Late 19th and Early 20th Century Stationery at Woolworth's

Three stationery products featured among the fifty items in Frank Woolworth's first ever store when it opened in February 1879. The tiny, makeshift 'Great Five Cent Store' offered simple 'writing books', known today as ruled exercise books, as well as Pencil Charms and turkey red paper napkins.

The chain was quick to recognise the potential of paper products, which could be mass-produced at a very low cost. The early writing books were little more than a pile of folded pages with a light composition (cardboard compound) cover, held together by two staples. By persuading a paper mill to set up a simple assembly line, it was possible to produce thousands of books every hour, helping to push the cost down enough to reduce the selling price from the quarter dollar (25¢) charged in rival stores to just 5 cents in the Woolworth Syndicate.

A number of simple accessories like brassed drawing pins, treasury tags, ring reinforcers and paper clips were soon added to the range. Initially these items were sold initially in a plain brown paper envelope, but before long these lines were the first to carry the firm's distinctive 'Diamond W' logo on bright red cardboard boxes.

Woolworth intended to sell practical items only, targeting thrifty Pennsylvania housewives who did not waste money on indulgences. As a result when new lines were introduced they were related to business - for example typing paper and larger sheets of paper ruled into account books - or for use about the home, like sheets and rolls of greaseproof paper. But as the company became established it started to diversify.

As news of the shops' reputation grew, particularly after Frank and Charles Sumner Woolworth added ten cent lines to make their Great Five Cent Stores into the 'Five and Ten', the firm got bolder in their choice of locations. In the 1890s they started to supplement their rural locations with larger branches in City Centres, including dominant premises across the major commercial centres of New York State.

The new locations attracted a different clientele, with office workers taking the place of farmers. Shoppers included clerks, typists and even captains of industry. Some of these people had little use for a cheap can opener, but were easily tempted by an elegant packet of fancy envelopes tied in a ribbon. They appreciated new lines like watermarked writing paper in a gentle lilac colour with a slight scent.

In 1890 Frank Woolworth discovered a new way to satisfy the demand for luxuries at affordable prices. At the time the Founder insisted on buying all of his growing chain's products personally, which brought him into contact with both suppliers and agents (wholesalers). He was keen to find the original source of the firm's most popular products, which prompted a trip across the Atlantic to Europe.

In the paper mills of London's East End he found factories that produced more luxurious paper products, including pad and envelope combinations. The high-tech approach of these factories reduced the production cost enough to fund transatlantic shipping with plenty of margin to spare when the lines went on sale for five or ten cents in America.

In Brixton, South West London, Woolworth made another discovery - a printing works that specialised in colour postcards. They reproduced colour drawings and also hand-tinted black and white photographs to give the illusion of a colour picture. Before long stateside stores were selling large numbers of 'pseudo-color' local views.

By 1900 forty percent of the F. W. Woolworth Five-and-Ten's sales were generated on European goods. The higher margins on these lines meant that they also contributed more than half of annual profits.

Many picture views from the USA got the 'pseudo-color' treatment in the early 1900s, with Charles Sumner Woolworth a particular fan. The five-and-ten's increasing popularity meant that one of their most popular views was of the individual store itself. Some of the cards survive to this day, giving a unique insight into life and shopping at the time, and a surprisingly large number of them contain the same message on the back - "this is the store I was telling you about"!

It is probably little wonder that Frank Woolworth's shopping trippings to Europe convinced him to open an equivalent of the five-and-ten in the UK. The first store opened in Liverpool on 5 November 1909, with others soon following in a line across the North of the country, including Preston, Manchester, Leeds and Hull. When the Founder turned his eyes South, Brixton seemed the natural choice for the first London store. At the time it was a fashionable, swanky suburb with green fields and blue skies, quite unlike the smokey City just three miles away.

Stationery was displayed prominently at the front of the new subsidiary's stores. The selection included the same selection of British-made pads and pens that were offered in North America for ten cents at the lower price point of threepence (approximately 1¼p or 5¢ then, or £1 at today's prices).

Picture frames in many shapes and sizes, with or without glass were particularly popular in the first British stores. Other best-sellers included gummed labels, pencil sharpeners and india rubbers. Diamond W Exercise Books (illustrated at the top of the page) were an instant hit, along with another innovation, a highly adaptable ring-book folder (below).

