not much about happiness.

Excellent!
I love business history ♥️

I am from Watertown and the orignal building is still there, they covered the name that’s carved in it. This is so cool to see Watertown back then, what a great video and history for me! ❤ I got the pleasure of being able to shop there before it went out of buisness

Woolworths was an excellent store which I would visit regularly in the 70s in Colorado , but when we moved to Texas we did not have one in town . ❤❤❤❤❤

Early 70"s grandma would take me to Woolworth's. My staples at the lunch counter were either a turkey club or the fried chicken basket. Fond memories.

We went from a producer economy to a financial economy.

The current dollar stores are a shadow of what stores like Woolworths, Winns, Ben Franklin, etc..etc.. were!  They had charactor and personality.  And there was some service.  You could buy a pet fish, and someone would wait on you.  You could get cloth cut, and receive service.  You could get window shades cut by an employee.  The stores had that familiar smell when you walked in.  The dollar stores of today are like sterile stripped down shells of what stores like this once were, with NO personality or charactor whatsoever!  And forget about buying ANYTHING requiring service!  Soon there probably won't even be a clerk checking you out!  It will probably be a robot, and there will only be a manager and one or two people stocking shelves!  So sad!  SMH

I loved Woolworth's when I was a child.

a $78 million fortune can be built on the back of five-cent thimbles, only to be systematically liquidated by a lack of emotional intelligence