Five and Dime
In 1879, Frank Woolworth opened the first discount chain store, starting a long American tradition of bargain hunting.Woolworth carried a variety of items that all cost five cents (later it became five or ten cents). The first Woolworth's opened in Utica, New York, but it did not take off there as Woolworth had hoped. However, not to be discouraged, he opened another one right away in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. It was an instant success, and soon the chain spread all over the country.
The store did so well that in 1913 the company built the Woolworth Building in New York City, once the tallest building in the world. The building's cost—all $13.5 million dollars of it—was paid in cash, though hopefully not in nickels and dimes!
Pictured: Kenneth Hayes Miller, 1876–1952, Bargain Hunters, 1940, oil, 30 7/8 x 36 1/8 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Sara Roby Foundation.
In 1879, Frank Woolworth opened the first discount chain store, starting a long American tradition of bargain hunting.Woolworth carried a variety of items that all cost five cents (later it became five or ten cents). The first Woolworth's opened in Utica, New York, but it did not take off there as Woolworth had hoped. However, not to be discouraged, he opened another one right away in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. It was an instant success, and soon the chain spread all over the country.