Jazz Age Chicago -- F.W. Woolworth Co. Stores

F.W. Woolworth Company Stores

Among the various chain stores that burst onto the Chicago retailing scene during the 1920s, one of the most famous was the F.W. Woolworth Company's chain of neighborhood five-and-dimes. By the end of the decade, the New York-based company had opened over sixty stores in the city of Chicago, even more if one includes the stores located in the city's suburbs.

Woolworth's stores specialized in the sale of everyday household and personal items at bargain prices. They were able to undersell their local, home-owned rivals for several reasons, but foremost among these was their ability to turn profits through high sales volume rather than through large mark-ups on the prices of individual product lines. Woolworth's stores also played a role in the social life of local residents. This was especially true for the thousands of Chicago teenagers who from time to time visited with friends over an order of fries or ice cream sodas at a Woolworth's lunch counter.

As was the case with most of the booming chain stores of the 1920s, Woolworth's outlets were concentrated primarily in the Loop and in the city's outlying middle-class neighborhoods and business districts. Although there were a number of stores to be found in working-class districts, the per capita distribution of stores reflected a decided corporate preference for doing business in the so-called Bungalow Belt. As the number of stores continued to increase in the 1930s and 1940s, this disparity decreased somewhat. But, even then, Woolworth's continued to cater primarily to the city's middle-class residents.

1928 Chicago Store Roster

F. W. W O O L W O R T H C O.

6330 S Ashland	6314 S Halsted	4771 N Milwaukee
1021 W Belmont	6926 S Halsted	518 W North
4615 N Broadway	7822 S Halsted	2602 W North
1734 W Chicago	3655 W Irving Park	5637 W North
5838 W Chicago	127 N Kilbourn	1614 W Roosevelt
5308 N Clark	3043 N Lincoln	3313 W Roosevelt
7010 N Clark	3262 N Lincoln	4036 W Roosevelt
9118 S Commercial	4019 N Lincoln	5912 W Roosevelt
7438 S Cottage Grove	4751 N Lincoln	2016 E 71st
2321 W Devon	223 W Madison	651 E 79th
2632 W Division	1552 W Madison	1903 E 79th
226 E 47th	3260 W Madison	1214 W 79th
1020 E 43rd	5836 W Madison	928 E 63rd
3855 W Fullerton	18 N Michigan	20-30 N State
119 E Garfield Blvd	11139 S Michigan	219 S State
7154 W Grand	1327 N Milwaukee	6819 S Stony Island
1301 S Halsted	2756 N Milwaukee	2104 W 22nd
3449 S Halsted	2933 N Milwaukee	3943 W 26th
6042 S Halsted	4021 N Milwaukee	17-21 W Washington

Suggested Reading

· Karen Plunkett-Powell, Remembering Woolworth's : A Nostalgic History of the World's Most Famous Five-And-Dime (St. Martin's Press, 1999).
· Nina Brown Baker, Nickels and Dimes: The Story of F.W. Woolworth (Harcourt Brace, 1954, out of print).
· John Kennedy Winkler, Five and Ten: The Fabulous Life of F.W. Woolworth (Bantam, 1957, out of print).

Jazz Age Chicago

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