Did you ever shop at a '5 & Dime'?

Yes! I had forgotten. If you were going shopping in the department stores, it was white glove time. Not necessary for the 5 & Dime. And we had a Kresge too. Good trip down memory lane.
 

I remember going to Woolworth's as a child, we called it the 5 & 10. On a hot summer day it was a treat to get an ice cream sandwich there. I agree Trade, not nearly as cheesy as Dollar Stores these days.
 
my grandmother retired from woolworths a great place to shop, also ben franklin and actually a store named 5 & 10.I think they may have morphed to the dollar stores. Kmart,montgomery wards,sears,jcpenny all had stores here in montana which later closed and went only to catalog sales.
 
I also remember Woolworth's, 5 and 10, Kresges, Grants and in the 80's Ben Franklin. Ive lived in a few different states so maybe that's why I remember the different ones.

Grants was in downtown Pittsburgh and they had the best hot dogs at their lunch counter. Their buns were toasted and the hot dogs were cooked kind of like you see rotisserie chickens cooked now.

All very simple, I didn't even add ketchup or mustard, it was perfect on its own. Although I haven't had a hot dog in many years, I can still taste the ones at Grant's. Yum.
 
I loved eating at the dime store lunch counter with my friends. That was the only time I got to do it. If I went downtown with my mother, it was business and business only. Head straight for the department store, get the white shirt you needed for chorus and go home. No lollygagging at the dime store and absolutely no stopping to eat.

To my grandmother, eating at the dime store lunch counter was like drawing a GO DIRECTLY TO PTOMAINE POISONING, DO NOT PASS GO, DO NOT COLLECT $200 card; it simply was.not.done. We either ate at the "nice" cafeteria (which was booooring) or at the department store tea room (which was boooooring). There was always modeling going on (boooooring) and you didn't get to spin around on the stool (booooring) and there were no boys to look at out of the corner of your eye and pretend to ignore (booooooooooring).
 
First met my wife when she was still in high school and worked part-time at Kresge's and the following Christmas season at W.T. Grant, a couple of doors up. Woolworth's was also in the row of stores. This in New Bedford, MA.


Conway, NH, in this same period (early 50's) had Ben Franklin store which was unfamiliar to me here in Massachusetts.
 
I'm another fan of the hot dogs on toasted New England style rolls topped with a little fluorescent green sweet pickle relish from the lunch counter at W.T. Grants.

I also enjoyed the bakery counter at Woolworth's. The bakery was in the front of the store and the bus stop was right outside. On payday I would have just enough time to run in before the bus came and buy a Banana Roll, a loaf of Dutch bread and at Christmas time a bag of coconut macaroons. The older lady at the counter looked and sounded like Dot Cotton Branning from EastEnders, she was tall thin, wore a black hairnet and a white uniform, had a nicotine stain on her upper lip and a deep, smokey, raspy, voice. She always smiled and said "make sure you pop that Banana Roll in the Frigidaire when you get it home, doll." and I did.

I also remember going into Woolworth's at Christmas with my mother when I was very young and seeing row after row of individual plaster nativity scene figures lined up so you could buy as many kings, cows or shepherds as you wanted and the choir boy/girl candles in various sizes.

Here's a song inspired by Barbara Hutton the poor little rich girl that inherited the Woolworth fortune, estimated at an inflation adjusted $900 million, at age 7 and died at the age of 66 with only $3,500.00.

 
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Falcon said:
I think it was the forerunner of what is now K-Mart.
Click to expand...

Wasn't that Mammouth Mart? (spelling?) In high school, one of my girlfriends worked at one.

I did enjoy the 5&10. We also had a Grant's store in my hometown. My girlfriends and I used to eat lunch there sometimes as teenagers. Fun memories.
 
Growing up in Yonkers, NY we had both a Woolworths and a Grants "downtown".

woolworths-yonkers.jpg
(The Woolworths has the red banners in the middle and on the right side - they spanned the whole block)


I remember Woolworths' lunch counter - GREAT food. Also, the bargain basement.

There was also always a friendly feud between the two stores - when one would advertise a sale on a certain item, the other would immediately follow suit.

I'm sure they're both gone now - just another lost artifact of youth. :(
 
SifuPhil said:
Growing up in Yonkers, NY we had both a Woolworths and a Grants "downtown".

View attachment 41660
(The Woolworths has the red banners in the middle and on the right side - they spanned the whole block)


I remember Woolworths' lunch counter - GREAT food. Also, the bargain basement.

There was also always a friendly feud between the two stores - when one would advertise a sale on a certain item, the other would immediately follow suit.

I'm sure they're both gone now - just another lost artifact of youth. :(
Click to expand...

They both went out of business decades ago :( (the companies, not just the individual stores)
 

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