FROM the Rockaway Times Facebook page comes this image of the classic red with gold lettering F.W. Woolworth sign, after previous tenants’ signs (Edwina’s Little Angels Daycare and Job Lots) were removed at #192 Beach 116th Street south of Rockaway Beach Boulevard. The “five and dime store” used this style from the early to late 20th Century.
Frank Winfield Woolworth (1852-1919) originated the concept of the “five and dime store” in which goods were purchased from manufacturers and sold at a fixed price (Macy’s was an early convert to this method; previously, buyer and seller bargained as to what price will be paid, a practice still adhered to in other places around the world). The first Woolworth’s opened in Utica, NY in 1879, but failed soon after. Frank Woolworth and brother Charles Sumner Woolworth were undeterred and opened a second store in Lancaster, PA. The business expanded and thrived, becoming one of the largest retail chains in the world. Nothing lasts forever, and Woolworth’s folded in 1997 and became Foot Locker, concentrating on sports goods. Foot Locker was in turn acquired by Dick’s Sporting Goods in 2025.
My experience with Woolworth’s is pretty much limited to my childhood. My local “W” was on the prime corner of 5th Avenue and 86th Street (seen here in a Municipal Archives tax photo in the fab 40s), across from a police precinct that subsequently gave way to municipal parking. As a kid, I would get a once monthly haircut from a barber on 4th Avenue and 86th (I still remember his pull chain toilet) and as a reward for behaving, my grandmother or mother would bring me into Woolworth for something cheap; I remember getting the Colorforms stickers sold there.
A second tax photo shows a Rockaway Park location nearby in 1940, with a previous sign. The second sign in the same style shows “F.W. Woolworth” alone.
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3/4/26
7 comments
I just realized that Woolworth was the Costco of it’s time. Today Costco offers bargain priced hot dogs; many years ago Woolworth offered the same bargain priced comfort food. As I recall, Woolworth in Parkchester (Bronx) sold their hotdogs at a stand-alone counter at the front of the store that also offered orangeaide as a chaser (there was a separate sit down lunch counter at the other side of the store). The difference is anyone could shop at Woolworth but Costco requires membership; the stores are huge. How huge? Where I live in AZ there are Walmarts in Queen Creek, San Tan Valley, & Cooliidge whereas Costco covers the same territory with just one super sized store.
One thing that hastened the demise of Woolworth stores was the company’s foray into Walmart sized suburban stores under the Woolco name. The first ones opened in the early 1960’s but the whole chain lasted only 20 years.
Their lunch counter had the best ice cream sodas! To give us something to do in the dog days of summer, my grandma would give us 2 quarters for my best friend and me to walk down our shady street to the nearest Woolworth for ice cream sodas, and some time to browse the store in air-conditioned comfort. Anything I bought in the store had to come out of my allowance!
I worked in a Macy’s store in a mall out on Long Island throughout the 1980’s. I remember there being a Woolworth’s in the mall, and I’d occasionally walk over and enjoy the hot open turkey sandwich with mashed potatoes at the lunch counter.
Woolworths had an ice cream counter. The waitress would pop a balloon over the counter and a slip of paper inside would tell you what your sundae would cost. Prices ranged from 1¢ – 64¢. I never was lucky enough to pay a penny. I remember this Woolworths on Beach 116 St and would buy my beach stuff on the way to the beach.
still got that 1/2″ micrometer thats stamped “sold only through
f.w. woolworth stores”.Still works and is fairly accurate.
I battled my way into the jam-packed 34th Street / Herald Square Woolworth’s on its very last day of business. I emerged bruised but triumphant, clutching a 5-pairs-for-$3.99 bundle of black socks. Little did I know that they were the last cheap, decent-quality socks I would ever own. R.I.P. Frank W. Woolworth.