Dime Stores and Dollar Stores
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Dayton, TN Lays 5&10 courtesy of Dean Wlson www.Yesterdayindayton.net
It’s 2021, shelves are sparsely stocked and prices are quickly rising. And the last single-price store around has just announced their prices are rising too. Ah, for the days of the 5 & 10!
My children enjoy an Australian-produced kids show, The Inbestigators, whose kids often mention buying something at the “2 Dollar Shop”. I found that phrase interesting because we have Dollar General and Dollar Tree and Family Dollar. Of course, not everything at Dollar General and Family Dollar is priced at $1.00, but it is at Dollar Tree – at least until the first of the year when they’ve announced plans to move up to $1.25. Perhaps we are on our way to visiting a “2 Dollar Shop”.
This change reminds me of the “5 & 10” stores. Okay, I’m not really THAT old. I don’t actually remember when everything was a nickel or a dime. However, according to a 2011 article by The Saturday Evening Post, until November 3, 1935, Woolworth’s really did restrict all their prices to 25 cents or less. () – I’m curious just when they introduced the quarter!
Despite the price changes, we called the Lays 5 & 10 “the dime store” till it closed its doors. And the prices really were pretty reasonable. I suppose the idea of what is reasonable is constantly changing. Today we’re fairly pleased with everything costing a dollar.
However, the offerings of a dollar store in the 21st century are quite different than what the old 5 & 10 stocked. They had yard goods, simple clothing (scarves, underclothes and socks – no winter coats or work jeans), household goods and toys. Of course these days it’s increasingly difficult to find fabric and the cost of even simple clothing surpasses the idea of a dollar store. That Saturday Evening Post article listed Woolworth’s first inventory to include pot-lifters and book straps – items today’s consumer couldn’t even identify much less consider purchasing.
I particularly remember the candy - those white paper bags you could fill with a wide variety of chocolate, hard candy or taffy dipped from a big box with a shiny copper scoop. Just making that selection meant a trip to the dime store was an adventure. What dime store memories do you treasure?
