This kinda touches on your piece about urbanism and families - a woolworth's you could walk to is incredibly useful for families. a brewpub in downtown is probably incredibly attractive for younger urbanists. an arcade is a place a lot of kids USED to hang out - but nowadays, it would appeal more to nostalgic millenials and Gen Xers than young kids.
Not saying "tear up the brew pubs" - people go downtown to have fun, after all. But family urbanism, in small towns and medium suburbs should mean woolworth's, and maybe modern arcades, and karate dojos. And sure, brewpubs are great too.
Yeah, absolutely. The problem is that the businesses themselves basically don't do a small-town format. So the enterprises these places need to be everyday living/shopping environments don't exist off-the-shelf as the retail concepts have evolved. This is why I say urbanism is commerce at least as much as it is land use.
yea that's true. still think we should upzone around grocery stores, but their absolutely needs to be a competitive small grocer - maybe get 7-11's japanese team over here - to make it work. Like I think you've said in the past, it's usually desi/latino/immigrant grocers who make it work in small storefronts in older downtowns. I'm sure their margins are much tighter than Walgreens or Target or Safeway would want tho.
Still - in college in Ann Arbor, MI, the second you moved out of the dorms to a unit in town where it was hard to own a car - you needed access to a car to do laundry and groceries. Even for young, mostly childless people, that seems incredibly self defeating - this old, beautiful, upzoning 19th century town that was built from the start for college kids and has kept that character but still necessitates a car solely for the basic necessities of food and laundry. Bars, clubs and restaurants galore - and clearly, a college town has the market for them. Theaters and bookstores and coffee shops too. But just a couple of convenience stores that mostly sell liquor.
The good news is my last visit (last autumn) I noticed one small Target grocery and one Walgreens had opened right on State Street near campus. A much needed improvement, and hopefully a sign of future positive change to meet the needs of students without cars.
Yeah, Target and a few grocery chains have recently been getting into urban-format stores (which again are basically just these stores as they existed a few decades ago). This is probably part of why walkability doesn't entice people as much as a lot of urbanists feel it should. People know the everyday retail and services they drive to now are not just going to materialize in a walkable form. And/or they don't really even know how to grocery shop in small amounts often instead of a weekly Costco run or whatever.
I went to that Woolworth in Somerville growing up in the 80s. Memories are hazy but it seemed pretty run down even back then, long before the closure. But this was a transition time - many of the retailers of my parents generation were still hanging on either in a downtown or in an earlier smaller shopping center. But they would soon be gone.
You're the second person who remembers these stores being dumpy and run-down in the 80s. I guess kind of like a lot of Kmarts felt in the 00s. Do you think I'm right that the old small-town economy was holding on in the 90s or is that already too late?
Also, there are still about forty Woolworths operating in Mexico. Local execs bought out the stores in the late 90’s, expanded the chain (renamed Woolworth Mexicana) and combined it with the Del Sol chain. This short video explains the history and status: https://youtu.be/hJ2CU5HcKfM?si=QHtZ65rcvDnO3yQy
I am only a few years older than you, but I actually ate at a Woolworth's lunch counter as a kid - there was a full Woolworth's in our local mall! In fact, it was considered one of the "anchor" stores when the mall was opened in 1967. It closed sometime around 1995, even as the mall was being expanded.
It's funny to think that Walmart (and Kmart) really pushed these small multi-purpose stores out, because my area had such a strong grocery chain that was doing a lot of those "experimental" supermarket things much earlier than anyone else... and so successfully resisted super-discount stores like Walmart for a long time. (Because why would you go to Walmart when you can already get everything except clothes - prescriptions, photo processing, video rental and more - at the supermarket?) But there was still a place for smaller stores, where you COULD get clothes and shoes and maybe some winter gear.
I encountered a similar J.J. Newbury store that is now an antique mall on the Main Street in Laconia, NH. That town also once had a Woolworth's across the street!
I live near Stroudsburg, PA which is the site of the very first Newberry Store. It is now a wine tasting joint but there is an historical plaque for remembrance. Five and dimes were ubiquitous in my youth.
"I hoped to find an old Woolworth’s in Northern Virginia, but it doesn’t look like any of our small towns or cities—Fairfax, Falls Church, Vienna, Leesburg, a couple others—had one."
