Belt Auction - What was your favorite 5 & dime store and what did you buy there that you can't buy today at the chain stores?

What was your favorite 5 & dime store and what did you buy there that you can't buy today at the chain stores?

Mine was the local Ben Franklin 5 & dime. I used to buy Christmas candles (angels, carolers, a snowman, Santa, reindeer, etc.) for a quarter each. Look how much they want for them today . . . http://collectibles.about.com/od/christmascollectibles/ss/vermontcountry_2.htm

Public Comments

Well, my favorite had to be Cooke's Variety Store- it was located in Tahlequah OK main street- it was owned by my great grandparents- I could get anything there! It had wooden floors and glass shelves and little baby dolls that had rolly eyes- man i loved that place. After they sold it and we moved to southern Oklahoma- I fell in love with TG&Y. It later turned into a WalMart- I liked the local TG&Y better. I could get a whole sack of penny candies with my quarter!
We had JJ Newberry.... I used to buy tuck combs and plastic barrettes and the ponytail holders with the big balls attached! Ahh...the memories!! Thanks!
we had an old candy shop next to the school called "pick and Pay" and the owners were the nicest people ever! You could buy most candy for a penny-a-piece! I would go there with a quarter, get 20 candy cigarettes ( they blow powder/smoke) and drop the nickel in the charity coin drop thing ( I think you won something if it landed right...) anyway pretty sure they went out of business.
My favorite was Jupiter in Lockport NY they had awesome subs at their lunch counter.
What a great Qustion Gladys!!! Mine was F&W Woolworths. They had warm mixed nuts under glass. Old Perfumes...Moonlight in Paris...Ben Hur, 5 cent cherry cokes. ahhhh the good old days!!!!
Mine too, Ben Franklin. I still have one but it shares the store with farm supplies. Target had candles last year, I bought one that resembles a north woods cabin w/fireplace for 15.99 & a large pine tree for 12.99. I only remember them being 39c a candle at Ben Franklin. I used to get my embroidery supplies at Walmart, but they've discontinued them, so it's the farm store now for me. What memories you bring back, thanks.
I loved Woolworth's 5 &10. They seemed to have everything plus a soda fountain with great malts and sodas. When I was little I could do all of my Christmas shopping there. I would have two dollars maybe and could buy for my mom, dad, and two brothers. I thought the gifts were great. I cringe now wondering what they really thought !!!
WE drove to a town 10 mile away usually on Sat. night. I loved getting the warm roasted nuts from the heated show case. Also chocolate covered peanut,they scooped out into a bag for you. I think it was called Kresges !!
Woolworth's five and dime; they had counters that went on for miles filled with toys and things you could buy for 25 cents and up; it was truly a wonderland of fabulous things for practically no money, I still remember the smell of the store, perfume, coffee from the counter (where you could get great hamburgers and milkshakes) and tobacco. Oh how I loved going into that store! You cannot get anything today for any cost like the great things they had then.
Woolworths Kressges
i remember Ben Franklins...also Woolworths and the soda fountains..Mays Company..my mom would take me to those places on the bus for a nickle each...the toys were made out of metal and my erector set was metal with real nuts and bolts..i still have the erector set and both motors from 1948...including the manuel..also the A & P grocery stores...oh well..cant bring the past back but in our memories
We had a 5 and 10 near us that was a small franchise called Dellas. You could buy anything there, or order it if they didn't carry it. I bought, one piece at a time, my first set of dishes. They are Fireking, and they are worth a good bit of money now. When I was little, we would spend our allowance there on things like Chinese handcuffs (finger cuffs), play cigarettes (you blew through them, and cornstarch blew out like smoke), those little mazes that you moved the little squares around in. I also bought my first pair of Lee jeans there, and my first high heeled sandals. There is only one Dellas left now, it is on the open air mall in Cape May, but they cater to tourists, and don't carry any of the "good" stuff anymore.
my home town was so poor we could not afford a 5 and dime store!!! you rich folks have all the fun!!!
Woolworth's. They had a lunch counter with apple dumplings that were pretty good. My favorite thing to do with my Mom for a afternoon outing. Not to mention all the fun teenagey things they had inexpensive.
I loved both GC Murphy's and FW Woolworth's. They're the only places around here that had Evening in Paris perfume and wallets with horses on them-- my yearly Christmas gifts to my parents. Woolworth's also had a great lunch counter. You could choose a balloon and whatever price was in the balloon, was the price you paid for a banana split. I got one for a nickel one time. I was in heaven!
It was Kresge's on Front Street in Belleville, Ontario, when I used to visit my grandparents. The store used to have a candy counter with all kinds of sweets that the lady would weigh in little paper bags. They also had a lunch counter, and I still remember the soda fountain machines, splashing orange and grape soda, and my first ice cream soda. The store is long gone (converted to another dollar store), but the memories are still there.
