biography
| name: |
Woolworth, Frank W(infield)
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| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1852–1919)
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| biography:
| Merchant, born in Rodman, New York, USA. He joined a ‘ninety-nine cent store’ in Port Huron, MI as a sales assistant, but he was a failure, his wages were reduced, and he went home sick to Watertown, NY (1875). He did, however, have ability in merchandising, and convinced Moore & Smith, where he worked as an assistant (1878), to try a counter of items all priced at five cents. It succeeded, but a five-cent store in Utica, promoted by his boss and run by Woolworth, failed. In 1879 a second store in Lancaster, PA, with the addition of a line of ten-cent goods, succeeded. He, his brother, a cousin, and later two others became partners, running their own five-and-dime store chains. By 1912 all five chains were absorbed into the F W Woolworth Co. He built the Woolworth building in New York City, then the tallest in the world (1913). At his death his company owned more than a thousand stores across North America, with a volume of more than $107 million. |
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