Arlington had a couple. (I know, Arlington is technically a county rather than a town or city, but it functions like a town or city, and at one point it considered incorporating as a city but decided against it because of some technicality regarding highway taxing and funding, IIRC.) The one I remember was in Virginia Square Shopping Center, but the remains of that shopping center, other than the Kann's Department Store building, was demolished in 1988 to make room for FDIC's new building. (Kann's, used for years by George Mason University School of Law, was torn down a couple of years ago.)
We had a Woolworth's in Evanston, Illinois, where I grew up. I found this picture of it in 1981, which was a few years before my family moved to Evanston: https://www.flickr.com/photos/5632/6849287899 . The entire block has since been redeveloped and none of the buildings in this photograph remain.
Out family rarely shopped there. I remember it feeling like crumbling time capsule from a bygone era, rather than a place you would actually go to do your shopping. We also lived too far away to easily walk, and while parking wasn't exactly difficult (there was a decent amount of metered street parking plus a municipal parking garage nearby) it was hard to compete with the abundant free parking that existed at big box stores just a short drive away.
This could have been written about Athens, Texas ~ 5,000-10,000 in the '50's: three department stores, two variety stores, two drugstors (with soda fountains!!!!) two movie theatres, two grocery stores, a "cafe" (restaurant) two or three barber shops, shoe and hat stores, insurance agencies, two jewelry stores, two banks, a bookstore, a cigar store where you could buy new and used and resell comic books, a hotel,a church, a hardware store with doctors' and lawyers' offices and, an auto supply/home appliance store just around the town square with the county court house in the middle. :)
This kinda touches on your piece about urbanism and families - a woolworth's you could walk to is incredibly useful for families. a brewpub in downtown is probably incredibly attractive for younger urbanists. an arcade is a place a lot of kids USED to hang out - but nowadays, it would appeal more to nostalgic millenials and Gen Xers than young kids.
Not saying "tear up the brew pubs" - people go downtown to have fun, after all. But family urbanism, in small towns and medium suburbs should mean woolworth's, and maybe modern arcades, and karate dojos. And sure, brewpubs are great too.
Yeah, absolutely. The problem is that the businesses themselves basically don't do a small-town format. So the enterprises these places need to be everyday living/shopping environments don't exist off-the-shelf as the retail concepts have evolved. This is why I say urbanism is commerce at least as much as it is land use.
yea that's true. still think we should upzone around grocery stores, but their absolutely needs to be a competitive small grocer - maybe get 7-11's japanese team over here - to make it work. Like I think you've said in the past, it's usually desi/latino/immigrant grocers who make it work in small storefronts in older downtowns. I'm sure their margins are much tighter than Walgreens or Target or Safeway would want tho.
Still - in college in Ann Arbor, MI, the second you moved out of the dorms to a unit in town where it was hard to own a car - you needed access to a car to do laundry and groceries. Even for young, mostly childless people, that seems incredibly self defeating - this old, beautiful, upzoning 19th century town that was built from the start for college kids and has kept that character but still necessitates a car solely for the basic necessities of food and laundry. Bars, clubs and restaurants galore - and clearly, a college town has the market for them. Theaters and bookstores and coffee shops too. But just a couple of convenience stores that mostly sell liquor.
The good news is my last visit (last autumn) I noticed one small Target grocery and one Walgreens had opened right on State Street near campus. A much needed improvement, and hopefully a sign of future positive change to meet the needs of students without cars.
Yeah, Target and a few grocery chains have recently been getting into urban-format stores (which again are basically just these stores as they existed a few decades ago). This is probably part of why walkability doesn't entice people as much as a lot of urbanists feel it should. People know the everyday retail and services they drive to now are not just going to materialize in a walkable form. And/or they don't really even know how to grocery shop in small amounts often instead of a weekly Costco run or whatever.
I went to that Woolworth in Somerville growing up in the 80s. Memories are hazy but it seemed pretty run down even back then, long before the closure. But this was a transition time - many of the retailers of my parents generation were still hanging on either in a downtown or in an earlier smaller shopping center. But they would soon be gone.
You're the second person who remembers these stores being dumpy and run-down in the 80s. I guess kind of like a lot of Kmarts felt in the 00s. Do you think I'm right that the old small-town economy was holding on in the 90s or is that already too late?