We had a dime store call Pic and Pay. My favorite toy was a camera type cheap thing that used the sun to develop pictures. I can't remember how it worked. It used special paper, and you put it in the sun. I think I remember something about negatives. I just remember we bought them every time we went there. Also, we got this putty stuff you put on the end of a small straw, and blew bubbles. It was a tough-type material, and the bubbles lasted a long time. I remember the smell of it was so good, but it probably had some kind of chemical that was bad for you. Gladys: My mom had a bunch of those candles. I especially remember the little boy caroler. Looked like an alter boy at church.
As a girl, I shopped at the Woolworth's Store in Wheaton, Illinois. When I learned to sew, it was there that I would spend hours selecting just the right patterns from the Simplicity and McCall's books in the fabric department. Woolworth's was also the source for turtles and goldfish, and Tangee Natural lipstick, as well as nylon stockings, hair curlers, white gloves, ribbons, clear nail polish, Windsong perfume...in short, all the necessities of life for a teenager. It was also the the site of the best soda fountain in town. Cokes, Green Rivers and root beer were just a nickle. Thanks for the memories!
I think ours was named Rowes. It was at the Beacon Junction and it had everything. I of course loved the candy counter where the clerks would patiently weigh out a nickel's worth of candy for us, bless them! What you can't buy now adays is ONE of something. You need a 9x12 envelope you have to take at least six. No matter what you seemed to need they always had it!
My favorite 5 & dime store was Kress. I used to buy a perfume called "Atom Bomb" there. It was very much like today's Obsession. I haven't seen Atom Bomb in years and years, but it was lovely. I got fifty cents for lunch every day. I spent twenty six cents on fries and a Coke at Thrifty Drug, then on my way back to school I'd stop in at Kress and buy lipstick and Atom Bomb, among other things! Oh, for the good ole days :-)
T G & Y. I used to buy a little bottle of perfume called Ben Hur. I loved it as a young teen!
Buster Brown cotton socks.
As a youth,Woolworth and Kresges. I worked for J.J.Newberry in Cincinnati for a few years in the late 80s-early 90s. I loved the lunch counters. Now,Walgreens and dollar stores suffice as 5&10s are all but gone.
There was a Ben Franklin store in my Grandma's town. I used to get a candy bar called Seven Up. It had different flavors in it.
We had one in Encinitas CA, years ago (it's now an iNet-Cafe) that was called RASCO 5 & 10, where you could actually get all kinds of things, rather reminded me of a mercantile store from the midwest, but alas, without the soda fountain...... Christopher
Wow, it would have to be Woolworth's. One thing I don't see anymore, is the neat old glass enclosed candy displays that Woolworth's had. The clerk would take a big scoop of candy or nuts, & pour the candy/nuts into a white paper bag, then weigh it. I loved the little peanut butter cups & I made it a weekly routine of getting a pound of them with my allowance. They were so good. As for what can't I buy, it would just be the neat little things that they carried. I used to buy Evening in Paris perfume at Woolworth's as well. Do they still sell that?
Kresge's. In the 1960's, I bought pretty cotton handkerchiefs for each of my aunts. They were white with a different colored flower on each one. They cost a me a nickel a piece, I think, maybe a dime. Woolworth's had a nice place to sit and grab an iced coke or a piece of pie. Thanks for the memories!
Ben Franklin that was years ago
Mine was a place called Clifford's. It was ran buy 2 older women with big hair and drag like make-up. They had candies for so cheep! I thought I was the coolest when I would leave that store after spending $5 on candies and Heyday Bars! I can't find heyday bars anymore. They were my most favorite cookie. I will never forget those ladies though! Every time you walked in you would smell the strong scent of Chantilly perfume. It was like they bathed in it. Sorry got all nostalgic. I still look for the Heyday Bars to this day.
Woolworths! I miss horehound hard candies.
I remember going to the W.W. Woolworth's in Santa Monica, CA. I don't what it was about that place, but I loved going there. Even if I didn't have any money to spend, I enjoyed browsing. I remember eating lunch (comfort food?) at the lunch counter. That place is long gone, unfortunately... It's on the street now called the Third Street Promenade-- street people walk on, no traffic allowed. I remember when there used to be traffic.. Thanks for the trip down Memory Lane...
As a child, I remember wanting to go into Newberry's. I would usually have one dollar to buy myself something special with my grandmother. I found they had more variety for items with that lessor cost, than at nearby Woolworths. But we'd usually go for a lunch at Woolworths, and get our favorite meal. My grandma loved Woolworths' for some unknown reason and she often shopped there for gifts, as her dollar stretched farther than any dept. store. And when she'd come to visit us, she almost always picked up some little something a small girl would like, to make me very excited.
