F. W. Woolworth Company
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| Image:WoolworthLogoPNG.PNG | |
| Fate | Name changed in 1997 to Venator Group, and in 2001 to Foot Locker, Inc.[1] |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1878 |
| Defunct | 1997 (when firm name changed) |
| Location | Image:Flag of the United States.svg New York, NY |
| Industry | Retail |
| Products | Clothing, footwear, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, electronics and housewares |
| Subsidiary | Woolco (defunct 1983 in the US, Canadian stores sold to Wal-Mart in 1994) Woolworths Group plc (separate 1982) Woolworth GmbH (separate 1998) Kinney Shoes (purchased 1963), now Foot Locker (successor) |
The F. W. Woolworth Company (often referred to as Woolworth's) was a retail company that was one of the original American five-and-dime stores. The first Woolworth's store was founded, with a loan of $300, in 1878 by Frank Winfield Woolworth. Despite growing to be one of the largest retail chains in the world through most of the 20th century, competition led to a decline beginning in the 1980s. In 1997, F. W. Woolworth Company converted itself into a sporting retailer, closing its remaining retail stores operating under the "Woolworth's" brand name and renaming itself Venator Group. By 2001, the firm focused exclusively into the sporting goods market, changing its name to the present Foot Locker Inc (NYSE: FL).
Chains using the Woolworth name survive in the United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, Mexico, and South Africa. The similarly named Woolworth's supermarkets in Australia and New Zealand are operated by Woolworths Limited, a separate company with no historical links to the F. W. Woolworth Company or Foot Locker, Inc.
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[edit] History
[edit] Origin
The F.W. Woolworth Co. was among the first five-and-dime stores, which sold discounted general merchandise at fixed prices, usually five or ten cents, undercutting the prices of local merchants. Woolworths, as it came to be known, was one of the first stores to put merchandise out for the shopping public to handle and select without the assistance of a sales clerk. Earlier retailers kept all merchandise behind a counter, and customers presented the clerk with a list of items they wished to buy. After working in a dry goods store in Watertown, New York, Frank Winfield Woolworth opened his first Woolworth’s store in Utica, New York in 1878, but the store failed within a year. However, a second store he opened on June 21, 1879 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania became a success. Frank Woolworth brought his brother Charles Sumner Woolworth into the business and together, they opened more stores, often in partnership with other businesspeople. The Woolworths also entered into partnerships with “friendly rivals” to maximize inventory purchasing power for both parties.
[edit] Rise and expansion
In 1910, Frank Woolworth commissioned the construction of the Woolworth Building in New York City. This building was entirely paid for in cash. It was completed in 1913 and was the tallest building in the world until 1930. It also served as the company’s headquarters until it was sold by the F.W. Woolworth Company’s successor, the Venator Group, in 1998.
[edit] Headline text
The Woolworth's concept was widely copied, and five-and-ten-cent stores (also known as five-and-dime stores) were a fixture in American downtowns through the 1960s, and became anchors for suburban strip malls by the mid 1970s. Criticisms that five-and-dime stores drove local merchants out of business would repeat themselves in the early 21st century, when big box discount stores became popular. However, many five-and-dime stores were locally owned or franchised, as are dollar stores today.
In the 1960s, the five-and-dime concept evolved into the larger discount store. In 1962, Woolworths founded a discount chain called Woolco. This was the same year as its competitors opened similar retail chains that sold merchandise at a discount: the S.S. Kresge Co. opened Kmart; Dayton Company opened Target; and Sam Walton opened his first Wal-Mart.
By Woolworth’s 100th anniversary in 1979, it had become the largest department store chain in the world, according to the Guinness Book of World Records.
[edit] Expansion
Woolworth's expansion led to specialty store acquisitions. In 1963, Woolworth purchased the Kinney Shoe Corporation and operated it as a subsidiary. That led to specialty shoe store expansion, including Stylco in 1967, Susie Casuals in 1968, and Foot Locker in 1974.
Woolworth also diversified its portfolio of specialty stores in the 1980s, including Afterthoughts, Northern Reflections, and Champs Sports. By 1989, the company was pursuing an aggressive strategy of multiple specialty store formats targeted at enclosed shopping malls. The idea was that if a particular concept failed at a given mall, the company could quickly replace it with a different concept. The company aimed for 10 stores in each of the country's major shopping malls, but this never came to pass as Woolworth never developed that many successful specialty store formats.
This led to the development of Foot Locker, Northern Reflections apparel shops, and Best Of Times (a watch and clock chain).
[edit] Decline
In 1989, Woolworth purchased Champs Sports, leading to the development of the Woolworth Athletic Group.
The growth and expansion of the company contributed to its downfall. The Woolworth company moved away from its five-and-dime roots and placed less emphasis on its department store chain as it focused on its specialty stores. But the company was unable to compete with other chains that had usurped its market share. While it was a success in Canada, the Woolco chain closed in the United States in 1983. On October 15, 1993, Woolworths embarked on a restructuring plan that included closing half of its 800-plus general merchandise stores in the United States and converting its Canadian stores to a closeout division named The Bargain! Shop. Woolco and Woolworth survived in Canada until 1994, when the majority of its stores there were sold to Wal-Mart. Stores that were not purchased by Wal-Mart were converted to The Bargain! Shop stores.
[edit] Transition
Still with the decline of the signature stores, Woolworth marched on with a new focus towards athletic goods on January 30, 1997, acquiring the mail-order catalog athletic store Eastbay.
On July 17, 1997, Woolworths closed its remaining department stores in the US and changed its corporate name to Venator. In that same year, Wal-Mart replaced Woolworths on the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Analysts at the time cited the lower prices of the big discount stores and the expansion of grocery stores -- which had begun to carry merchandise carried by five-and-ten-cent stores -- as contributors to Woolworth's lack of success in the late 20th century.
In 1999, Venator moved out of the Woolworth building in New York City to offices on 34th Street. On October 20, 2001, the company changed names again; this time, it took the name of its top retail performer and became Foot Locker, Inc. Foot Locker stores chiefly sell athletic clothing and footwear.
[edit] Greensboro sit-in
On February 1, 1960, four African-American students sat down at a segregated lunch counter in a Greensboro, North Carolina Woolworth's store. They were refused service, touching off six months of sit-ins and economic boycotts that were a landmark of the US civil rights movement. In 1993, an eight foot section of that lunch counter was donated to the Smithsonian Institution.
[edit] Non-American users of the Woolworths name
- See also: Woolworth (disambiguation)
- Woolworths Group plc was the British unit of Woolworths, but has been separate since 1982.
- Woolworths Limited is the largest retail corporation in Australia, operating a variety of supermarket and other retail chains in Australia and Woolworths Supermarkets (New Zealand), yet in no way connected to the original Woolworths banner.
- Woolworths is an upmarket retail chain in South Africa selling goods of a comparable quality to the Marks & Spencer stores in the UK.
- Woolworth GmbH was the German unit of Woolworths, but has been separate since 1998 as a result of the original firm's change in focus.
- Woolworth Mexicana operates a chain of small variety stores in Mexico.[1]
[edit] In popular culture
- In 1986, Nanci Griffith released a song to her home-town (Austin, TX) Woolworth's branch, "Love at the Five and Dime" on the album Last of the True Believers.[2]
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
[edit] References
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