1955 Woolworth's Grand Opening - Erie, PA

[barengeist.livejournal.com]

-ad in Erie Daily Times, Oct. 12, 1955

Woolworth's Liberty Plaza 1955 Grand Opening Erie, PA
F. W. Woolworth Co. held a grand opening for its new Woolworth's store in the Liberty Plaza October 13 to 15, 1955. The plaza boasted parking for 900 cars, and Woolworth's touted its new Self Service counters.

The lunch counter at this new Erie, PA location on Liberty Street had 21 seats, and you could get a banana split for a quarter, a hamburger for 50¢, a hotdog for 15¢, hot chocolate for a dime, or a cup of coffee for 7¢.

You could also buy a parakeet for $2.27, a gold fish in a bowl for 37¢ or a blouse for 97¢. The store also had a curtain department and a wrought iron department.

Woolworth's still had two locations in Erie, Pennsylvania in 1994, one in the Liberty Plaza (3622 Liberty Street) and one at 818 State Street in downtown Erie. Both of these stores closed in early 1994.

Comments

Woolworth's was the Wal•Mart of its day

[franklanguage.livejournal.com]

They displaced thousands of Mom & Pop stores across the country.

Fun factoid: the last remaining vestige of the mighty Woolworth's empire are the Foot Locker stores.

[flummoxicated.livejournal.com]

I love how people are running into oncoming traffic to get to the Woolworths.

[almond-cakes.livejournal.com]

Great ad! The running people make me think of today's Black Friday shoppers! (Which is going on right now and which I've never had an interest in taking part in!)

[misstia]

oh i loved woolworth's!!! every saturday in high school jenny bigwood and i would meet on 5th avenue (she lived on 1st, i on 8th) and we'd walk downtown--which was on 5th---and start at woolworth's lunch counter that had THE BEST hand made cherry cokes, they'd pour in the cherry syrup, and the fries were always perfectly golden and the burgers were perfect too!! then we'd go bebeop around the rest of downtown for the rest of the afternoon....

[ponitacupcake.livejournal.com]

I remember they survived into the late 90s in NYC. They had quite a few. Some had great old-timey signs. They sucked but this was before the big drug stores took over, when Duane Reade was mainly only in commercial neighborhoods, so Woolworth's was good as a place just to buy... whatever. Not clothes or electronics or god forbid, pets... just whatever. They sold toys too and video games but never got any there since we had a Wiz (remember them?) and plenty of other places sold games.

It was the late 90's, I remember because blue nailpolish was popular then and I got some there along with a huge day-glo Hello Kitty poster that I porb still have. I think that store became a Petland.

Foot Locker was just way more profitable for the parent company. They don't even own the Woolwaorth tower in NY anymore I don't think. They were in the UK too where they survived a bit longer and this is a great record...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7b68GNBxqWQ

Of course…nobody beats the Wiz!

[franklanguage.livejournal.com]

Nobody Beats the Wiz (1988) (http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2d7gd_nobody-beats-the-wiz-1988_shortfilms) by ThrowbackForums (http://www.dailymotion.com/ThrowbackForums)

Re: Of course…nobody beats the Wiz!

[ponitacupcake.livejournal.com]

:D NES!

Re: Of course…nobody beats the Wiz!

[ponitacupcake.livejournal.com]

Rob Base... "on stage or on record, go to the Wiz and select it!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phOW-CZJWT0