My Mom worked at a Woolworth back in the 70's in Greenwood Indiana. Got to meet David Prowse in full Vader costume after Star Wars came out. I miss the Dinner counter in the back.
What I remember most is both of those stores always seemed to smell like moth balls.
Well, I just had my hospital bed pushed back into the nursing home, after my
meeting with Guiness over longest living human record 
, but if Sears had Joy Line,
produced in the 1920-30's?, and before the Happitime (Marx) and later yellow box
Allstate (Marx) sets, I will have to defer that Guiness record to whomever saw Joy Line
in Sears, as they are an older coot than I am.
Nick...this is the best thread you have started so far!!.... WOW does this bring back memories. I remember as a child when we would go downtown, in Gary Indiana, we would go to "K" as I named it. It seemed it was full of toys everywhere! The pictures that some of you have posted are incredible....
Alan
Just some facts on SS Kresges as the Company is a live and well today.
1962 Kresges opens first K Mart.
1968 SS Kresges changes name to K Mart Corp. (remaining 161 Kresges renamed K Mart)
2005 after emerging from chapter 11 buys Sears.
2006 Forms Sears Holding Company ( K Mart, Sears, and lanched 2 other chains)
Source: Sears Holding Company Web site.
Alive, maybe. Well, not so much. Both K-mart and Sears locations are disappearing rapidly. There's threat to spin off their Lands End holdings. Very sad.
Originally Posted by Mill City:
Alive, maybe. Well, not so much. Both K-mart and Sears locations are disappearing rapidly. There's threat to spin off their Lands End holdings. Very sad.
It is amazing to me the K-mart in Butler, Pennsylvania is still open. They haven't had that much business since Wal-Mart opened 20 years ago. Now there is Target and Kohls to boot.
For those of you attending York, and who live East of York, you can see a great re-creation of a old Woolworths 5&10 at www.nationalchristmascenter.com on Rt.30 in Paradise, PA (near Strasburg). You can actually walk around inside of this exhibit (open weekends only until May).
Originally Posted by Joe Hohmann:
For those of you attending York, and who live East of York, you can see a great re-creation of a old Woolworths 5&10 at www.nationalchristmascenter.com on Rt.30 in Paradise, PA (near Strasburg). You can actually walk around inside of this exhibit (open weekends only until May).
That is one very cool store, Joe. You are spot on with the recommendation. A few minutes in there and tons and tons of memories come flooding back.
Around here, we didn't have an S S Kresge.
We had an S H Kress & Co. 5, 10 & 25 Cent Store.
If you are ever in Western New York and want to relive at least part of the post war Kresge experience stop here.
Plus its only a few miles from one of the best train shops in the area, Aurora Rails.
Pete
I've been there many times Its quite the experience. Every August the Village of East Aurora has the Toy Fest, Fisher Price originated there. Its worth attending.
At one time K-Mart was quite the retail powerhouse. they owned Office Max, Bargain Herold's, Builders square, Border's Booksellers, Pace Membership Warehouse and more. With the state of retailing today, I will be surprised if K-Mart and Sears are still in business ten years from now.
Originally Posted by Richard E:
With the state of retailing today, I will be surprised if K-Mart and Sears are still in business ten years from now.
You might want to revise that to three years from now. And guess who is responsible for that! 
Here are the five-and-dime stores I remember from my hometown:
I had to edit the title of this thread. The misspelled name of the firm was bothering me.
Wow! Do I remember the S.S. Kresge's Stores? Yes. I worked at the store in Parma, Ohio at Parmatown Mall from 1973 to 1978. I started there when I was in High School and worked my way up to Stockroom Manager until quitting in 1978 when I started driving a truck for a living. I met my wife there in 1977 and we were married in 1979. We have now been married for 35 years, so I can thank Kresge's for that! I believe the store closed in 1984. We had an F.W. Woolworth store at Parmatown Mall also.
Cobrabob.
Originally Posted by Allan Miller:
I had to edit the title of this thread. The misspelled name of the firm was bothering me.
Thank you Allan.
Originally Posted by Allan Miller:
Originally Posted by Richard E:
With the state of retailing today, I will be surprised if K-Mart and Sears are still in business ten years from now.
You might want to revise that to three years from now. And guess who is responsible for that!
Enlighten us.
I got beat up by a bible salesman and banished from Woolworths. I don't know if it was the one branch or all of them, 
Originally Posted by mwb:
I got beat up by a bible salesman and banished from Woolworths. I don't know if it was the one branch or all of them,
Oh Brother, Where Art Though ? (great movie BTW).
Here is a synopsis on Kresge's "other chain"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kresge-Newark
I live in Watertown, New York home of the original Woolworths.
Our local 5 and 10s in Central New Jersey had good selections of model railroad equipment. My early AHM, Lone Star and Marx equipment was purchased at these stores. Two Guys had a wonderful train department.
Bob
BOB send me an E mail its in my profile.NickOriginally Posted by Cobrabob:
Wow! Do I remember the S.S. Kresge's Stores? Yes. I worked at the store in Parma, Ohio at Parmatown Mall from 1973 to 1978. I started there when I was in High School and worked my way up to Stockroom Manager until quitting in 1978 when I started driving a truck for a living. I met my wife there in 1977 and we were married in 1979. We have now been married for 35 years, so I can thank Kresge's for that! I believe the store closed in 1984. We had an F.W. Woolworth store at Parmatown Mall also.
Cobrabob.
Originally Posted by ChooChoo Bob:
I live in Watertown, New York home of the original Woolworths.
The first Woolworth store was opened by Frank Winfield Woolworth on February 22, 1878, as "Woolworth's Great Five Cent Store" in Utica, New York. Though it initially appeared to be successful, the store soon failed. The first successful Woolworth's opened on July 18, 1879, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
Originally Posted by Mill City:
The first Woolworth store was opened by Frank Winfield Woolworth on February 22, 1878, as "Woolworth's Great Five Cent Store" in Utica, New York. Though it initially appeared to be successful, the store soon failed.
*************
Frank was probably "nickel & dimed to death"
Try this bit of Woolworth history.
Originally Posted by Allan Miller:
Try this bit of Woolworth history.
It's funny how a firm like Woolworth's which wasn't that big of a deal to me in the 60's+ was big enough at one time to build the largest building in the World. Oh, how the mighty have fallen! I guess the Sear's tower (now the Willis Tower) is another example.
Originally Posted by Chris Lord:
Originally Posted by Allan Miller:
Try this bit of Woolworth history.
It's funny how a firm like Woolworth's which wasn't that big of a deal to me in the 60's+ was big enough at one time to build the largest building in the World....
I still have the HO Rivarossi/AHM "Reno" I bought in the basement of the Woolworth store in the Woolworth building on 34th Street.
Maybe '59 or '60 (approximately, it's been a loooong time ago) I was walking from Polk's on 32nd and Fifth to the "A" train by Penn Station at Eighth Avenue, and I drifted into Woolworths. The loco was on sale (maybe twelve or fifteen bucks), seemed reasonable since it was goin' about $25 in the magazines, so I bought it.
I recall the early/mid-fifties the Woolworth a block and a half from the apartment where I "grew up" always had quite the Marx display at Christmas time. I thought the trains were cool, but by then I'd caught the American Flyer bug: two rails and the finest proportioned equipment in the toy train racket of the day.
Pete
If anyone wants more info about depatment stores past and present,check out this website:
