The Woolworths Museum

Help and Information

Website Overview

The Woolworths Museum examines the long and distinguished history of the Main Street and High Street store chains of North America and the British Isles that pioneered mass-manufactured goods at fixed low prices, making luxuries affordable to ordinary people for the first time. It also celebrates their surviving children and cousins around the globe who have managed to reinvent themsleves without sacrificing Frank Woolworth's guiding principles. The contents have not been approved by the current owner of the dormant brand in the UK, though the Directors of the store-based company authorised the publication unchanged when it was first written.

Like a 'real' museum, the content has been curated into Galleries. Each Decade has its own Gallery, as does each Range, as well as the People and Working Conditions. Our Media Galleries feature our favourites from a library of thousands of photographs of the stores, products and people stretching back from recent times to the earliest days. As well as shining a light on the history of retailing, they also give an insight into almost 150 years of British and American Social History and two World Wars. The Media Gallery also includes a Virtual Cinema crammed with movies and commercials, and a selection from our huge collection of the chain's own label records stretching from 1914 to 2008. We've also included a Just for Fun Gallery, with interactive price quizes which you can play on-screen, a multimedia strange-but-true pub quiz that is phone as well as tablet and PC friendly, and quiz question sheets you can print for your friends and a set of answers just for you.

The Woolworths Museum's horizontal top navigation bar in actionPlease choose a gallery by clicking its button in the horizontal top navigation bar which appears on every regular page. Either that click will take you straight to an item or it will open a gallery menu with further options. With over 500 pages this allows us to keep the navigation simple, taking one step to the gallery and another to the exhibit.

All of our images have both 'alt' and 'title' tags, meaning that if you float your mouse over them they will tell you what you are looking it, and often where it fits into the story. We've also included hyperlinks in the text, normally to related content that can be accessed from the menus, but occasionally to bonus items related to your area of interest that don't yet feature in the main menus.

We've also included two others ways to the find what you are looking for quickly.

  • There is a sitemap which incorporates all the top navigation and gallery menu options laid out in a logical order. It is presented in two formats, There is an accessible CSS formatted version , and a plain html layout, which is suitable for older devices that don't support either CSS or Javascript, or that have very small low resolution screens. For your convenience we've also included a copy of the accessible site map at the foot of this page.
  • New for 2023, we have reworked and upgraded our Zoom 8 ® Search Engine. There's a link to it on the top right of every page. You can search for one or more words, choose whether to match any or all of them, and opt for for 10, 20, 50 or 100 results per page. We've added thumbnails for all 550 pages, as well as for the 1,000+ images on the site. Searching is easy. You are welcome to put it to the test and experiment to find what works for you. It's a very fast way of tracking down any information we may have about particular people, locations or historical events, or to track down pictures to illustrate storylines about many aspects of British, Candadian and American retail and social history, as well as the subsidiaries in Germany, Mexico, Africa and the Caribbean.

Supported browsers and Multimedia Content

The site content was extensively reworked in Spring 2017 to improve its performance on mobile, with the pages adopting responsive design, and deploying compression and other enhancements available using Google's PageSpeed tools. Each page's media has been optimized with lossless compression. The media content is HTML5 compliant, and includes the variants to support all of the major browsers including Google Chrome, Brave, Firefox, Opera, Safari, and recent editions of Edge and Internet Explorer. New content and features were added for 2023, including reworking the elements that were dependent on Adobe Flash technology which has recently fallen out of favour. We have included at least three different formats of every audio and video item, allowing your web browser to select its preferred data layout. By default movie content is played embedded into a webpage, or the player can be expanded to full screen. Each film has audio description closed captions (enhanced sub-titles), which will open automatically if that feature is enabled in your browser preferences.

Copyright and Author Information

All of the content is protected by Copyright, as explained in the About Gallery. In summary we welcome non-commercial use by students and enthusiasts, and ask only for a mention as the source if you use our content. Commercial use requires a licence. Certain content is licenced from third parties, or appears under the historical interest copyright exemption. We have used technology to prevent our content being embedded on third-party websites, exploiting our bandwidth.

The site author is Paul Seaton. The content and layout are © Copyright 3D and 6D Pictures Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales, No 7007907. The site is published by WWW Group Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales, No. 7018298, Share your feedback.

 


 

If you are using a very small touch screen and would prefer a
sitemap in plain HTML with triple line-spacing, making it easier
to select a page, please visit our plain text Site Map

 

Site Map

Introducing the Museum

Contributor credits

Introducing the Woolworths Museum

Website technology

Home and School Use of our content and use on-line

Commercial and media use of our images, media and storylines

Legal information about the Museum

Meet the site's author

Bibliography

Share your feedback


Quick Reference Guides

Interactive multimedia timeline

One page history for screens and phones

One page history to download and keep, print or share

Price inflation

Store lists


Date Galleries

1870-1899

The story begins

Introducing the Woolworth brothers

Birthplace of the 5 & 10¢ Store

The first 5¢ cent table

A salutary lesson

Ground Zero - Lancaster 1879

The Friendly Rivals

European Buying

1900s

US Expansion:

Woolworth's first skyscraper

Conquering the cities

US flotation in 1905

UK beginnings

Choosing a location

Financing and setting up the Company

Join us on opening day in Liverpool

1910s

USA The Sky's the Limit

The 1912 $65m merger

The world's tallest buidling

The World War and its Consequences

The effects of war in Europe

Working for F.W. Woolworth in the 1910s

The Great War in Postcards

Replacing Frank Woolworth

Revolution in Britain and Ireland's High Streets

6 stores across Northern England

The first openings in London

The 44 pre-war pioneers

Impact on British shopping

1920s

20s overview

The Property Department

Visit a 1920s store

Opening programme

Supplier partnerships

Woolies' first records

Community Work

"The Girl from Woolworths" movie

Woolworth Wedding song

50th birthday in the USA

Down under and the sincerest form of flattery

FWW GmbH of Berlin, Germany

1930s

Openings transform the High Street

Stock Market Flotation

Buying ingenuity

Working in a 30s store

Woolies' first character items

Keeping prices under 6D

Eclipse & Crown records

Woolies' first Ladybird items

Royalty and Empire

"New Bond" staff magazine

First catalogues

Restaurant & Tea Bar

Rumblings of war

World War II and the 1940s

A world apart in 1939/40

Fire from the sky as British and German Cities face the Blitz

Woolworth staff buy two Spitfires for the RAF

Channel Islands Occupation

Rationing and Price Rises

Home front defiance

FWW UK becomes a D-Day 'home from home'

V1 and V2 Rockets and the Darkest Hour

Reconstruction and austerity

1950s

Grand re-openings

H.M. Queen Elizabeth II's Coronation

The mobile shop

Interactive Fifties Store

Embassy Records cover story

Digital Jukebox

Advent of self-service

Commonwealth Openings

Zimbabwe Album

Caribbean Album

Fiftieth birthday celebrations

A warning from the USA

What's on TV?

1960s

Sixties Overview

Woolworth goes out of town with Woolco

Woolco Picture Gallery

Winfield own brand launch

City Centre Superstores

Food for thought

Computerisation and Central Distribution

Hits of the Sixties

Embassy Jukebox

Race and Space in the USA

Working conditions

1970s

Decimalisation - counting the cost

Hypermarkets and Supermarkets

The Wonder of Woolworth campaigns

View ads from defining 70s campaign

Catalogue Shopping

Carelessness Causes Fire

PR and the world outside

Strategy for the 80s

Brascan's hostile takeover bid in the USA

100 Years in Main Street USA and Canada

Distribution Infrastructure

New product development

Music on a Budget

70's Juke Box

1980s

Acquisition of B&Q by F.W. Woolworth & Co. Ltd.

'21st Century Shopping', Concept Store

Paternoster Takeover

Parent Company Decline

Asset redistribution

Exit from Ireland

The Cornerstone Business Strategy

Dixons Takeover Bid Fails

Launch of The Video Collection

Video Trailer

Focus Strategy

Launch of exclusive Ladybird licence

Chad Valley toys launch

Working for Woolies in the Kingfisher Years (1982-2001)

Turnaround Team Video

The Lighter Side of the Eighties at Woolworths

1990s

Limited Story Stores with more specialist ranges

A Standalone Ladybird store - picture gallery

Visit a 1990s Woolies

New technology and EPOS

Profits bath in 1994

Spectacular £100m profits in 1997

Talks about talks

American Woolworth "retires" after 118 years

Asda merger fails

Big W

Woolworths Direct

90s People

Keith The Alien brand advertising character

The Lighter Side of the 90s

What Millennium Bug?

2000s

2000s Overview

Death by Demerger

New values and a new direction

Visit a new-look Woolworths Out-of-Town, as it opened in 2005

Market Towns and City Centres

The Smaller Stores

Multi-Channel Retail

Wholesale & Media

WorthIt! Value Comeback

Launch of the Virtual Museum

Meet the team

The Lighter Side

Wooly & Worth

Collapse and Rescue


The Main Woolworth Product Ranges

Sweets / Candy

Yankee Doodle Candy

Tuppence a Quarter

Visit a 1930s Sweet Factory

Rationing in World War II

New brands and lines for the Fifties

Building a legend

Europe's biggest sweet shop

Candy Kings?

