Wonder of Woolies...

THE wonder of Woolies they called it, and for many years it was a wonder.

For the best part of a century, Woolworths dominated the high street.

But this British phenomenon was the offspring of that most American of institutions, the five and dime.

As Woolworths branches are threatened with closure, MIKE PAVASOVIC looks at the rise and fall of the retail empire that made New York farm boy Frank Winfield Woolworth one of the richest men in the world.

IT seems such an obvious idea now, but when Frank Woolworth started work in the Augsbury and Moore Dry Goods Store in Watertown, New York, it was radical thinking.

Surplus goods should be placed on a table and all given the same price of five cents.

Woolworth set up an eye-catching display using the red and gold motif that was to become his trademark . . . and the rest was history.

The goods sold quickly and within six years William Moore was helping Woolworth to open a store of his own, selling its stock for a nickel.

More outlets followed, and although some items were priced at 10 cents (a dime) Woolworth quickly realised that to prosper they needed to be right in the heart of a town.
He brought in his family, who opened their own stores, and soon there were dozens of five and dimes across the US and Canada. In 1912, these were brought together as FW Woolworth and Co.

Explaining his success, Woolworth said: “I put it down to the great buying power that allows us to drive prices lower by helping factories to make their goods more cheaply”

It was a strategy which proved unbelievably successful: good-quality items at prices everyone could afford.

The wealth which Woolworth accrued allowed him to travel and on a visit to Britain he became convinced that he could recreate the five and dimes, saying: “I believe that a good penny and sixpence store, run by a real-live Yankee, would he a storm here.”

Britain’s first Woolworths opened in Church Street, Liverpool, in 1909, followed by branches in Preston, Manchester, Leeds and Hull.

Woolworth died in 1919 having amassed a huge fortune and with his company headquartered in what was then the tallest structure in the world, the Woolworth Building in New York City.

By that time, the British side of the business was under the control of his cousin, Fred Moore Woolworth, who realised the firm was more popular in the UK than at home.

In 1923, Fred was succeeded by William Morris Stephenson, who instigated a massive expansion project and at one point in the 1920s a new store was opening every 17 days.

Woolworths reached Oldham in 1925, with the original branch standing roughly opposite the new store which opened in 1999.

Each opening was organised according to a tried and tested formula with plenty of razzmatazz. There would be music, fireworks, flags and bunting. Perhaps even a band and circus performers and free tea and cakes.

And there would also be opening-week bargains such as nine carat gold rings for 6d (2.5p), a quarter of pick and mix for a penny and free postcard-size sheets of music.

People flocked to the stores and there was even a song entitled “We’ll Have a Woolworths Wedding”.

The effect was such that Marks and Spencer implemented a policy which meant its new stores had to be next to, or across the road from, a Woolworths and this was the case in Ashton, in the 1960s.

When Marks opened in Warrington Street it was next to the new Woolworths store which had moved from Stamford Street.

The popularity of the Oldham branch was such that in 1938 it was extended.

In the 1930s, Woolworths started selling items such as gramophone records and began doing business with a company called Pasold which made Directoire knickers for four shillings (20p) a dozen.

Soon Pasold was manufacturing many more goods, including a children’s range of clothing which became known as Ladybird.

However, the best seller was Bravisco artificial silk underwear which sold in huge quantities.

During the 1950s, Woolworths began the move to self-service and in 1967 it opened a central accounting office in Castleton which used the company’s first computers — huge machines using punched paper tape.

But the world was changing and Woolworths was becoming jaded. In 1982 the British side of the business became independent of the American parent which has since evolved into the sports shoe chain Foot Locker.

The new British Woolworths began to close stores, including its branch in Oxford Street, London, and the one by Blackpool Tower which was once the biggest in the world.

Oldham’s original Woolworths closed in January, 1984, and the building was demolished and replaced with four new shops.

However, the company returned 15 years later, occupying the site at the side of the refurbished Hilton Arcade.

In a bid to survive, Woolworth modernised its stores and, two years ago, its customer ordering system won the prestigious award as the best customer touchpoint system in the world at the Retail Systems Awards in Chicago.

But sales did not keep up. Woolies was left a jack of all trades and master of none. For a time it was able to keep going as the result of Christmas trade but ultimately it was overtaken by the supermarkets.

Now, like so many other famous names, once-mighty Woolworths is likely to disappear from the high street.