I guess for you younger kids now on the Board, it'd be the equivalent of today's Dollar Store.
Mine back in the 60's and 70's were the downtown WOOLWORTH and The 88 Cent Store. Rexall Drugs would be next in line I guess.
I'd mainly like to go on the bus with my Mom to WOOLWORTH and 88 Cent Store. WOOLWORTH was where I got most of my early Soundtrack LPs in their great 69 cent or 3/$1.00 cut-out bins. It was always nice to smell the wieners cooking on the rotating grill at their bar stool mini diner section and see the big Orange Aid Bubble contraption doing it's thing.
The 88 Cent Store was where you could buy a cheap 88 cent knock off of a Barbie Doll or G.I. Joe made out of cheap plastic and no bendable parts. I remember my real G.I. Joe Figures would always bully my 88 cent store version and beat him up showing off to my sister's Barbies. Dang, I was a young bastard back then.
Please share any "Five and Dime" memories you have. Thanks.
G.C. Murphy was headquartered in my hometown of McKeesport, PA. We also had an H.L. Green's. I don't ever remember buying any records in Green's (Oh, wait, yes I did--a few classical cheapies on that $1.99 Design Records label.), but I did buy my LP of THUNDERBALL at Murphy's.
A few years later, in my college town of State College, PA, Murphy and Woolworth were across the street from each other. I bought full-price LPs of MIDNIGHT COWBOY and THE GODFATHER at Murphy's, but I used to load up on the 3/$1.00 cutouts in Woolworth's.
I remember Woolworths, and I guess we had a few five and dime stores growing up. What I remember most of all was you could go into a drug store, gas station, small hometown hardware stores and find comics, plastic model kits and toys on the shelves. Them were the days!
According to Wikipedia, of these, only Ben Franklin continues to exist in this form, while Kresge and Walton's became mega-retailers Kmart and Walmart, respectively.
Hey Bob, that list is frightening in a "Homewood" way for Yours Truly. In addition to Woolworth's for whatever, my mother shopped at W.T. Grant ("Grant's") in a town over for all her boys' underwear. It eventually went out of business decades later and became a Ben Franklin. And I remember when S.H. Kress opened in another town over and we went there for years, too. The Newberry "mansion" was a short walk up the street from our house. Probably built by JJ himself back in the 20s or thereabouts. I went inside once for some kind of party thrown for kids during a holiday season. Years later I would care-take the place for the new owner when he and the Mrs. went away on trips. A 20-room Tudor estate with a four car-garage with servants quarters or the like above. Must have been the biggest residence not just in my town but for quite a ways around.
Oh and my grandfather (died year before I was born) was offered a job in what I believe was the fledgling S.S. Kresge outfit headquarters sometime during the Great Depression. Grandma had "the vapors" or something and wanted to take a long trip and vetoed his employment.