Woolworth's - the Good Ship Lollipop

Toys & Games

Our great grandparents' toys

It's magic

Character brands

Just window dressing

The Lion and Albert

Wartime Toys

1950s Toys

Mum & dad's toys

The race for space

Cool for School

Woolies by Woolies at Woolies

80s and 90s Toys

Wooly and Worth

Kids and Celebrations

Century of Toys Video

Chad Valley A Woolies brand from 1988 to 2009, now owned by Argos

Toys for Toffs, the early ranges

TV changes everything in the 1950s and 1960s

Music & Video

Music and video overview

A Woolworth Wedding

The Girl from Woolworths

First Records

Little Wonder label

Little Marvel label

Mimosa label

The Victory label

Eclipse label

Crown Records

Making 78 rpm records in the 1930s

Royal Jubilee 1935

Royal Coronation of H. M. Queen Elizabeth II 1953

Embassy Records in the 1950s

1950s Juke Box

1960s Embassy

1960s Embassy Juke Box

1970s music on a budget

1970s Juke Box

Pre-recorded video

Hundred Up

Clothing / Apparel

Fashion overview (1909-2009)

Make it yourself patterns and thread

Birth of the Ladybird Legend

The first Ladybird items

History of the Ladybird Company

Building fashion sales (1950-80)

Launch of Ladybird at Woolies

Kids and Celebrations In-Store

The Easter Parade

Home, Kitchen & Garden

The History of China and Glass at Woolworth

Thrift and economy - DIY at FWW

Leading Lights

Blooming good - seeds, bulbs and plants

Pan-o-rama

The lost departments

Stationery & Cards

On Paper - 100 years overview

Early US and UK stationery items

World War One cards

The cards our grandparents sent

P-p-p-pick up a Penguin (originally at Woolies)

Picture Histories - all time best seller

World War II Mighty Midgets

Launch of the Biro

Project Books

1980s and 1990s

21st Century

One very special book

Christmas

A Century of Decorations

Cards and Wrap

A window on Christmas past

Jukebox

Christmas Catalogues

Advertising

The Last Noel


Woolworths People, Careers and Working Conditions

Biographies of the American 5¢ & 10¢ Store Founders

Frank W. Woolworth

Charles ("Sum") Woolworth

Jennie Woolworth

Barbara Hutton

Earl P. Charlton

Fred M. Kirby

Seymour H. Knox

William H. Moore

Biographies of the British 3D & 6D Store Founders

Fred M. Woolworth

William L. Stephenson

Byron D. Miller

Charles H. Hubbard

John B. Snow

The Yankee Boys

Working for 'FWW'

1910s in-store

The Architects and Builders

A day in the life of a Sales Assistant (Clerk) in the 1930s, in words and pictures

Unique social history from Woolworth's Staff Magazine

WW II Home Front

British Golden Jubilee Celebrations in 1959

UK Commonwealth

Updated working conditions after 1960

In-store

Computerised Centralised Accounting, Distribution and Administration

From Rail to Road, adapting the Supply Chain for new ranges and ways of working

Eighties & Nineties

Face time

Eighties people

Nineties people

The naughty noughties

Honouring The Fallen

Great War memorial

WW II memorial

New Cross remembered

After hours

1920s Charity and Community Work

1980s Fun & Frolics

1990s community projects

2000s Putting Kids First


World Class Multimedia

Digital Gramophones, Juke Boxes and Song Players

Listen to digitally restored Sixpenny 78rpm Gramophone Records

1910s Little Wonder

1920s Discs by Little Marvel®, The Mimosa® and The Victory&rreg;

1930s Eclipse® & Crown® Records

Fifties, Sixties and Seventies Jukeboxes

1950s Embassy 78 rpm

1960s 33rpm Embassy Albums and Extended-Play 45 rpm Singles

1970s Chevron Cassettes and Coloured Vinyl Records

Digital Downloads celebrating ninety-nine Christmases at the Heart of the High Street

A Century of Xmas Music

Image Galleries, with optional captions and contemporary music

A Century to Celebrate

Early 5 & 10¢ Stores

Nix over Six, 3D & 6D Stores

Finest Hour in World War II

That's the Wonder of Woolworth

Just a little bit of history repeating

Huge Woolco out of town stores - closed by Kingfisher after twenty years as a bad idea

Huge Big W out of town stores - opened by Kingfisher twenty years later as a good idea

Catalogue Shops - closed as loss-making

Woolworths Direct Catalogue - launched by the same people as a good idea a decade later

The Red Book, Woolworths Direct all over again!

Movie Theatre

Enter the Virtual Cinema

Choose a free movie ticket at our Box Office

For Fun

Pub Quiz Questions

Pub Quiz Answers

Multimedia Interatcive Pub Quiz

The Price is Right

1910s Price Quiz

1920s Price Quiz

1930s Price Quiz

Post-WWII Price Quiz

1950s Price Quiz

1960s Price Quiz

1970s Price Quiz

More recent prices...


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Very.co.uk

Woolworth Germany

Red Apple/TBS Canada

South African Woolworths

Mexican Woolworth

Woolworth Barbados

Australian Woolworths

New Zealand Woolworths

Museum Gift Shop


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