Definitely still holding on into the 90s, although it was very patchwork as places had different lease terms and owners and other stuff.
In downtown Asheville, NC:
https://www.woolworthwalk.com/
Been there many times. Lovely place.
Cool!
Also, there are still about forty Woolworths operating in Mexico. Local execs bought out the stores in the late 90’s, expanded the chain (renamed Woolworth Mexicana) and combined it with the Del Sol chain. This short video explains the history and status: https://youtu.be/hJ2CU5HcKfM?si=QHtZ65rcvDnO3yQy
Someone else just mentioned this too. That's a neat bit of history!
I am only a few years older than you, but I actually ate at a Woolworth's lunch counter as a kid - there was a full Woolworth's in our local mall! In fact, it was considered one of the "anchor" stores when the mall was opened in 1967. It closed sometime around 1995, even as the mall was being expanded.
It's funny to think that Walmart (and Kmart) really pushed these small multi-purpose stores out, because my area had such a strong grocery chain that was doing a lot of those "experimental" supermarket things much earlier than anyone else... and so successfully resisted super-discount stores like Walmart for a long time. (Because why would you go to Walmart when you can already get everything except clothes - prescriptions, photo processing, video rental and more - at the supermarket?) But there was still a place for smaller stores, where you COULD get clothes and shoes and maybe some winter gear.
Wow, neat. Yeah, I think there's still a place for this. It's a shame. Very nice memory!
I encountered a similar J.J. Newbury store that is now an antique mall on the Main Street in Laconia, NH. That town also once had a Woolworth's across the street!
https://heathracela.substack.com/p/whats-working-in-laconia
Cool!
I live near Stroudsburg, PA which is the site of the very first Newberry Store. It is now a wine tasting joint but there is an historical plaque for remembrance. Five and dimes were ubiquitous in my youth.
"I hoped to find an old Woolworth’s in Northern Virginia, but it doesn’t look like any of our small towns or cities—Fairfax, Falls Church, Vienna, Leesburg, a couple others—had one."
Arlington had a couple. (I know, Arlington is technically a county rather than a town or city, but it functions like a town or city, and at one point it considered incorporating as a city but decided against it because of some technicality regarding highway taxing and funding, IIRC.) The one I remember was in Virginia Square Shopping Center, but the remains of that shopping center, other than the Kann's Department Store building, was demolished in 1988 to make room for FDIC's new building. (Kann's, used for years by George Mason University School of Law, was torn down a couple of years ago.)
I see that another Woolworth's, in Shirlington, was the site of a sit-in during the civil rights era. (See https://www.arlingtonva.us/Government/Projects/Plans-Studies/Historic-Preservation/60th-Anniversary-of-the-Arlington-County-Lunch-Counter-Sit-ins ) It wouldn't surprise me if one of those trendy shops on Campbell Avenue used to be the Woolworth's.
Neat. The Kann's building was one of the very first "look at this old building" pieces I did at the newsletter! https://thedeletedscenes.substack.com/p/what-do-you-think-youre-looking-at-3c5
I will see if I can track down that second location.
We had a Woolworth's in Evanston, Illinois, where I grew up. I found this picture of it in 1981, which was a few years before my family moved to Evanston: https://www.flickr.com/photos/5632/6849287899 . The entire block has since been redeveloped and none of the buildings in this photograph remain.
Out family rarely shopped there. I remember it feeling like crumbling time capsule from a bygone era, rather than a place you would actually go to do your shopping. We also lived too far away to easily walk, and while parking wasn't exactly difficult (there was a decent amount of metered street parking plus a municipal parking garage nearby) it was hard to compete with the abundant free parking that existed at big box stores just a short drive away.
Street view of the same corner today: https://www.flickr.com/photos/5632/6849287899
This could have been written about Athens, Texas ~ 5,000-10,000 in the '50's: three department stores, two variety stores, two drugstors (with soda fountains!!!!) two movie theatres, two grocery stores, a "cafe" (restaurant) two or three barber shops, shoe and hat stores, insurance agencies, two jewelry stores, two banks, a bookstore, a cigar store where you could buy new and used and resell comic books, a hotel,a church, a hardware store with doctors' and lawyers' offices and, an auto supply/home appliance store just around the town square with the county court house in the middle. :)