At the time of the American Woolworth Corporation's 100th birthday celebrations in the Spring of 1979, the original parent company appeared confident about the future, even though they faced a number of pent-up problems. A vigorous defence saved the giant corporation from a hostile takeover bid from Canada's Brascan Corporation, promising good times ahead. Yet three years later the British company was sold off cheaply and within 18 years the firm had vanished from the Main Streets and Malls of the USA and Canada.

Soon after the festivities were over it started to emerge that the five-and-ten's expansion schemes from the 1950s and 1960s, when they had acquired new fashion and manufacturing businesses and opened lots of new and relocated shops, had not generated the expected returns. It was not long before some of the back-loaded mortgages taken out on giant new Woolco stores in the Sixties started to fall due for repayment, at a time when cash reserves were limited. Many believe that the sale of the golden share of the British Company in 1982 was driven by the need for cash. Certainly the £330m raised went straight into paying for a batch of Woolco store buildings.

After the sale there was comparatively little contact between the British and American companies. The two shared common suppliers and Buyers and Directors would bump into each other occasionally and exchange notes, but the two organisations developed very differently.

Before long other sacrifices followed the British Company. At the year end the entire American Woolco Division was summarily closed. The move was blamed on the recession. The Canadian stores continued to trade for a decade before being sold to the giant Walmart Corporation, which had already picked up many of the empty American stores and made them into money-spinners. The US management worked to reinvent the brand, paying down debt and redeploying assets to build their newer brands, including Footlocker, Kinney Shoes and a number of fashion store chains.

The loss of the American Woolcos gave logistical problems. Without these large superstores some of the company infrastructure was no longer economical, with swathes of the country no longing having any Woolworth outlets, and lorries having to travel large distances without dropping of goods to satisfy the remaining Woolworth stores which (outside New York and Florida) were typically smaller outlets. Woolco Canada enjoyed success in the late Eighties before also losing its way in the 1990s.

Retrenchment was the order of the day. Unprofitable and outlying five-and-ten stores were closed. For years the chain had benefitted from very low rentals agreed in long-term leases up to a hundred years earlier. As these expired it was not economical to renew them at prevailing market rates.

Executives needed to find a new formula to turn the situation around.

As in Britain, attempts were made to make small parts of the Woolworth range stand alone, exemplified by the Herald Square Party Shop, a tribute to the F. W. Woolworth Company's long-lived store stationery brand, which had been introduced by the Founder himself.

A 'Woolworth Express' format concentrated the offer on toiletries, cards, party, stationery, household sundries, holiday and promotional items, in a compact store suitable for a Mall location. It was hoped this would replicate the success of the up-and-coming Walgreen chain that had opened in competition.

But ominously the parent company also changed its name from Woolworth Corporation to 'Venator', recognising that only 1,000 out of 9,000 North American stores were operating under the Woolworth fascia. In 1992 the Company announced 900 store closures, principally from their General Merchandise operations, followed by a further 1,000 closures in 1993.

The further wave of closures saw Woolworths consolidated their remaining operations in their two most profitable States - their home base in New York and the holiday state of Florida. There were sad scenes across the remaining states as the five-and-tens sold their remaining products and closed one-by-one. In San Francisco, for example, the landmark store adjacent to the trolley turntable, which had been part of the landscape for generations attracted huge crowds to the closing sale.

250 of the stores were converted to more successful formats by the renamed Venator parent company, principally becoming Footlocker, Lady Footlocker or Champs Sports branches.

The haunting images of the closures got little exposure in the UK, where the Company operated independently and generated a healthy profit.

But for colleagues in North America and Germany they were much more worrying.

Media coverage about the closures mourned the loss of a national institution and sympathised with associates affected by the closures, noting that for many of them the shutdown was like losing a close family member.

Editorial comment noted that the Company had failed to keep up with the modern age, and that management had been careful to close the chain with dignity and to 'care for' their employees through a painful period.

Newspapers noted that many members of the public, as well as rival traders had purchased fixtures, signs and memorabilia. Soda Bars and fascia signs had been snapped up by lovers of nostalgia.

Shortly after the closures, in an in-depth interview with Edmund Mander, Executive Editor of Shopping Centres Today , the Venator Chairman Roger N. Farah explained the difficult decision to close.

"Woolworth had some strengths and had some areas that we needed to work on. It had a loyal following of very dedicated employees. It had a history of migrating from a primarily general merchandising business into the beginning of a specialty store business," he explained.

Mander asked "Coming back home, in 1996 you were repositioning and remodelling the Woolworth stores, and then you suddenly turned around and closed them. Why this sudden turnabout?" Farah replied that the company had already declined from thousands of stores to 400. He built three concept stores in Delaware. "I think we learned a lot .. and found the customers enthusiastic. But we found the cost to rebuild all 400 stores and expand to a chain of significant size ... it didn't make sense to put more money into trying to fix it when the alternative was the athletic ... business."

"Was it a difficult decision? After all Woolworth has been an American icon."  "It was difficult on two levels ... the public ... and ... it affects lots of people. The question was do we continue to support a business that is losing money and risk the future of the rest of the corporation?  Or do we try to make the right business decision, try to handle it in the best way we can and try to treat people as fairly as we can and move forward."

Farah said that the stores would begin liquidating items as soon as the following week.  The stores were expected to close in 90 days.

Not only the merchandise but the fixtures and fittings - store front signs, price tickets, counters, soda fountains and lunch counters. All were to be sold.

One Associate wrote in 2004 to tell the Original Virtual Museum of his last day with the business.  He was Manager of one of the New York stores.  To avoid embarrassing him we have omitted his name.

"At six o'clock on Saturday we closed the doors, the remaining fixtures and remnants had been packed up and shipped out.  My son, who worked in the store, and I sat in the middle of the floor.  You might expect someone from Executive Office to come and say goodbye.  But all we got was a reply-paid envelope asking us to mail the keys back to the Real Estate Dept. in the Woolworth Building.

We sat without speaking until 9pm.  We didn't want to leave.  It's hard to put your whole life into a reply paid envelope and put it in the mail.

It's great to know that FWW is alive and well and living in the UK."

....What a difference a decade makes.

Shortcuts to other exhibits

1990s Gallery

Limited Story Stores    Standalone Ladybird Store 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     The Lighter Side of the 90s     What Millennium Bug?

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