My favourite UK store is an old iron mongers shop and yard in Berkshire, They still have those racks of small boxes that contain every hinge, nail, screw you will ever want served up loose in a paper bag....no plastic wrapping here.It's like rooting through the old grandad box that used to be in every tool shed. My wife browses the old "junk" shop area and picked up some old metal cooking pots and strainers so I dont use hers for preparing fishing baits.Its heaven Gladys, you have to carefully weave through precarious piles of old furniture and dusty pictures, all the time we call across the store to each other " Come and look at this?" or "We must get one of those". We now know where all those old household items go that somehow faded way over the years....the finish up in this Berkshire heaven..
Woolworth's. They had a lunch counter. I bought some records there ......remember records?......you couldn't get anywhere else. I also got my first matched set of dishes there.
It was M.E.Mose's five and dime. In Texas City, Texas. I always collected stamps and you could buy little envelopes of stamps for 10 cents.
I must be primitive or isolated I'm the only one that hung out at the TG&Y!!!!! I always remember my aunt buying me a doll there!!!
They were all special for something. The Kresge's in St. Louis sold an ice cream sandwich with a block of neopolitan ice cream between two warm toasted waffles. It was absolute heaven. Think it was 10 or 15 cents. On the Illinois side of the street car line, we had Woolworth's and Newberry's. Woolworths had a terrific lunch counter with a great grilled cheese and lime rickey. Newberry's had wonderful fabrics for quilts.
We had both Newberry's and Murphy's when I was growing up, replaced by Woolworth's later on. Now we have a Ben Franklin. Don't you think both "5 & 10" and "Dollar" Store are misnomers, since you can't find much at these prices any longer.
Kress when I was young.I bought a little bottle of perfume,it was blue.My Mom liked it so when I had money I got it for her....
I'd probably go with woolworth's too...I love the dollar tree now!!!
hey Carolsla I lived in Lockport NY, and I remember Jupiter. The old main st was the best. I liked to go into Carls and buy Evening in Paris eue de toilette, for my Mom. I thought that was pretty sophisticated. Have no idea what the poor woman did with it.
Belmont's or Woolworth's--so sad when they closed. You could always get the weird stuff there like roll garters (for grandma) or dress shields (when overactive hormones cause massive teenage sweating). You could always wander the aisles and find the most unique/silly things! We always got stocking stuffers there. The closest vendors for these kinds of things are catalogues like Harriet Carter or Lillian Vernon and you'll pay a fortune in shipping charges. On line, you can try the Vermont Store but it just ain't the same. http://www.vermontcountrystore.com/jump.jsp?itemID=0&itemType=HOME_PAGE&searchid=inceptor&feedid=yahoononbrand
Our 5 and dime was called Tresslars. I bought my 45s and albums from there most of the time. My first Beatle album, "Meet The Beatles," album cost $2.99. Long gone are vinyls except for vintage record shops. I remember trinket jewelry that was affordable for an 8 yr old girl, and penny candy.
My favorite was the Woolworths, I used to go to in downtown San Francisco, You could get a bag of hot salted roasted red Spanish peanuts, A hogie sandwich,or a bag of popcorn , Or just sit at the lunch/couter and order a sandwich or soda or a lunch meal. Why is it all about food????? Oh yeah they did sell small tropical fish in the basement. And you could also buy Oilcloth tablecloths for your kitchen table. Remember when we all used to use those to cover our kitchen tables when we were growing up. So easy to clean and you did not have to change the table cloth and launder it after every meal, Just wipe it down with a sponge or rag. And they came in many patterns and colors.
When I was very young it was Danner's. Big windows all across the front for displaying seasonal items. It's were all my Christmas dolls came from...of course I didn't realize this until I got older.lol When I entered my teens, it was JJ Newberry and Woolworth. At Danner's you could get a foot of chain if that's all you needed. Now days if you shop at the big box stores, many times it's pre-packaged and more than you need. We are lucky to still have a Hardware Store in town where you can get one of this or that. Love that place. It seems like somewhere down south I saw a Ben Franklin store when I traveled to Florida a year ago Gladys. Our town had one years ago. Suddenly it seems they packed up and moved out almost over night. Sad.
Motts was one of my favorites. They had all kinds of neat knick knacks and oddities.
O I loved Woolworth's we use to buy angora in small pack and wrap around our boyfriends class ring so we could wear them that was so cool. I also remember going downtown with my mom White gloves all dressed up and we all stopped at Woolworth's and split a chicken salad sandwich and had a cherry coke it was great.