The parent company had become accomplished at designing adaptable items that could be used for more than one purpose. Experience had taught them to use the same black binder cover in imitation leather around a variety on inserts, including ruled paper as a notebook, calendar pages to make a diary, white cartridge paper as a drawing book and black card for scrap books. Long before the filofax was invented, there were also special inserts for stamp and coin collectors. The new-start British operation was able to draw on this learning and either source stock from the same suppliers or, where appropriate, to find new manufacturers for the established designs. Thrifty shoppers were offered cheap upgrade options, like printed gummed labels for a penny to add an updated calendar inside the front cover.

Budget books became a great favourite on both sides of the Atlantic. They first appeared on the shelves in 1896. Frank Woolworth's drive to attract city dwellers led to him to cast the net more widely for items to suit people's leisure time as well as doing the chores. He bought a job lot of tiny 'Little Leather Library' books and put them on sale in New York. They sold out within hours. Before long he was buying books not by looking at the titles but in large job lots of publishers' surplus. Some were presented in miniature sizes, but most were simple bin-ends. The bumper stateside sales ensured that the British company incorporated books into its stores from day one.

Over time the firm started to review the performance of individual titles and genres. Alongside the classics needed for school, the most popular category in the USA was detective fiction. Meanwhile in Britain the all time winners were love stories from the Sixpenny Romance section.

One title proved a big hit with staff and customers on both sides of the Atlantic. Karen Brown's 'The Girl from Woolworths' had a good plot, linked to one of the first talking films and told of how a Woolworth shop girl hit the big time, finding true love after being talent-spotted while serving at her counter.

Frank Woolworth and his buying team adapted the offer in-store as the seasons changed. They capitalised on each of the big calendar events, with special displays in the windows and dedicated counters in-store to satisfy demand for Valentines Gifts, Easter Eggs, the holiday season, Back to School, Thanksgiving and Christmas. The approach was firmly embedded in the USA before the first British Woolworth store opened and, with the exception of the uniquely American Thanksgiving, each seasonal department made the transition into the High Street. The chain gained a reputation for its mastery of the events.

The Founder was particularly proud of his range of 'school sundries', which was a market that he had pioneered. Each store built its range during the summer ahead of the Michaelmas Term. They established big window displays in August, promoting their range of stationery. In the years before World War II the firm ran a window dressing competition each autumn, with prizes for the most elaborate and innovative displays. The best examples were photographed and circulated company-wide, with a letter of praise for the window-dresser. The layout on the left first appeared in Little Bluffs, Arkansas, USA in 1930. It went on to grace many British High Streets the following year!

The traffic in ideas stretched both ways across the Atlantic, with displays from Liverpool and Birmingham repeated stateside, and products chosen by the British Buyers often inspiring similar lines to be purchased by their counterparts in New York City, Montreal and, from 1927, Berlin.

In 1934 the six hundredth British outlet opened in Wallington, Surrey. The chain had become firmly established, with few customers knowing of its American heritage. One of the keys to success had been consistency of display and operation between one store and another. This meant that whichever branch a customer visited, whether in a rural corner of England or a big City like Edinburgh or Dublin, they would always find the stationery department on the right hand side of the store, straight inside the main entrance and next to the displays of toiletries and cosmetics.

The 'nothing over sixpence' formula and national presence gave unrivalled buying power, allowing the chain to sell exceptionally large quantities at very low prices. The stores attracted big crowds throughout the week and were always packed at the weekend.

The rationale for displaying stationery close to the store front was that the average sales per item exceeded one gross (144 singles) per week at a consistently high margin.

By the 1930s the firm was cash-rich and retained a proportion of the profit it generated for further openings and to ensure that each branch was well maintained and was fitted out with the best mahogany counters, shiny metal signholders and neatly printed signs. Superintendents ensured that everything was kept sparkling clean, with regular snap inspections.

Although, of course, the product packaging changed regularly, many of the products pictured above in the Liverpool store in 1923 still appear relevant today. Many of the same lines remained in the store range for the next seventy-five years. The stationery department retained its position close to the storefront in virtually every layout operated by the company throughout its time in the High Street.

Shortcuts to other Stationery, Cards and Books Exhibits

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

Original Virtual Museum Navigation

Museum Home Page   Christmas Gallery    Order 'A Sixpenny Romance'