Woolworth Co.

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The former F.W. Woolworth store in Greensboro, North Carolina, where the 1960 sit-ins began.

Photographs in Carol M. Highsmith's America Project in the Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division (LC-DIG-highsm- 43721)

Woolworth Co. is a former American chain of general-merchandise retail stores based on the five-and-ten concept, in which all merchandise originally sold for a nickel or a dime. Woolworth evolved into a multinational corporation with a large collection of specialty retail stores on four continents. Its headquarters were in New York City. The company was founded by Frank Winfield Woolworth (1852–1919), the originator of the five-and-ten variety store.

Woolworth founded his first five-cent stores in Utica, New York, and Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in 1879. The latter store was successful, especially after the price ceiling was raised to 10 cents, and in the next decade Woolworth opened some 21 more stores in towns in Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania, the majority of which were financed and managed in partnerships. By the end of 1904 there were 120 stores in 21 states extending westward as far as Colorado. Woolworth founded his success on volume buying, counter-display merchandising, and cash-and-carry transactions.

In 1905, Woolworth incorporated as F.W. Woolworth & Co., and in 1909, he founded F.W. Woolworth and Co., Ltd,, to serve Great Britain and Ireland. Then in 1911, he invited four rival American retail chains to merge their businesses with his and form a single national corporation. The four rival retailers were Seymour Horace Knox (Woolworth’s first cousin), with 108 five-and-tens; Fred Morgan Kirby, with 84; Charles Sumner Woolworth (Frank’s brother), with 14; and Earle Perry Charlton, with 48. Woolworth’s own giant company at the time of the merger had 319 stores. Agreements were signed on Nov. 12, 1911, and the new consolidated company, with 596 stores coast to coast, assumed the F.W. Woolworth Co. name. The new company’s headquarters, the Woolworth Building (1913) in New York City, was the tallest skyscraper in the world until 1930.

Woolworth’s move into international markets began soon after its success in the United States. Building on the establishment of F.W. Woolworth and Co., Limited in Great Britain and Ireland in 1909, the company rapidly expanded throughout the British Isles and became a familiar presence on high streets across the country.

Over the following decades, Woolworth developed operations in Australia, Canada, Germany, and Mexico, adapting its formula of low-priced, high-turnover merchandise to local markets. By the mid-20th century, the company was one of the world’s largest and most recognizable retail organizations, helping to pioneer a standardized model of international retailing.

Over the years, Woolworth acquired other store chains. The company’s Foot Locker chain of athletic-shoe retailers proved especially successful. By 1982, the company had more than 8,000 stores worldwide, but it was facing increased competition from the Kmart Corporation and other discount retailers. These pressures compelled Woolworth to rely more and more on its Foot Locker, Kinney Shoes, and other specialty stores. Woolworth closed its remaining variety stores in the United States in 1997, abandoning its traditional general-merchandise retail business there.

One of the most enduring chapters in Woolworth’s history came in 1960, when four Black college students in Greensboro, North Carolina, began a sit-in at the segregated lunch counter of a Woolworth store. Their peaceful protest sparked similar demonstrations across the South and became a pivotal moment in the American civil rights movement. The Greensboro store remained open until 1993, and its lunch counter has since been preserved as part of the International Civil Rights Center & Museum, which commemorates the sit-ins and Woolworth’s place in that struggle.

After renaming itself Venator Group, Inc., in 1998, the company operated retail stores in North America, Europe, and Australia into the early 21st century. The company increasingly focused on sporting goods, and in 2001 it changed its name to Foot Locker, Inc.—the name of its leading retail brand—and relaunched Woolworth as an online company, although some retail stores remained in operation.

In 2025, Dick’s Sporting Goods (DKS) acquired Foot Locker, the final corporate descendant of F.W. Woolworth & Co., marking the end of Woolworth’s independent legacy.