FW Woolworth Company
The FW Woolworth Company [ ˈwʊlwəθ ] was an American trading company .
history
Winfield Woolworth was born on April 13, 1852 in Rodman , New York . He spent his childhood and youth on his parents' farm in Great Bend, New York. After various jobs as a salesman and warehouse worker, he finally worked in a Moore & Smith store. Back then it was common practice to store goods on shelves and only present them at the customer's request. In addition, there were hardly any fixed prices.
It was under this impression that Woolworth developed his new and revolutionary idea for retailers to display many items openly on counters at a fixed price of five cents. The customers could see, compare and “touch” the entire offer. On February 22, 1879, the first Woolworth store in was Utica ( New York ) opened, had the no economic success. On June 21, 1879 the store in Lancaster (Pennsylvania) ("FW Woolworth Company") followed. The range was later expanded to include ten-cent items. The chain was also called "five-and-ten-cent-stores" or "five-and-dime-stores".
In 1886 a central administration building was built in New York City . In 1905 the now large corporation was converted into a stock corporation, the capital was ten million dollars. In 1909 the FW Woolworth Co. Ltd. founded with several partners. Further partners were involved by 1911, and a total of 596 stores were now in operation. In 1913, the Woolworth Building in New York was built with Woolworth's private fortune and the construction cost of $ 13.5 million was paid in cash. Frank Winfield Woolworth died on April 8, 1919. He bequeathed his fortune and the majority of the company to his granddaughter Barbara Hutton .
Although Woolworth was still the largest department store company in the world in 1979, the company got into financial difficulties. In 1997 the last department stores in the US were closed, leaving only specialty stores like Foot Locker . The company was renamed Venator. Walmart , which had taken over part of the former Woolworth department stores, replaced Woolworth in the Dow Jones Index . In 1999 Venator changed its name to Foot Locker, Inc. Since 1997, Woolworth department stores have existed exclusively outside the USA and are owned by independent regional companies.
Worldwide expansion
In 1909 Woolworth opened its first store in the UK . In 1982 the British company separated from the American FW Woolworth Company. The Woolworths Group PLC was an independent, publicly traded retail company and employed nearly 25,000 people. On November 26, 2008, the British media reported on the company's filed for bankruptcy, citing corporate circles. After the search for a buyer had failed, the closure of the chain was announced on December 10, 2008 and the clearance sale was initiated. This process was completed in early January 2009.
Woolworth Germany was founded on November 2, 1926, and the first branch was opened in Bremen on July 30, 1927. Woolworth GmbH currently operates around 300 branches in Germany .
The Australian Woolworths group, on the other hand, has no historical connection with the American Woolworth, but only made use of the popularity of the name (and the fact that it was not registered in Australia). The same applies to the company of the same name in South Africa .
Cultural reactions
Musically, Woolworth became musically successful in the late 1920s “ I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Baby ” with the phrase “Diamond Bracelets Woolworth Doesn't Sell”, in the song “I Found A Million Dollar Baby (In A Five and Ten Cent Store) ”from 1931 and mentioned in Bryan Adam's song“ summer of 69 ”with the line“ I got my first real six-string bought it at the five-and-dime ”. Another quote can be found in the song " A String Of Pearls " by Glenn Miller from 1941 "Baby here's a five and dime. Baby now's about the time for a string of pearls a-la Woolworth" (Text: Eddie deLange , music Jerry Gray ).
In the film " James Bond 007 - Diamond Fever ", the character Tiffany Case explains her first name with the fact that she was born at Tiffany & Co. , whereupon Bond replies: "You are lucky that it was not at Woolworth's."
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ John K. Winkler: Five and Ten: The Fabulous Life of FW Woolworth . Pickle Partners Publishing, 2017, ( google books ).