Woolies

[poliphilo]

Woolworths has gone into receivership. The news shocked me slightly.  It had always been there. It was a fixture of the British high street.  Not that I'm sorry- except for the staff, for whom its a bummer- because I never loved it.  I had my reasons. One reason is I'm a snob, another is I don't like my shops brassy, ugly and fluorescent and a third is that in 1959 one of their shop assistants grabbed me,  told me I looked a mess, straightened my collar and rolled my sleeves up neatly- and if there's one thing I hate it's being fussed over by mother hens.  Ailz's pa says it's her fault for doing all her shopping online and- while we've never ever done our real-life shopping at Woolies so can't be accused of deserting it- he does have  a sort of a point. Woolies is the lazy store, the one that that refused to move with the times. It was the prototype of both the budget shop and the supermarket, but stayed exactly where it was- continuing to offer the mid-century shopping experience- cheap, cheaper, cheapest- whilst the fully-evolved budget shops and supermarkets under-cut and outstripped it.  When you think about it ,"The wonder of Woolies" (remember that slogan?) is that it lasted as long as it did .

Comments

[halfmoon-mollie.livejournal.com]

Here's a bit of trivia for you - the person who opened the first Woolworth's was from Watertown, NY (where I was born) and opened his first one in Utica, NY (about 35 minutes from here). That store failed, but he opened another one a year later in Lancaster PA and it took off from there.

Nancy Griffith wrote one of my favorite songs (of hers) called 'Love at the Five and Dime', she claims it was inspired by seeing Woolworths when she flew back 'home' for a visit.

Woolworths closed, here in the States, back in the 80's. All that's left of what's left is the Foot Locker stores.

And
Woolworths Group plc originally was the British unit of F.W. Woolworths, but has operated independently as a separate company since 1982. On 26 November 2008 Woolworths Group plc anounced that they are in too much debt to maintain their outgoing payments and went into administration with many stores expected to close within weeks, meaning the loss of thousands of jobs.

AND

On February 1, 1960, four African American students – Ezell A. Blair Jr. (now known as Jibreel Khazan), David Richmond, Joseph McNeil, and Franklin McCain – from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, a historically black college/university, sat at a segregated lunch counter in the Greensboro, North Carolina Woolworth's store. This lunch counter only had chairs/stools for whites, while blacks had to stand and eat. Although they were refused service, they were allowed to stay at the counter. The next day there was a total of 28 students at the Woolworth lunch counter for the sit in. On the third day, there were 300 activists, and later, around 1000.

This protest sparked sit-ins and economic boycotts that became a hallmark of the American civil rights movement.

That Woolworth's counter is in the Smithsonian.

Sorry, I get carried away sometimes.

[jfs.livejournal.com]

So what you're saying is that Woolworths needed to become the focus of a nation-wide rights movement to re-invent itself?

After all, I bet that lunch counter wasn't serving 1000 meals a day during normal times!

[halfmoon-mollie.livejournal.com]

well,no, at that time Woolworths WAS an institution, but you're probably right. I'll bet all together they weren't serving 1000 meals a day.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Woolworths is so much of a British institution we forget it started off in America.

I'm glad that the lunch counter has been saved for posterity.